Convention - Part 2

We all felt so relieved once the SCYL worship service was over. It is a joy to work hard preparing worship and then deliver the service, but it is a lot of work and everyone is exhausted afterwards. But, we all had another treat to listen to before we began our Convention "playtime". Holly, SCYL President still had to deliver her President report.
I introduced Holly after the Youth Director report and she came up and immediately introduced all of the teens at Convention. Then Holly read her report. It was a wonderful report as she unfolded the beautiful story of how Rachel and her met as children, grew apart, then reconnected through youth group and the SCYL. Holly's story emphasized how the church has help her to grow spiritually and how being in the SCYL has introduced her to friends and a community of people she would not have known. And, it brought her and Rachel back into a close and very meaningful friendship that would have likely otherwise been lost. It was a touching and emotional report that ended with an embrace between two dear friends.

After Holly's report, the teens were allowed to exit the business meeting and start planning the rest of our playtime at Convention. We met as a group back in 201 (the girl's suite where the common area served as our hangout place) to discuss what to do. Since everyone (mostly me, I think) was sleepy from the long, exhausting night of worship planning and sitting in the ER, we decided to make the day's outing sort of simple. Also, a couple of teens were interested in going to see the seven Tiffany angel windows at display at the Taft Museum of Art and the buses departed from UC in the afternoon for that. So, we decided to have a big outing day on Saturday and just do a hour or two of shopping around UC on Friday right after lunch. We did two van runs to a funky little shopping district on Ludlow street just north of UC campus. Ludlow street offered some interesting stores including an ice cream shop, eclectic boutiques and a trendy consignment place. The girl's (and Cody) seemed happy with this outing and bought some stuff, while Danny and Jon were pretty much done after 15 minutes. In any event, we all got back to UC in time for the buses to the Taft Museum. Much as I wanted to see the angel windows, I took a much needed nap. Bekka visited the museum and told me all about the windows at dinner Friday evening.

Friday night was the ordination service. Two students were being ordained, Gabriella Cahaley and Steve Sanchez. Although the service was long the teens were very patient and polite. The highlight was the music. Cody (bass) and Danny (acoustic guitar) played with the Convention band and rocked the house opening with an extended "Wade in the Water" and closing with "Day by Day". It was cool to see Cody and Danny jam at the service. They held their own and sounded great with the rest of the more seasoned musicians, Ken (guitar), Laurie (keyboards), Paul (guitar) and Lon (drums).

After the service, we went up to the reception to sell SCYL merchandise. And this year the SCYL sure had a lot of stuff to peddle. Love-Wisdom-Action Tshirts and bottles, potato stamp cards, led hats and custom magic wands made by Holly! The teens worked hard selling goods at the table and Cody, Danny and Jon provided music to draw people in. The teens sold $920 of merchandise at Convention. All fundraising profit goes to teen retreat travel and camp costs.

After hours, we all revisited Nippert stadium field, the scene where the night before we had to call rescue and rush a teen to the hospital, for more light-up Frisbee action. Newly ordained Rev. Steve Sanchez joined us for a high energy game of Ultimate. Whether playing Frisbee, watching from the bleachers or sitting around in the end zone, everyone enjoyed the late night activities on the field. It was great to spend some time running around and getting to know Rev. Steve, who loves sports, especially basketball.

Saturday morning we slept in until 11 am brunch. After brunch we gathered for our big outing to Coney Island Amusement Park. Coney Island in Cincinnati, is home to Sunlite pool, the world's largest flat surface swimming pool (200 x 400 ft). Also there, you can find bumper cars, carnival rides, paddle boats and canoes. The pool was the perfect place to relax on a hot Cincinnati afternoon. They had great slushy drinks and the water was perfect! The teens took lots and lots of underwater pictures as we had two waterproof cameras. I only share a couple here, but trust that many, many more were taken. It was a lot of fun. After Coney Island, we drove around looking for a fun place to sit down as a group and have dinner. After far too long of searching for restaurants and trying to decide where to go (complicated by me I will add), we landed at a Red Robin. This was perfect! Bottomless drinks and fries all around! The food was delicious and the service was extremely friendly and courteous. We all sat together at a big long table and had a fantastic meal.

We returned to UC in the early evening. I got a chance to see the end of the MUSE woman's choir performance and the teens had one last opportunity to work the sales table on this the last evening of Convention. Late night teen activities included a photo shoot of human statues at an interesting place on campus where there were empty stone platforms. The last night of Convention closed with the traditional late night pizza party.

Sunday morning we got an opportunity to see Rev. Sage lead the closing worship service. Then we packed up and Lori took us all to the airport (Jon got a earlier ride). Us travelers from Maine had an uneventful flight home and arrived back safely in the late evening. Thank you Lori Steinhiser for being such a faithful, loyal and hardworking leader. And thank you Lori for putting up with me and all my nonsense. Also, thank you Rev. Dr. Dave for leading the teen group in an opening prayer and for being available to us throughout Convention. Lastly, thank you to all the teen sponsors who make all this possible for the teens to attend such a wonderful event.

Convention - Part 1

2011 Convention was one to remember! Twelve teens, including five SCYL Officers gathered at UC in Cincinnati, Ohio at the end of June to worship and play together with other Swedenborgian and gather in celebration of the theme "Behold, I make all things new". The UC "Bearcat" campus was beautiful, with an open stadium where we were permitted to run on the field anytime, lots of moist grassy areas to explore, and unusual outdoor artworks and buildings abounded. Off campus was a good deal sketchier so we traveled as a group in daylight hours when we left the UC grounds. For the Wednesday evening icebreaker, the teens took old scraps that we found around campus and created new works of art. Then they combined all of the items that they created to make an original skit "Thom Servo". On Thursday, the teens spent most of the first days preparing an amazing worship service following an order of worship from darkness to light which consisted of a series of "pods" (psalm reading, skit, musical performance).

The teens started with an "intropod" with the gloomy psalm 13 read by Rachel, Danny's moving performance of "Where is the Love" with a series of tearful face pictures running on screen in the background, a prayer of despair by Jess and a dark meditation with Cody solo on the bass. From the here the service followed a series of centropods that moved along more and more cheerful. Centropod 1 used troubling psalm 6 read by Anna as inspiration. Ruby, Liz and Danny performed the skit "Stages of Grief" and Celie, Danny and Audrey performed the song "Warning Sign". Centropod 2 used moody psalm 119 read by Liz as inspiration. Jon, Anna and Jess performed the skit "Love Triangle" and Celie, Bekka and Holly performed the song "Landslide". Centropod 3 used hopeful psalm 139 read by Jess as inspiration. Jon, Bekka and Audrey performed the skit "Insecurity Anonymous" and Celie, Holly and Audrey performed the edgy song "Arms" accompanied by Cody on the bass. The teens closed with an "endopod" with beautiful psalm 98, Bekka reading from Divine Love and Wisdom and reading Cody's prayer of happiness, Danny playing a cheery guitar meditation with a series of happy face pictures running on screen in the background, followed by Rachel leading the Lord's Prayer and the whole group singing "A Whole New World". The entire worship experience was moving and filled with the blessed gifts of the talented teen group. I am so proud of you teens. You, once again, worked together to create an original, creative service in celebration of the Lord.

Most astounding of all, was that all this was delivered after three teens, Lori and I spent most of the night before in the emergency room of University Hospital (the number one trauma center in Ohio that lived up to it's name) with an ailing teen who was rushed there by ambulance at 11:30 pm with chest pain. The rest of the teens stayed up until after 3 am rewriting the entire service in case the teen in the ER could not perform in the morning. You are such a fantastically wonderful group. I am so grateful for each one of you and care about all of you so very much.

FNCA FLAMES SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

I've just returned home from Convention. What an amazing experience. I'm sure many of you will want to hear stories and see pictures and that will be coming soon once I get some rest and catch up on other things. In the meantime, please read this important note from Trevor about FNCA...

“One New Flame from each Association of the Swedenborgian Church”

Never been to Fryeburg New Church Assembly? Want to go for free? The FNCA Flames Scholarship Program enables teens throughout all of Convention to attend camp in scenic Fryeburg, Maine at no cost. The Assembly will waive tuition for one teen who has not been to the FNCA before from each Association providing the Association or local church (or the teen's family) will get the selected teen to and from camp. Since participants in this program are chosen by the Associations, teens who would like to participate in this program should contact their local Association.

Please note that through the FNCA's Youth Sponsorship Program, kids and teens may attend the FNCA without their parents or guardian present by having an adult sponsor attend camp with the youth who agrees to act in loco parentis. Parents may arrange for a sponsor of their choice, or contact camp director Debbie Cook before camp and a sponsor will be assigned for them. Contact info and lots of other stuff you'd like to know about the Assembly is on the FNCA website: <http://fryeburg.org>.

FNCA this year runs Saturday, July 30 through Sunday, August 14, 2011. We would love to see you there!