Internship Week of November 6th

           I had another meeting with the rector this week. She gave me some very positive feedback about preaching, and made some suggestions about what else I should consider doing before my internship is over. We talked about all the aspects of Parish Life at St. John’s that I had experienced thus far, and I gave her some feedback of my own. We ended up discussing two big things.

            The first was the struggles that St. John’s is having with youth involvement. The parish is growing, and this means that more families with children are attending Sunday services. The problem stems from a lack of Sunday School teachers, no one who is willing to work to build the youth group, and the fact that many of the older kids live at/attend services at the local Episcopal Boarding school. I started thinking about what I would do if I were the Youth Minister at St. John’s; and I shared my thoughts with the rector who agreed with me. I think a good place to start is with the younger children. They need to build a strong Sunday School program; recruiting more teachers, and dividing the children up into closer-aged groups. Then, I would focus on the Middle School aged children for forming a youth group. Their schedules tend to be a little lighter and I’ve seen more of them at church. I would work to build the group so that the younger children have something to look forward to, and so that as they get older they have more of a reason to stay involved. It certainly wouldn’t be something that happened overnight; and it might be years before more than 5 or 6 kids were involved regularly. However, I think that it’s something that St. John’s really needs in order to continue growing.

            The other big thing we discussed was my return to my home parish. I’ve heard some of what’s been happening while I’ve been gone, and it leaves me with mixed feelings. On the one hand I’m sad to be leaving St. John’s, but excited to go back to St. James’. I’ve enjoyed my time here, but I know that it’s time for me to go back to my home parish. On the other hand, I almost feel that my home parish doesn’t need me anymore. Someone else took over teaching Sunday School, the parents have been working to keep the youth group alive, life has carried on. It makes sense, I didn’t expect everything to just stop when I left, but it’s a weird experience; and I feel an important one for me to have. As a priest, I could find myself in a similar situation after leaving one parish to go to a new one. Recognizing, understanding, and handling this feeling are significant things to learn.