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| Enjoying the New England Regional Youth Event |
BOSTON, MA (06/30/2010) -- Over two hundred young people and advisers added color and sparkle to the campus of Boston University for four days of friendship forming, lesson learning, mission marking, and wild worshiping. Drums echoed down Commonwealth Avenue, willing hands painted and planted for over 400 person-hours of service, and great preachers, dancers and musicians added energy to the praise of God.
Connecticut's 64 participants led an exuberant worship service on Thursday evening, June 24, to open the event, the first regional youth event in New England in twelve years. In the darkened Marsh Chapel, the young people danced with flashlight beams illuminating the walls and ceilings in patterns of light. Connecticut Conference Associate Conference Minister for Youth and Young Adult Ministries the Rev. Da Vita McCallister's sermon on the pig and the grasshopper, and how two such different creatures could be such good friends in the love of Christ, won cheers and applause from the entire assembly.
Friday and Saturday opened with worship in Marsh Chapel as well, led by youth from other New England conferences. The young people then divided. While half the group boarded public transportation to the mission work sites around the city, the other half attended workshops in the School of Theology building.
Friday evening's gathering opened with viewing "Aliens Among Us," a documentary film introduced by its director, Martina Radwan. The film examines the consequences of the special registration requirement imposed on immigrants from Muslim countries following 9/11, and was followed by a Sacred Conversation on Race opportunity led by the UCC's Minister for Racial Justice, the Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson.
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| Leading the parade |
Following a drum parade down Commonwealth Avenue on Saturday evening, Silver Lake's Andrew Wicks fired up the assembly with his passion for social justice and his ability to set it into a rapping poem. Valerie Tutson, the long-time dean of Sing Praise, fed the assembly further with her fabulous telling of the birth and call of the prophet Samuel, telling it as his mother Hannah, and then as the young boy himself. Worship included holy communion that evening, presided over by the UCC's Executive Minister for Justice and Witness Ministries, the Rev. Linda Jaramillo, who enjoyed the entire four days with the youth event.
Carl McDonald and the City Mission Society of Boston arranged the work projects at local churches and non-profit agencies. Participants not only performed useful and helpful tasks, but also had a unique opportunity to dispel stereotypes and experience what it means to serve others. Group members interacted, as much as possible, with the people benefiting from their service.
Workshop options ranged from the exhiliration of rock-wall climbing in the University gym through music to prayer and color. The young people discussed books and relationships, expanded their sense of what film could teach them, and stretched their bodies as well as their spirits in yoga.
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Other adventures included an old-fashioned trolley tour of historic Boston, an opening scavenger hunt, and a much-welcomed opportunity to plunge into the pool at the Fitness and Recreation Center. The bright sunny days came with high temperatures and humidity, as well as some sharp downpours and evening thunderstorms which dampened clothes but not spirits.
The whole body gave their enthusiastic thanks to all their leaders, but especially to Kris Lofrumento of the Massachusetts Conference staff and Debby Kirk of Woodstock, CT, who were the principal leaders on the planning team. Connecticut provided further talented people as well:
The National Youth Event is planned for June 26-30, 2012, at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana.
| 2010 UCC New England Regional Youth Event |
| Video from the first day of NERYE |
