Educators ask,
‘Will our faith have children?’

By Amy Morehous,
bookshop manager

In February, six people from East Tennessee embarked on an adventure along with 800 Episcopal clergy and educators. Their mission: to explore Christian formation in the 21st century.

The diocesan delegation included Rev. Perry Scruggs, Church of the Good Shepherd, Lookout Mountain; Adam Webb, St. Francis of Assisi, Ooltewah; the Rev. Rob Henley, St. Joseph the Carpenter, Sevierville; Rob Glover, All Saints,’ Morristown; and Amy More-hous of Diocesan House. The Rev. Phil Purser, All Saints,’ Morristown, and Province IV Christian Education coordinator, was on the organizing team.

Participants heard challenging speakers and discussed a wide range of issues in small groups. They worshiped together using creative liturgies in which children served as chalice bearers and the Gospel was read bilingually or as a dramatic reading. A central resource center with interactive exhibits changed daily.

The entire experience was designed to stimulate the senses, to draw people of all ages and races into a sacramental relationship with Christ and to use that experience to feed spiritual formation efforts.

The journey began with a welcome from the Bishop of Hawaii, the Rt. Rev. Richard Sui On Chang. He urged the audience to be open to differences – in language, culture, age and gender – and to learn from these differences.

Bishop Chang reminded participants when telling the Christian story to listen and understand the other person’s story. He said one youth at the Episcopal Youth Event last summer had asked him, “Why doesn’t the church talk to young people?” The bishop said once teenagers start college, they seldom return to the Church until after they begin their own families. Participants hotly debated the best way to reach young adults in the intervening years and how to provide safe places for them to develop their own stories.

Parker Palmer, a renowned educator and writer, challenged participants: “There is no way to assure that our faith will have children until we can say that our faith has adults. ... Their own development must be first nurtured before they nurture others.”

The concluding Eucharist was alive with colorful banners, waving flags and traditional African dance and drums. The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, Bishop of North Carolina, preached a rousing sermon urging all to remember their heritage, to remember the Christ of the gospels and to retell those stories. “Somebody must tell the babies, ‘God may be invisible, but God is not dead.’…The glory of the Lord is the story. … Tell the old, old story, how He got up from the grave and made life and creation new.”

Visit www.episcopalchurch.org/myp/ecce/faithchildren.htm for event transcripts, photographs and related resources.