Ministry to Young People
622 Teen Curriculum
“622” is a four-year series of 42 lessons in each year which is available here. It was designed to be highly adaptable, and is intended for any parish seeking to both engage and educate with their programming for youth.
The study series aims to facilitate an experience of God—grounded in scripture and tradition—to help youth understand their relationship to God, discovering who they truly are in the process, while at the same time equipping them with the tools they will need to answer the questions posed by life, culture and critics of the faith.
Each lesson uses a blend of group activity, study and discussion (with additional “at-home challenge” assignments for individual work during the week) in order to explore the transformative relationship that lies at the heart of who we are.
St. Michael’s Youth Conference
(Currently suspended because of COVID-19; hopefully to resume in 2022.)
Since 1996 the PBSC has helped to sponsor the annual St. Michael’s Youth Conference that is held in southern Ontario. The Conference was founded to provide an environment where high school-aged youth could grow in their faith, through teaching that is true to the Anglican tradition. Through worship drawn from the Book of Common Prayer, the conference invites participants to experience the power of God in their lives.
The idea of the St. Michael’s Youth Conference originated in Massachusetts in the mid-1960s. It was envisioned as a week-long retreat-like summer event where teens who had “graduated” from Sunday School and been confirmed could encounter a community where they could meet other young people their own age and continue exploring the faith at a more adult level, among thoughtful and sympathetic leaders. (Thus the event is called a “conference” rather than a “camp”, although it is not all seriousness; there is plenty of time for fun!)
Over time, other St. Michael’s Youth Conferences sprang up in Michigan, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Saskatchewan. All of the Conferences follow essentially the same model as the original:
- Mornings are devoted to courses on the Bible, theology and Anglican spirituality.
- Afternoons feature outdoor activities such as swimming, canoeing and kayaking, hiking, volleyball and archery.
- Evening activities include indoor games, a movie night, and small-group discussions.
Although originally the organizers of the Conferences only anticipated that Anglican youth would be interested in coming, over the years many young people of other Christian traditions (or none) have attended, and they are always welcome.
The Cranmer Conference
The Cranmer Conference was an annual weekend event for young adults, which members of the PBSC promoted and organized, and which was held annually from 2006 to 2011, usually at St. Paul’s Church in Dunnville, Ontario, and then at St. John’s Church, North Bay. The aim was to reach out to young people in their late teens and twenties, providing a venue to meet, bond, learn and worship using the Book of Common Prayer. The conference themes included “Exploring Serious Christianity and Renewing Serious Anglicanism”, “Stirred, Not Shaken”; “Grace and Free Will”, “Heirs Through Hope: Anglican Identity and the Lambeth Quadrilateral” and “How Firm a Foundation: The Bible and the Prayer Book”. Speakers included Dr. George Sumner, then Principal of Wycliffe College in Toronto; journalist Sue Careless; Dr. Ranall Ingalls, Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Brunswick; Dr. William Renwick, Professor of Music at McMaster University; Dr. Gary Thorne, then chaplain at King’s College, Halifax; the Rt. Revd. Anthony Burton, then Bishop of Saskatchewan; the Revd. Gordon Maitland, then Director of Christian Studies at Canterbury College, Windsor; and the Rt. Revd. Dr. Stephen Andrews, then Bishop of Algoma. Bishop Andrews wrote this article describing his experience at the 2011 conference.