EmmanuelJ2A

Good evening all…as I sit here watching the Patriots tie the game in the second quarter (yeah!) I am thinking about our first group yesterday morning. It was very exciting to see everyone sitting around the table beginning to share a little about their lives, eating M & Ms and donut holes! We start each group with a prayer to help us “center” oursleves and transition from the ride to church. Here is one of my favorite prayers that illustrates our journey that we have undertaken with teens in our church community:

Thomas Merton’s Prayer

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Peace,Carol Mowatt

Good evening all! As I sit here watching the Patriots win 24-21 I started to think about Peter’s sermon this morning and how it related to the Journey to Adulthood youth program that is kicking off next Sunday morning…

His discussion of WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) was very eye-opening when he spoke of what we really need to focus on is- WWWD (What Would WE Do) specifically when it comes to how we live our lives as Christians. I actually had a WWJD bracelet a while ago, but it really makes sense that what MATTERS is what we do in our lives, how do we serve others and behave in ways that Jesus taught us, such as loving your neighbor as yourself, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for those that are helpless, such as children and the disabled.

A major part of the “journey” to adulthood for our teens beginning the J2A program is learning to do just that - basically living our lives as Christians in the ways that Jesus taught us in the Gospel. We will study the Bible, learn more about our Christian faith, but we will also be serving food and cleaning up in the St. George’s soup kitchen or helping to pack food for distribution at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. ACTION also matters, not just sitting around a table eating Dunkin’ munchkins talking about these issues as young Christians.

I am personally very excited (as I know are the other leaders and resource staff) to begin this journey with our teens…let’s all support them and learn more of WWWD along the way!

Peace,

Carol Mowatt

Good morning! I hope that everyone is recovering from all that turkey and fixins that many of us probably ate a “little too much” of two days ago…I know I did. (Why do I do that every year when I promise myself that I will NOT eat that way again…tough being human!)

At our last vestry meeting on Tuesday November 20th, we created an Education Vision Statement for Emmanuel Church. Peter will be sharing the final draft with everyone soon…Our upcoming Rite 13/J2A youth program shares this vision, providing the opportunity for the teens in our congregation to not only learn about their faith, but to show through their actions the stewardship and community service that goes along with being a Christian. I am so excited to be part of their ongoing spiritual formation…we ALL need to be excited because EVERYONE is part of their ongoing spiritual formation. And you know what? The teens are also part of OUR ongoing spiritual formation! In other words, we are all in this together…our church family at Emmanuel!

The leaders and resource people (Bob San Juan, Lauren Cayer, Jim Perry and myself) will be able to answer questions as they arise either at church on Sunday, through phone calls or through email. Please feel free to stop us and ask ANY questions or voice concerns as you think of them….please do not wait and sit on these. We are committed to making this a successful youth program that works for as many as possible in the congregation.

See you this Sunday at both the 8 AM and 9:30 AM services…stop me and I will try to answer any and all of your questions.

Peace,

Carol Mowatt

new home phone number 401-349-0934

email cam61@cox.net

Good evening everyone!

If you did not get a chance to meet with us Sunday after the 9:30 service, look for emails of more details about the where, when, and how of the Rite 13 Program starting on December 2nd at 9AM. (The class will be held in the Parish Hall (Grades 4th - 6th room) between 9 and 9:50 AM before the 10 AM service.) Our meeting focused primarily on a general overview of the J2A program, including Rite 13, J2A (Journey to Adulthood) and YAC (Young Adults in Church) all part of the J2A journey from Grades 7-12.

In order to start the J2A program in our church, we must group the teens together that are ‘ready’ to begin the journey toward Confirmation. There are currently nine teenagers who are in Grades 7 through 9 (my 15 year old son is in the 10th grade and will likely be joining us for our initial venture into the program). Several of the teens were in my Grades 7 through 9 Sunday School class last year and we are now blessed to have several new faces to add to our wonderful collection of personalities and talents!

We are going to have a shortened Rite 13 program (normally it occurs over two years) which will cover all the significant portions of the curriculum, ending in May ‘08 with a very special Rite 13 Liturgy celebrating the teens transformation from children to young adults in our congregation. (According to our friends in other parishes in the diocese, this is a very moving liturgy that affects both teen and adults in our Emmanuel Church community…think bar mitzvah!)

As of this writing, Jim Perry, an 8 o’clock parishoner and a teacher by profession, has offered to co-lead this initial class with me…for those of you who do not know me, I am a psychiatric nurse practitioner by profession and have worked with children and young adults for many years. We have several adults from the congregation who have already volunteered to assist in the teen activities, fundraising, and overall resource, ‘go to’ people for the teens and their families. We need as many volunteers as possible to make this program successful! Can you bake a batch of cookies? Yes? We need you…Can you help make popcorn for movie nights? Yes? We need you…Can you light a charcoal or gas grill for a picnic? Yup, we need you, too…Time and talents are abundant in our church community! Thing CARPOOL! Got a van? We REALLY need you…activities? maybe helping out the parents of the teens by assisting with transportation to the 9 AM class and other activities throughout the program.

Once the teens complete the Rite 13 portion of the program in May, we will ALL (teens and teachers) move forward next Fall to the J2A curriculum. This is a two year program which will prepare the teens for Confimation (and hopefully so much more!) as they continue their Christian spiritual formation into young adulthood. There are so many opportunities for the teens as they embark on their spiritual journey with each other, their families, the teachers and the congregation. Each portion of the program is teen-driven…nothing is written in stone regarding activities, lessons from the curriculum, etc. The teens are “partners” in this journey, not passive observers who sit for 50 minutes and then come back the next week(without remembering much of what was said from the previous week). The teens have a “pilgrimage” to look forward to in the second year of J2A (St. Luke’s has traveled to the Dominican Republic several times with their youth) with Confirmation celebrated at end of the year of the J2A program.

No…it does not end there at Confirmation (that is what the J2A program hopes to AVOID with the youth in the church community)…YAC is right there to keep things going…Young Adults in Church. Essentially it is a program that is designed for the 10-12 graders, continuing the work of their spiritual formation as they move toward graduation from school and transition to the community-at-large.

Sound exciting? It sure does to me…I am so very blessed to be part of this journey in our church community. We have incredible teens among us ready to set sail on their journey - won’t you be there to support these teens and the leaders? It takes the whole congregation to support our youth. They learn from us and we (definitely) learn from them!

Stay tuned…much more to come!

Peace,

Carol Mowatt

As one of the leaders of the first class of our new teen “Sunday School” program, now called (from here on in) as - The Journey to Adulthood or J2A- I would like to welcome all to hear more details of the exciting program next Sunday 11/18 after the 9:30 service. We will gather in the church to briefly go over the main points of the program, provide a monthly “calender” for the families for scheduling/planning and answer whatever questions you have about this adventure! We anticipate approximately nine teens from our congregation to participate in this initial class starting Sunday, December 2nd from 9 - 9:50 AM before the second service at 10 AM (yes, it is a new time!)

I have had the pleasure of working with several of the teens last year in our more traditional Sunday School program…we have a great bunch of kids here at Emmanuel. I know that as we continue to grow and add more to our group this year, our teens will only continue to become a more cohesive group and increasingly involved in the life of Emmanuel Church.

A few words and phrases t0 tempt you to want to hear more next week -

Movie Night, Community, Play, Weekend Excursions and Retreats, Leadership, Fun, Rituals and Ceremonies…oh, and Pilgrimage! (There is much much more that I could add here, but I want you to hear first-hand…)

So, don’t miss discussion about this exciting youth program that has changed the lives of both the teens and the members of congregations, such as St. James in Woonsocket, St. Luke’s in East Greenwich and St. Paul’s in Pawtucket to name a few churches in our diocese. See you there!

Peace,

Carol Mowatt

What is EmmanuelJ2A?

Emmanuel for Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Cumberland, Rhode Island.

J2A for Journey to Adulthood

Put it together and you’ve got Emmanuel’s exciting new Teen Program!