The Lutheran – Episcopal Coordinating Committee, meeting in Los Angeles, were blessed yesterday with a presentation by a group known as the Episcopal Urban Interns Program. These young adults, give a year of their lives, living in community and working for social justice in a variety of programs in and around LA.
Not only do they work with troubled children, homeless families, special education, etc. but they live in community, live a simple life, do regular theological reflection on what is happening to them, and make five retreats a year together to deepen their spiritual lives.
Many of have gone on from these programs to become deacons, priests, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and business folks — one is even a Yahoo executive! I could not help but be proud (in the best sense, I hope) that our church supports such an effort. It is also an ecumenical one, involving Lutherans, Methodists, and others.
It seems to me that this “coupling” of work for social justice and faith formation is perhaps the best way to re-engage, “re-convert”, and deepen the faith of our young people today. They want to “make the world a better place” but hunger also for the deeper truths of meaning and purpose for their lives and for the world.
There may yet be time for the Church to provide that “way, that truth, and that life.”
That We All May Be One 
Leave a Reply