2011 Easter Rally

In the Spring of 2011, a teen retreat will be hosted in the UK! The retreat, which is called the Easter Rally, will be held at the Purley-Chase retreat center near Birmingham, England and will run Sunday, April 17 - Thursday, April 21 (which is the week of spring break for many schools out here in the East). Many teens have expressed interest in attending and I hope we can get a big group to go. The tentative plan is to depart from the US and Canada on the afternoon of Friday, April 15, arrive in London early Saturday morning, tour London all day then take the train up to the retreat center Saturday evening. The Swedenborgian Church and the SCYL will be working hard to get funding to assist as many teens as possible from the U.S. and Canada to be able to go. But, we cannot afford to pay for everyone. Anyone interested should make sure that they have a passport that is up to date and should start thinking up creative ways to raise money. As it stands right now at the current ticket prices, we can afford to scholarship up to 6 teens that can raise $600 of their own money. Hopefully, airfare will drop and more teens can go for less money. So, contact me if you are interested and start fundraising now. Registration deadline is March 21. Let's work together and make this an exciting adventure for as many teens as possible!

Behold! I Make All Things New!

The January edition of the Chaplain's Corner by Pastor Dave, SCYL Chaplain

Jesus said, "Behold I make all things new" (Revelation 5:5). And while it can seem like things are the same day in and day out, we are changing as time passes. In the spiritual world, angels are brought through changes of state that follow seasons. They go through a springtime, when their love and wisdom are at a peak, then a summer, then a fall, as they begin to fall more into their selfhood, and then into a winter when they are more deeply in their selfhood and less in God's peace and life.

There is a reason for these changes of state. They teach the angels that their whole spiritual life depends on God. It breaks their desire to follow selfhood, and turns their hearts toward God. And it teaches them to feel goodness more keenly from the diminished goodness of spiritual winter.

We go through similar changes here on earth, if we pay attention to our inner life. As the seasons return, we think of where we were last year this time. We have the passage of time in this world to help us to pay attention to what's going on inside us. We have photographs to show us how we have changed over the years. All these things help us to see how our minds and hearts have changed, developed and grown over time.

In this new year, we may have made resolutions, as we do each year. Some of these resolutions last for a few weeks and then are forgotten. Some resolutions stay with us. But whether we consciously choose to change and follow a resolution, God is still leading us into new states. We are being made new each day, whether we are aware of it or not. "Behold, I make all things new."

2010 Winter Retreat

The 2010 winter retreat at Almont has been over for a couple weeks now. As I reflect back to those days together with you teens of the SCYL I cannot help but smile. There are so many wonderful memories. Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order.

• All the music - you guys really rock! Especially the impromptu Janice/Nina concert in Pfister
• Scott helping Mariel on skates travel all the way around the rink
  
• Ultimate frisbee, although too brief and too cold
• Rev. Jenn's session and my archangel Jeremiah
• Exodus to Independence
  
• The Yule log - it was beautiful this year
• The way you older scyl teens welcomed all the new teens to the retreat experience
  
• Rev. Ron's return to Almont retreats
• Discovering the meaning of my dramatic dream from a year ago
• Grilled cheese
• A new year with new scyl officers including a new west coast officer actually from the west coast