We are very excited to announce that this winter the Episcopal Diocese of SE Florida's Young Adult Community will be hosting the first ever Diocesan Young Adult Ministry Conference titled "Where Tomorrow Meets Today: Expanding the Future of Young Adults & the Church."
This conference was born out of the vast hunger in our diocese to meet the needs of young adults in our churches and communities & the call for more education around how to do so.
We wanted to create an event that was both informative and interactive, authentically Epsiocopalian but also ecumenical, which included offerings FOR young adults but also for everyone else [lay, clergy, leadership, parishoner], and by young adults but also in collaboration with many wisdom teachers of all ages and areas of expertise.
Our aspirations were high but the response to the call for both speakers and attendees has been vast, enthusiastic, and wonderfully surprising.
Along with experts from within our diocese we will be joined by others including:
- Sarah Cunningham [keynote] who is young adult and author of a number of books on young adults and church-in-community ministry
- Larry Bourgeois [partner + facilitator of our pre-conference] who has been integral to the fabric of innovation throughout The Episcopal Church with his "fresh expressions" and engagement with "third places"
- Rev. James Reho [once of Trinity Cathedral] who brings his mind-body ministry expertise as well as his new role as lead pastor of a Lutheran-Epsicopal church
- Rev Mary Frances who also integrates mind-body ministry into her work as a Lutheran Pastor as well as being part of the Churchwide ELCA leadership team based out of Chicago
- Holly Roach + Steven Knight who are both great teachers in the area of community-building and movement organizing with a special focus on new media as a medium and are part of the team which makes the Wild Goose Festival happen
- Tamara Lunardo who is a well-known blogger at "Tamara Out Loud" on Christian issues & editor of the upcoming book What Are Women Worth
- ...And many, many more.
Help us build our church's future together today!
Whatever your age or role or participation in a community of faith you are welcome to join us. There truly is something for everyone--all ages, all regions and states, & all backgrounds and denominations.
We hope you will join us February 6th [pre-conference], February 7th-8th [conference] for a very affordable but we hope, also, interactive, transformative and community-building for all of us.
You can contact Teresa B Pasquale at teresa@stpauldelray.org with any questions.
All funds raised from the nominal conference fees will go to support the Diocesan-wide Young Adult Community ministry project to support [and do a summer mission trip to] the Wanikiya [Messiah] Episcopal Church at Wounded Knee on the Lakota people's Pine Ridge Reservation.