Transcript:

Greetings, beloved in Christ. I hope that you are well on this day, and I am excited to share with you an opportunity we as the Episcopal Church in Colorado have to support our young adults in college. As many of you know, I am a product of campus ministry. I was formed on my campus by the efforts of the late Reverend Bob McGee.

But in our new church landscape, full-time chaplaincies are drying up. We are learning that fewer and fewer colleges have expressions of Episcopal faith in formation, and that a lot of times campus ministry efforts are left to congregations because of proximity and not because of any real discerned call to be in campus ministry.

Here in the Episcopal church in Colorado, we’ve noticed that gap and we’re seeking to find imaginative ways that we as a diocese could reach out to youth and young adults in college. Reminding them of God’s love for them, reminding them that they are part of community, reminding them that they are being held in prayer.

We applied for and received a grant that will help cover the costs of shipping finals care packages. We invite you as congregations to find those youth in your community, the families that have college students, and as a community, put together a token, a care package of your love and your prayers and gifts for students who are facing the stress of finals. Reminding them that they are God’s beloved. Reminding them that they are part of a wide community that loves and cares for them. Reminding them that they are being held by disciples of Jesus in prayer so that they might live into their own discipleship.

If you’d like more information about this program, please contact our Missioner for Youth and Young Adult Ministries, Elizabeth Cervazio here in the Office of the Bishop, and I pray that you will take on this task. That you will be a part of sharing love with our young adults who, in this day and age, feel so much isolation. We are church together and we can share that love with those students who are out in college by themselves, reminding them that they too are a part of the body of Christ. Blessings.