YouthQuake 2010

Calling all junior and senior high students! YouthQuake 2010 is quickly approaching: January 15-17, 2010. It will be held once again at the Ridgecrest Conference Center in Asheville, North Carolina. This year's theme is Redeemed, and for those youth who have attended in the past, the band Unhindered is returning!

For more details about this "rocking" opportunity to learn more about our Lord and his redeeming power, visit: http://youthquake.a29.com/youthquake/details. As always, scholarships are available.

Registrations must be received by the Ridgecrest Conference Center in December, so if you are interested in attending, please complete the attached registration form and RETURN TO THE DIOCESAN OFFICE by December 10, 2009. The registration cost is $150. Other costs for transportation and food will depend on the group size.

PLEASE NOTE: We are looking for 1-2 adults who would be willing to transport and chaperone our youth. If you are interested in this, please respond to this email as soon as possible.

Youth Mass - Peoria Deanery

If you live in the Peoria deanery, please plan to join us for a Youth Mass on December 6th at 5 pm at St. Francis Church.

December 6th is St. Nicholas Day... and we may have a visit from St. Nick himself!

Dinner and treats will be provided after mass.

This will be the first of monthly youth masses in the Peoria deanery. The location will rotate from month to month from St. Francis, Dunlap to St. Andrew's, Peoria.

For more information, email youthmissioner@dioceseofquincy.org.

Synod

A big "Thank you!" goes out to the three youth assistants at the 132nd Synod in Princeton. Alyssa Doubet, Kaitlyn Doubet, and Kiera Dunaway attended the annual meeting of the diocese and help with distributing paperwork and staffing the youth department display table. They also got to see first hand how the legislative process of the diocese works.

At Friday's session, the diocese voted to officially join the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and began elections for various positions. The girls also attended the evensong service at the Church of the Transfiguration and the annual banquet.

Saturday's session began with morning prayer and Holy Eucharist, where all three girls served in the altar party. The day proceeded with breakfast, then more elections and business items. This was the first year that youth have been invited to assist at Synod, and the girls did a great job representing the youth of the diocese.

YouthQuake 2010

YouthQuake 2010 is coming soon........ January 15 - 17, 2010.

http://youthquake.a29.com/

The theme for this year is Redeemed.

And, Unhindered will be back as the band. Make plans to be THERE!

If you are interested in attending, please contact Katrina and Becky ASAP.

Fall is upon us!

It is hard to believe that summer is over, and we are settling into fall. Some of our churches even saw a little snowfall over the weekend. Where has the time gone?!

This summer was full of fun events for the Diocese of Quincy youth, and we simply didn't take any time to update the blog. We will try to be better about this going forward into the winter and 2010!

Just a recap of the events we had this summer:

We were wonderfully represented by Kiera Dunaway at the ACNA Assembly in Bedford, Texas, in June.

In late June/early July, we sent 38 campers to annual church camp. 2/3 of the camp staff was from the Diocese of Quincy!

In August, we held the first ever Diocese of Quincy Day at the Races - Youth versus Clergy Field Day! The clergy beat the youth, in the end, but we are positive that the youth can overtake them next year!

As we turn to the school year, we would like to hear from you! What events would you like to see?

Be sure to check out our table at Synod - we will have a spot for you to write down event ideas.

And, as 2010 will be here before we know it, we can tell you that we will be going to YouthQuake (see an entry soon with a link to this year's theme) and Happening #25 will be held.

Day at the Races

Our Day at the Races event was a huge success! We had nine kids and eight clergy competing in a number of relay-type events. We began the day with a coloring contest, then Holy Eucharist. We enjoyed lunch together, then went out into the beautiful sunshine and had a water balloon toss, hula hoop contest, leaky cup passing, Simon says, and egg on a spoon race. To get a break from the heat, we went inside for some Bible trivia and ice cream sandwiches. Then it was back outside for tug-of-war and kickball. At the end of the day, the clergy won by 15 points (which was a big surprise to the youth-missioners!)

Enormous gratitude is in order for the members of the clergy team who gave up their Saturday to spend time with the youth of the diocese:

Fr. Harold Camacho
Fr. Shawn Doubet
Fr. Frank Dunaway
Fr. Luis Gonzalez
Fr. Toby Karlowicz
Fr. Bill Knapp
Fr. James Marshall
Fr. Joe Scalisi

We would also like to thank Amy Dunaway and Linda Knapp who came to help with lunch and cleanup. John Gamage was the official scorekeeper for the day.

We plan on making this an annual event, and hope that next year we will have clergy and youth from every church in the diocese! Everyone who came this year would tell you it was great fun.

This event would not have been possible without the unending hospitality of Fr. Tom Janikowski and the people of Grace Church, Galesburg.

Youth in the Anglican Church of North America

Check out this awesome website of a new group that is forming right along with our new province... YACNA. Youth in the Anglican Church of North America!

www.yacna.org

We are making contact with the youth in charge of this organization... and will keep you updated as they tell us how the Diocese of Quincy youth can be involved.

In the meantime, please visit their website and join their group on Facebook!

Happening #24

This past weekend we had Happening #24 at Grace Church Galesburg. A Happening weekend is led by teens for teens and is focused on leading people to Christ. There are a series of talks given by teens a clergy about Jesus Christ, piety, sacraments, etc. After each talk there is time for small group discussion. There is also time during the weekend for quite reflection, prayer, and worship. We had plenty to eat and also had a LOT of fun. Some of us even got a little sleep! Check out our slideshow for pics from the weekend, and check back here for details on how YOU and your friends can attend Happening #25.

Rock the River

August 8th - Calling all high school students! We will be rocking out on the Mississippi River. Trinity Church has invited us to go with their youth group to a Rock the River concert (http://www.billygraham.org/RTR/RockTheRiver.asp). More info coming to you soon, but thank you to Fr. Joe & Jason Bowden for letting us know about this fun opportunity!

Bands appearing:

Flyleaf
The Afters
Grits
Fireflight

Drummond Family Moving

So long, farewell, Aufwiedersehen, goodbye! Who are we saying goodbye to, you may wonder? We are sad to report that the Drummond Family (Fr. Ron, Sarah, Morgan, and Ben) are moving to Hurst, Texas this summer, as Fr. Ron has accepted a call to St. Stephen’s in the Diocese of Fort Worth. All four of the Drummonds will be greatly missed, and we wanted to write a short article in appreciation of their family, and for all the work they have decided to the Diocese of Quincy youth.

Fr. Ron served as Youth Missioner of the Diocese of Quincy after he finished seminary, and has served as a camp counselor, camp session director, and camp spiritual director for many years. He has also served on many Happening staffs, and chaperoned many youth events. Sarah has been a camp counselor for many years, served on many Happening staffs, and also chaperoned many youth events. In addition to serving our youth in many different roles, both were involved in these and other youth programs in the Diocese of Quincy during their own high school and college years. You may not realize it, but they met at camp many years ago, and started dating after a Happening weekend! They have many gifts and talents (music, humor, and more) which help them relate to the youth today, and those gifts will bless all they encounter in their new parish. Morgan and Ben have also been a joy to anyone who knows them – they can always bring a smile to our faces.


Join us on Monday, May 25th (Memorial Day) between 3 and 8 to say goodbye. E-mail youthmissioner@dioceseofquincy.org for more info!

Instead of saying goodbye, we say farewell, and see you soon! Until we see you again, Drummond family, know that the Diocese of Quincy loves you and misses you!

Fun Event on August 22nd!

Have you ever wanted to challenge your priest to a game of kickball or a relay race? How about getting a little wet in the process? Then come to our first annual Day at the Races on August 22 at Grace Church, Galesburg! It will be a day of fun, food, and fellowship for kids and clergy from all over the diocese. The activities will start at 10:00am with Holy Eucharist. We will have a delicious lunch, and then head outside for some great games. There will be relay races, group games, and kids vs. clergy kickball. We will end around 4:00pm. The cost of this event is $5.00 and a canned food item to donate to a local food bank. Included in this price are lunch, a snack, and a T-shirt. Bring all your friends and come have some fun in the sun with youth from all over the diocese. And don’t forget to bring your priest!

Welcome

Check this out! We are starting a blog for Diocese of Quincy youth. We will be posting updates about our coming events, pictures after events, video clips (if we can figure that out), and things we find interesting.

It is our hope that this blog will be the spot for all things Quincy Youth... so bookmark this site and check back often.

To get us started, here is a question: What type of events do you want to see in the DOQ?