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PARISH LIFE

New youth ministers enthuse about service

When Sarah Raville graduated from The College of Saint Rose in Albany in 2007, she was eager to begin a year-long internship in retreat ministry with the Archdiocese of Seattle, Washington.

In her year of service, Ms. Raville helped organize and lead retreats at the junior high, high school and young adult levels. However, though she said she greatly enjoyed her experience working with "really on-fire kids" on retreats, she wanted to reach out to teens who are "a bit more marginalized" as well. 

In 2008, she accepted a position as youth minister at St. Francis de Sales parish in Loudonville.

"I wanted to be with a parish and grow with a community to see the kids grow in their faith," she explained. Ms. Raville was one of more than 20 parish youth ministers from across the Albany Diocese who gathered for a picnic recently at Sacred Heart Church in Lake George. 

Young ministers
Ms. Raville is also one of five young adults recently commissioned as youth ministers. The others are Pete Derway, who serves St. Mary/ St. Paul's in Hudson Falls; Jillian Donohue, who's at Our Lady of Grace in Ballston Lake; Ellen Marando of Sacred Heart in Stamford; and Andrew Quell, who serves St. Jude the Apostle in Wynantskill.

Ms. Donohue was a junior at Boston College when she first considered a career in youth ministry. To learn more about it, she arranged a summer internship with her home parish of Immaculate Conception in Glenville. 

By the time the summer was over, she said, "I knew it was what I wanted to do."

Pete Derway's interest in ministry began when he served on the student executive board of campus ministry at Long Island University. Although he was encouraged by a vocations director to consider entering the priesthood, he opted to live out his faith through youth ministry instead - at least for the time being. 

He said, laughing: "I'm not making that decision until I'm 30."

Not all new youth ministers in the Diocese are recent college graduates. Some retirees are embracing it as a second career: for instance, when Jim Gorman became coordinator of religious education for St. Michael the Archangel parish in South Glens Falls in 2008, it was after he'd spent 32 years as a national park ranger.

"A lot of my role as a national park ranger was as an educator," Mr. Gorman explained, citing outreach programs, first aid/ CPR training and courses in archeological protection. His extensive teaching experience has proven beneficial to his current position as a catechist and youth minister.

Younger youth ministers often approach their work with high energy. Although this is Ms. Donohue's first month on the job, she is already busy gathering ideas for service activities. 

"It's very important for kids to do service," she explained, noting that the belief was instilled by her Jesuit education at BC. 

Her emphasis on service is shared by her peers. During Mr. Derway's first year as a youth minister, the youth of St. Mary/St. Paul's parish volunteered with parish children, as well as with local elderly and homebound residents. 

Faith and family
Mr. Derway also emphasized the value of interfaith education; he hopes to incorporate interfaith events and education into the Confirmation preparation process. 

"If [young Catholics] were to learn about some of the other faiths and how they are the same and different, it would help [them] grow in their own faith," he explained.

Ms. Raville pointed out the importance of involving the family in faith education, noting the influence her own family's faith life played in her development as a Catholic. 

"I want to help families become more comfortable sharing their faith with one another," she said.

Despite the conception that teenagers are disinterested in religion and faith, Mr. Derway believes their apparent indifference is a result of "the way the faith is brought upon them." 

He hopes his age can help him relate to the kids in his parish, noting: "I think there is a longing there, but they don't know how to express it, because they've never been given a chance to express it."

"Kids might think it's 'lame' to talk about their faith or have a hard time articulating it," Ms. Donohue added. One advantage as a young person in youth ministry, she said, is being an example for parish youth: "Hopefully, they can see that it's okay to talk about faith, and it can be fun and it can be cool."

(07/02/09) [[In-content Ad]]

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