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Executive Council Invites Youth to the Table

Episcopal News Service. November 9, 1995 [95-1293]

(ENS) As Executive Council members gathered for their fall meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, two of the heads at the table were noticeably younger.

In keeping with the council's mandate to include youth representatives at each meeting, for the first two days two teenagers from the Diocese of Alabama joined the committee discussions, observed the council workings and generally hobnobbed with council members.

The two -- Jamey Turner, 17, of Auburn, and Katy Rew, 18, of Hoover -- were invited to "sit in on the big peoples' meetings," explained Turner, to "voice our opinions as youth, what we stand for and what we believe in." Turner, who joined a subcommittee reviewing resolutions on socially responsible investment, said he raised questions about one resolution. "They wanted input so I gave them what I thought," he said.

Participating in the global affairs committee expanded Rew's understanding of the church's horizons, she reported. "I didn't know the church was so involved world-wide," she said. "I had no clue about it. That's really sad that there's not enough information going out to let us know what's going on."

The council's racial diversity and its air of equality also impressed them, the youth said. Noting that all the name tags just give names and not titles, Turner observed that that helped bridge gaps. "Sitting next to a bishop in vestments is very intimidating," he said. But, he said, "yesterday at lunch Bishop Browning sat next to me and I didn't know he was the presiding bishop. I figured it out, though."

Council members treated the young visitors graciously and were "very approachable," Turner said. "Whenever I would get behind in the conversation, they would catch me up."

"They made it obvious they didn't want us here just for looks," said Rew. Turner and Rew were selected as members of the diocese's Youth Department, the board that oversees youth ministries, said Sarah Sartain, diocesan youth coordinator.