SCYL East Officer

Hello :D i'm Rachel, for my entire life i have lived in the state of Maine. I am into my second year in high school. When I am not working on my massive amounts of homework, I enjoy swimming, snowboarding, hanging out with my friends, watching movies, sleeping and eating. That’s pretty much everything I do, it doesn't sound like much but I am always overwhelmingly busy, and it keeps me from getting bored. I'm probably the pickiest eater you will ever meet, which angers some but I don't think of it as much of an issue. And that is pretty much all I can say about myself but if you wanna hear more, I have a tendency to be around at most retreats and Fryeburg summer camp so feel free to come say hi if you wanna!

Essentials of Love

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

In February we celebrate Valentine’s Day. We think about what love means, and what it means to be in love. There are a few things that go with being in love. First of all, love means mutual respect. We need to respect our lovers as persons and respect what they want. Love is destroyed when we try to push our own desires on someone else. Love never seeks to dominate. We become very happy when we are in love. But this happiness sometimes fades after we have been with someone for a while. That is why to truly love, we need also to be friends with our lovers. Love can be called deep friendship—maybe even the deepest friendship. Our lovers can often be our best friends. And the longer a person remains with their beloved, the deeper the friendship grows. Staying friends makes love last. When we love, we find our own joy when our lover is happy. We seek to make our lovers happy according to what they find happy, not what makes us happy. Of course lovers share happiness together and do things together. But it is important to remember that our lovers are individuals just as we are individuals and we need to respect who they are as individuals. Finally, mutual love is given by God, from God. Love is holy. God gives us love as a way of making us as happy as we can be. This is because God loves us more than we can imagine, and lovers want to make their beloved happy. So God wants to make us happy. Swedenborg tells us that “. . . . all the states of blessedness, satisfaction, delight, gratification, and pleasure that could ever be conferred on people by the Lord Creator are gathered into this love” (CL 68). So when you find someone who you love, and who loves you, remember these few important things about being in love. Then both your own happiness will grow and also the happiness of your beloved.

SCYL Midwest Officer

Hi my name is Sam. I live in Waterloo, Ontario, and go to The Church of the Good Shepherd in Kitchener. I have been part of the SCYL for almost six years, and this is my second time being an officer. The SCYL is extremely important to me, because I have made amazing friends at convention and at retreats that mean a lot to me, and I never would have met them if I wasn’t a part of the youth league. Now, some things about me are that my favourite fruit is pineapple, my favourite movie is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and my favourite type of pie is pumpkin. I like to play sports too; I ski, snowboard, run cross country, and play rugby. Another interesting thing about me is that I am almost bilingual. I am learning French, and spent two weeks in France last year practicing. I really like meeting new people, so if you are reading this and you do not know me, I hope that I meet you sometime soon!

SCYL Canadian Officer

Hi, I’m Jake and I’ll be your Canadian / Activities officer this year. I have been the exact same officer for the past 2 years, but haven’t done much, so this year I hope to really go all out and make some changes in SCYL and attend more retreats and stuff. This will be my last year in the SCYL since I will be 18 for most of the year, so I want to make it count.

I live in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and I have been living here my whole life. I am in my last year of high school and am a part of the cross-country team and rugby team for it. I work at a local grocery store, which I despise with a passion. I enjoy a wide range of music, but modest mouse is my favorite at the moment. I enjoy making films, pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.

Anyways, to sum it up SCYL has made a huge difference in my life and I really want to help give back to it. I love all the retreats I’ve been to and everyone I’ve met. Hope to see you all soon!

Your 2009 SCYL President!

Hi! My name is Nina and I am this year’s SCYL president! This is my first year being an officer but I’ve been attending retreats since Blairhaven 2005. I am very excited to be president and I will do my very best to represent the Swedenborgian youth. And now I will tell you a few things about myself! I am sixteen years old. I am a vegetarian and have been since I was ten. I love musicals a lot and my favorite would indisputably be Rent. I also love skiing, but I love flip flops and beaches and warm sunny days more which is why summer is my definitely favorite season! When I finally get my license I would like to own a pink hybrid buggy convertible, but I don’t think they make those. An interesting fact about me is that my great, great, great grandfather was a slave from the Ivory Coast, making me about 3.1% African! I very much enjoy eating various forms of artificially colored/flavored sugar such as pixy stix and fundip! I love polka dots, and bright, exciting colors, and intense thunder storms! My two kittens make me happier than almost anything else in the world! If I could travel anywhere in the world I would go to Greece and visit that island where all the houses have blue roofs. I like to sing to pass the time. And I am one of the few people in the world who doesn’t like chocolate chip cookies! So… that’s me in a nutshell. Hopefully if you are reading this and I don’t know you, we’ll eventually meet and I will get to learn about you!

2009 SCYL Officers

The 2009 Swedenborgian Church Youth League Officer and Chaplain elections took place at the Almont Winter Retreat this past December. The results are:

President - Nina

East Coast and Public Relations Officer – Rachel

Midwest and Service Officer – Sam

Canada and Activities Officer - Jake

West Coast and Fundraising & Finance Officer - Cody

Editor, Clear Blue Sky and Communication Officers – Alex and Holly

League Chaplain – Rev. Dr. David Fekete

12345 82nd St. Apt 201

Edmonton, AB T5B 2X3 Canada

feketedavid@yahoo.com

780-893-0594

Some of the SCYL Officers return to another year of service, while we as welcome some new teens to League leadership as well. We say farewell to 2008 officers Sola, Naomi and Kristina. Both Sola and Kristina are 18 now and are ready to move out of the SCYL ;-( . Sola did a great job as President of the SCYL last year and Kristina was an inspiring writer and editor of Clear Blue Sky. We will miss them at our retreats and gatherings, but we’ll catch them at summer camps and maybe Convention. Naomi can run for office in future years and we encourage her to do so. Thank you Sola, Naomi and Kristina for your excellent leadership in the SCYL.

We have a fantastic group of Officers elected to serve in 2009. We welcome Nina, our newly elected SCYL President. This is Nina’s first year as an Officer. She enjoys brownie batter, skiing and musicals (Nina got a lead in her high school production of “Anything Goes”). She is very involved in church retreats, camps and Convention and has been quoted as saying, “I need to get a job so I can have money to travel to more retreats.” Nina’s is very sociable and has an exuberant personality. This combined with her ability to energize, engage and motivate others will help her to be an outstanding President.

We greet two first-time officers working together as a Clear Blue Sky (CBS) editor team, Alex and Holly. Alex has been actively involved in the Fryeburg New Church (he assisted his grandmother, Martha, with the primary Sunday School class), youth group, retreats and Fryeburg Assembly. Holly has also been very active in Fryeburg church activities, Convention and retreats. They are very enthusiastic about CBS and hope to get exciting new issues out soon.

Sam returns to the SCYL after a year off to serve as our new Midwest and Service Officer. Welcome back Sam! Jake starts his third and final year as Canada and Activities Officer. Along with encouraging Canadian teens to participate in the SCYL, he will assist in planning our Convention outings in Seattle this summer. Cody begins his fourth year of service to the SCYL returning as the West and Fundraising/Finance Officer. Rachel returns for her second year as East Coast and Public Relations Officer. We are happy to see Jake, Cody and Rachel coming back to another year of service.

Rev. Dr. David Fekete was re-elected to his second year as the League Chaplain. David did a great job last year traveling great distances to attend and lead sessions at both the Memorial Day Fryeburg Maine and Almont Michigan Winter retreats. He also attended Almont Summer camp and was the teen boy’s dorm dad (I hear he makes up great Mad Libs). He writes monthly chaplain posts for this blog and is available to talk to all teens whenever you might need advice or just a friendly voice on the line. Please feel free to email him or call him. He is your Chaplain!

Please congratulate all of our 2009 SCYL Officers and our League Chaplain. This is an exciting and talented group. I look forward to lots of new and wonderful SCYL happenings this year. Look for profiles of your Officers in coming blog posts. I’m thrilled to be working with this team and I hope that you get to know them better in the coming year.

Why Go to Church?

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

Why go to church? I thought I’d share a few lines about what is in it for you to go to church. First of all, God is everywhere—in church and outside church. You can talk with God in prayer anywhere. You can see God anywhere—perhaps in a sunset or sunrise; perhaps in nature; perhaps in the faces of people around you. But do you make time to think about God? Is God a part of your life? That’s one good reason for church. It is a special time set aside for God. It is a special place set aside for God. When you enter a church, all the memories of times you found God come back. It is a time and place in the schedule of your life when God is put first. Church is also a holy community. When you go to church, you surround yourself with other people who are putting God in the first place. We need the support of other people. We pick friends who love us and whom we love. And it is good to love and be loved. Church is like that. It is a loving community where others seek God as you do. Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matt 18:20). Then there is the church service itself. You hear God’s Word in the Bible reading. And you hear about God in the sermon. Hopefully, in a church service you will learn about God, think about God, and experience God. Consider attending church. But most of all, keep a light in your heart for God, wherever you are.