The 2008 Memorial Day Retreat is Days Away!

See below post for more information!

Fryeburg New Church Spring Sleepover

The spring sleepover at the Fryeburg New Church was great fun. About ten teens gathered at the church in the late afternoon. It was a cold rainy day, but we rallied together and went outside and did some landscaping and trash pickup around the church grounds and parking lot area. We planted some small pine trees and put up a sign too. After that we went inside to warm up with some hot chocolate. After a spagetti dinner, we did our last session on death and the afterlife. We discussed values, interests, talents and where we feel most ourselves. Looking at these qualities on earth is a good way to determine what we might do and where we will might end up in the afterlife. Swedenborg wrote, "The life of our dominant love never changes for anyone to all eternity because we are our love..." (Heaven and Hell 480). Alex certainly had some interesting responses to these questions (I'll never again look at a bear skin rug quite the same!). I can't wait to check out his pad in the next life. After our session, we played a couple of rounds of Sardines and ate Nina's runny brownie mix before piling up the bean bags for a movie (The Golden Compass). Sunday morning we worked on coloring in the notes the big music banner that will be displayed on music Sunday May 18th. After worship, we headed home excited to get back together again for the next retreat that is only days away!

Memorial Weekend Retreat is Coming Soon!

Our retreat theme: Saved!

A Swedenborgian Perspective on Salvation

We have all heard of people being saved. Perhaps friends or family members have told you that they have been saved. Most religions deal with salvation, redemption or deliverance of some form or another. They offer us a roadmap to a better place. But, religions differ vastly on how someone is saved and what sort of salvation is promised.

Even if we only look at Christianity, we see many different concepts of salvation. Emanuel Swedenborg has a unique understanding of it, but for many Christians, salvation is a process of confessing and believing. AllAboutGod.com summarizes being saved as, “Do you understand that you are a sinner, and believe that Jesus Christ came as the one and only Redeemer of sin? Are you ready to receive God’s gift of His Son, Jesus Christ? If so, believe in Christ, repent of your sins, and commit the rest of your life to Him as Lord.”

In contrast, Emanuel Swedenborg writes in AC6353, “The truth of the matter, however, is that the Lord does not deny heaven to anyone.” Does salvation depend on what religion you believe?

If you’ve ever wondered what it means to be saved or how someone becomes saved, this retreat is for you. If you’ve ever thought people who say they are saved are crazy, this retreat is for you, too. If you could care less about the whole idea of salvation, this retreat is definitely for you. If you believe that you’ve been saved, you’re all set, but feel free to come and share your experience.

Our retreats are open to teens ages 13 – 18 of all faiths and beliefs. At our retreats we offer life skills and spiritual sessions based on the principles of the Swedenborgian church. We strive for a safe, secure and inclusive environment to discuss and share relevant and meaningful ideas and challenges teens face today. We work, play and learn together as a community. We have fun! For teens and parents new to SCYL retreats please don’t hesitate to contact Kurt with any and all questions and concerns (email: kfekete@hotmail.com or call Kurt at: (802) 345-0169). Kurt will answer your questions or, if appropriate, put you in contact with a League officer in your region to help give you as much information and encouragement as you need!

The cost of this retreat is $60. But please do not let finances get in the way of attending!! There are scholarship funds available for help with teen travel and the cost of attendance. If you need financial help to attend contact Kurt and we can easily and confidentially help to cover costs. We want to make sure that all teens interested in coming to the retreat get there!

What to bring…

Clothes for indoor comfort and outdoor warm and cool weather.

Warm sleeping bag, pillow, toothbrush, shampoo, etc.

Outdoor shoes that you don’t mind getting wet and dirty.

Musical instruments.

A towel and personal items.

Sports equipment, cameras.

$15 spending money for outings.

Last, but not least…..a friend!

See you there!

SCYL West and Fundraising & Finance Officer

by Cody

My name is Cody. I am 15 years old. My favorite breakfast cereal is Reese's peanut butter puffs. The best reason I skipped school last year was to go see Avenged Sevenfold in concert. Between crunchy, smooth and flaky, if I must choose, I prefer smooth. But enough pre-typed and edited questions, because I know you all want the inuendo on-the-spot un-edited raw version of me. (Warning! Children over the age of three may be bored, low-intelligence humor and content) Regardless, I suppose you want to know what I do when I'm not with all of you. I write music; live recordings and also with a program called FL Studio. I recently got into animation and "Photoshop" (I use Adobe CS3 Fireworks) and I am learning Flash and HTML scripting. As you probably could have guessed I listen to a lot of music and most of my free time is absorbed by school work and such. I go to a very demanding High-School wher they teech us how 2 b smarticle and writing or / speak Engrish reely well-ly. That's basically it!

SCYL Midwest and Service Officer

by Naomi

I love techno, general music, reading magazine's such as Harper's Baazar and Vogue, reading in general! Jogging and snowboarding are faves of mine too. Anime also is fun....I am currently learning French, but I'd love to learn Japanese, Spanish, Italian, and Russian too.

Fave breakfast cereal? Kashi Maple Harvest.

Best reason I skipped school in the last year? all-day gym.

Do I prefer crunchy, smooth or flaky? CRUNCHY! best way to keep those jaw muscles in shape besides talking.

FNCA Announces New Scholarship Program

Flames Scholarship Program

One New Flame from each Association of the Swedenborgian Church

The Fryeburg New Church Assembly (FNCA) is happy to announce a new scholarship program for teens to attend our summer camp located in Fryeburg, Maine. In an effort to offer the many benefits of the summer camp experience, the FNCA will cover room & board for one teen from each Association of the Swedenborgian Church who has not previously attended the Summer session. We ask that the Association or local church cover travel expenses to and from Fryeburg. Interested teens should contact their Association because each Association will select a teen to attend the FNCA.
The teens at the FNCA are called the Flames. The Flames work together, learn together, play together and make life-long friends at the FNCA. The camp will appoint an adult sponsor to act in loco parentis for any Flame who will be attending camp without a parent or legal guardian.
The dates for this year's session are August 2^nd – 17^th, 2008. For more information about this scholarship program contact the camp director, Deane Currie, (610) 430-7069, deanecurrie@msn.com.
For more information about the FNCA visit our website , www.fryeburg.org.
To request a bulletin, or arrange an adult sponsor contact the Registrar, Nancy Little, (413) 247-0046 or littlenancyf@yahoo.com .

SCYL President

by Sola

My name is Sola and I'm the current President of SCYL. This means that I attempt to keep in touch with other officers and Kurt and help coordinate SCYL stuff like fundraisers and other projects. I live in DeLand, Florida, which is pretty far away from anything resembling teen retreats, but still manage to come to winter Almont and convention. I'm a PK as well, which makes life interesting.
Things about me :)
(random time)

Favorite breakfast cereal? ~ I don't really care about cereal, so long as I get the milk that comes with it.
Best reason you skipped school in the last year? ~ Honestly, the main reason I usually skip school is because I sleep. School gets in the way of that sometimes XD But I will be skipping school in April to go to an anime/geek convention to play with some very odd people. I will be happy.
If you must choose, do you prefer crunchy, smooth or flaky? ~ The words crunchy, smooth and flaky disturb me when put together in a sentence.
* I'm taking I.B. courses and am therefore only half here, as most of my brain has been ruined by banging my head on a wall far too often. YAY.
~My dearest friends and I want to live in, or at least visit extensively, Japan when we grow up.
~Sola's favorite things in life:
My family (including the aforementioned dearest friends XD)
music and books
the cello
fortune cookies :)
the sky
free hugs and other random acts
curry
rain.
Yes. This is basically all you need to now about me. I will do my best as President this year. Thank you :)