At the Episcopal Youth Event, young Episcopalians are empowered for mission!
Episcopal youth enriched and empowered for mission
In the late evening hours of June 25, two liturgical processions set out from opposite ends of the campus of Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with nearly 1,100 people heading to the closing worship service of the 2011 Episcopal Youth Event (EYE).
One group, nearly 700 strong, came from EpiscOlympics, a series of team contests — relays and games — each with an Episcopal theme. They chanted as they walked, accompanied by crude percussion instruments made of scrap materials from the construction site of a Habitat for Humanity house, which participants at EYE helped to build on the Bethel campus.
The other procession was made up of two delegates from each diocese and 12 bishops. They came from the Habitat house, where they had written prayers on the inside, unfinished walls for the recipient family and watched Bishop of Minnesota Brian Prior bless the house, standing on the roof, dressed in full episcopal regalia.
The processions met at Benson Great Hall, the very room where the Episcopal Youth Event had opened on June 23 with a challenge from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to use the time at EYE to become empowered for service and to “get connected and heal the world.” What took place in between were three long days of learning, prayer, worship and intentional Christian community that established new friendships across the vast geography that makes up the Episcopal Church.