Youth

All  Sunday morning schedules and event updates can be found on St. James’s youth blog.

St. James’s is a church devoted to supporting the spiritual development of the whole person. The youth of the church are no exception. We have built a new curriculum of study in order to meet the immediate needs and stages of development that our youth and their peers face. The curriculum is designed to meet young people where they are and build on their sense of self-worth, communal responsibility, and above all, their relationship with Jesus Christ.

Adolescence is a time of great transition for both young people and their families. In the classroom, our focus for the year of 2011-2012 will be on knocking down barriers with team building exercises, while also building up resources for youth to discover their ever-changing identity and their calls to ministry as servants in the Church. We will try to connect their personal stories to the past and the present by using the Bible, art, multi-media, books, articles, and shared experiences from their teachers and other church volunteers

Contact for all youth ministries: The Rev. Alex Riffee, 355-1779, ext 334

Rite-13

• Sixth and Seventh Grades

Rite-13 celebrates the life of the adolescent youth and focuses on how their faith can empower their journey into adulthood. One of the primary goals in this initial stage of the Journey to Adulthood program is building community. Both 6^th and 7^th graders will work on team building and understanding the gifts of the other. The second year of Rite-13 culminates in a liturgical Rite-13 Ceremony, a celebration based loosely on the Jewish bar mitzvah representing the first step taken into adulthood, highlighting all the responsibilities and gifts it entails.

J2A

• Eighth and Ninth Grades

J2A builds on the lessons learned in Rite-13. The focus for this year will be on celebrating the gifts of the individual, while seeing each other as an important member of the Body of Christ. We will study our different roles in society and culture, while learning to use the gifts we have to see and minister to those inside and outside of our church home. Members of the 9^th grade class have the option of choosing to be confirmed by the bishop at his visitation in the spring as the culmination of their Journey to Adulthood experience.

A Call to Grow

• Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Grades

Once our youth have successfully gone through Rite-13 and Confirmation, St. James’s will offer another set of classes developed specifically for our youth that are starting to emerge as young adults. The topics are more open-ended, ranging from “The Simpsons and Pop Theology” to exploring “Moments of Faith & Moments of Doubt.” This class acknowledges the maturity of the individual and the need to more deeply explore faith and leadership responsibilities within Christianity.