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St. James Youth Ministry empowers young people to BE the
hands and feet of Christ, inviting them to embrace their
baptismal priesthood, enter into the Paschal Mystery, and build
the Kingdom of God. This is achieved through several
justice-oriented activities, events, and programs designed to
increase faith, promote sacrifice, and inspire joyful service,
particularly with the poor.
Our comprehensive department seeks to meet the spiritual needs
of young people in several areas including:
Catechesis & Evangelization
Service & Justice
Leadership Development
Community Life
Pastoral Care
Prayer & Worship
Advocacy
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Some of the many opportunities to live your faith via St.
James Youth Ministry include:
Youth Nights (Grades 8-12)
Join your peers for a weekly gathering filled with prayer,
catechesis, and lively activities designed to integrate faith
into everyday life. Youth Nights occur every Sunday evening from
6:30–8:30pm in the Pastoral Outreach Center (Oct.-June).
Archdiocesan Events
Join with the larger Church for gatherings such as Youth
Convention, Junior High Rally, and Ascend, which
energize faith and develop leadership.
Cathedral Service Immersion
A justice-oriented service retreat for 7th grade classes in
Catholic schools. This immersion experience is part of the
year-long Missionary Discipleship Institute, a partnership
between the archdiocesan Missions Office, Catholic Schools and
Maryknoll. Students will host a dinner for homeless guests at
the Cathedral Kitchen and reflect on the mission of our Catholic
Church. The immersion experience includes a tour of the
cathedral and the following three group sessions: (1) Jesus’
Dream, (2) Solidarity with the Poor, and (3) The Body of Christ.
Juvenile Justice Commission
A team of parishioners committed to developing chaplaincy
services, re-entry support, and restorative justice
opportunities for at-risk youth involved in the King County
juvenile justice system.
Mass Participation
The source and summit of our faith! The youth ministry
community will often sit together and actively participate in
the Mass. Join us!
Pastoral Care Meetings
The St. James youth minister is available to provide
emotional and spiritual support whenever difficult life
circumstances cause young people to hurt. If you
need someone to talk to, our youth minister will simply listen
without judgment and offer a compassionate presence.
Whether you’re struggling or celebrating, please feel free talk
with the youth minister. Burdens will be cut in half and
joys will be doubled.
Retreats
Get out of town for reflective weekends filled with fun,
faith, and friends. Step away from distractions and get
closer to God.
Safe Place Site
We are officially part of the King County Safe Place Network
for homeless and runaway youth. Youth in crisis receive on-site
hospitality while waiting for the arrival of a YouthCare
Counselor who will connect them to services.
Service Projects
BE the hands and feet of Christ and actively serve others in
need. We partner with several local social service
agencies including Northwest Harvest, Tri-Parish Food Bank, St.
Martin de Porres Shelter, Volunteer Chore Services (CCS),
YouthCare, NPH USA, St. Vincent de Paul, etc. As
Rabindranath Tagore once said, “I slept and dreamt that life was
joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted
and behold, service was joy.” Social Activities
Sometimes you just gotta have fun! Join us for
community life activities such as bowling, skating, movies,
cultural immersion experiences, etc.
Faith Friends
St. James Cathedral's Faith Friends program (an inclusion
ministry) is a unique blend of our Faith Mentor faith formation
program and parish youth inclusion ministry. The program's goal
is to give children ages 7-18* with physical, cognitive and
intellectual disabilities access to parish community, social
events, and faith formation. Faith Peers are youth and young
adults who have chosen to live out their discipleship and share
some of their personal time in dedication and service to the
goals of the program. After completing an intake process and
training, these Faith Peers attend various monthly Faith Friend
social events and other group activities. Faith Peers can also
serve as a Faith Mentor by being paired with a Faith Friend. For
more information email
Jennifer Wong.
*Faith Friends older than 18 are welcome, there may be an
additional intake process.
Summer Mission Program
As a means to address both local and global justice issues,
the summer is reserved for longer term mission projects that
allow for direct service and increased education.
Participants can serve migrant families in the Skagit Valley
during the Youth Migrant Project or travel abroad during one of
our mission trips. Click here to
read about Youth Migrant Project.
Youth Confirmation
St. James Youth Ministry offers a preparation process for
teenagers seeking the sacrament of Confirmation beginning in
September and ending in early June. Confirmation completes the
grace received at baptism, and fully initiates a person into the
Catholic Church. To participate this year, candidates must be in
high school. In the coming years, we will welcome candidates in
eighth and seventh grades, in accordance with the new typical
Confirmation age of 13 in our Archdiocese.
Youth Leadership Team
Members play an active role in the design and implementation
of the overall youth ministry program. All grade levels are
represented.
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Our department cannot thrive without the support of dedicated
and caring adult volunteers. Please take a moment to
explore some of our volunteer opportunities:
Youth Ministry Team Member
Attend weekly Youth Nights and assist with program
facilitation, including small group leadership. Provide supervision and guidance during events, outings, and activities. Support and empower youth leaders to design and implement the overall Youth Ministry Program.
Adult Chaperone
Attend youth events and provide necessary supervision and
support, ensuring safe and enjoyable experiences for
participants.
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A ministry committed to being the Body of Christ!
A little over 2000 years ago, Jesus showed up on the scene with
a particular mission and vision. For example, he healed a
lot of people, he forgave others, he often went off to pray, he
ate with sinners and tax collectors, he touched lepers, he
blessed children, he fed the hungry, he taught about the Kingdom
of God, he felt compassion for the suffering, and he afforded
odd groups of people a high level of status and dignity.
Much of his mission was centered on lifting up the poor and
outcast, healing them out of his great compassion, forgiving
them, and ensuring that they felt acceptable before God.
This is truly a wonderful and amazing mission!
Today, Jesus cannot continue with his mission in the same way,
seeing as how he no longer has a physical body as before.
However, as St. Theresa points out, “Christ has no body now, but
yours.” In other words, we can serve as Christ’s hands and
feet. We become his body in the modern world, doing what
he did and manifesting the same kind of miraculous and
compassionate results. This is who the Church is: a group
of people committed to collectively serving as Christ’s body and
continuing Christ’s mission. St. James Youth Ministry is
about belonging completely to Christ, such that you encounter
Christ in others and become Christ for others.
The key is to cease living life for ourselves and instead allow
Christ to live in us. As Fr. Yves Congar put it, “What
Christ asks of us is to open our souls to him, to deliver our
lives up to him and to put ourselves entirely at his
disposition, so that we no longer live our own life on our own
account exclusively but that, by his grace, we live his own life
and on his account.” In serving as the Body of Christ, we
must allow Christ to be the head, which leads us to
sacrificially pour out our lives for others, particularly the
poor.
The Eucharist is central to our ministry. It is the
‘source and summit of the Christian life’, meaning it is the
holy sacrament that literally binds us together as one in
Christ, thus strengthening us to live out our baptismal
priesthood throughout the week. (We all share in the
priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ.) As Fr.
Congar said, “Eucharist is the perfect sacrament of our
incorporation with Christ. Theologians are unanimous in
holding that its special effect is to bring about the unity of
the Mystical Body.”
St. James Youth Ministry, nourished by the Eucharist, strives to
take the kind of unity that we establish here and, using our
gifts and talents, make it happen out there. We partner
with the Holy Spirit to actively serve the poor and
marginalized, to bring others together, and to act as leaven in
sanctifying the world, raising it up from within.
A ministry committed to building the Kingdom of God!
Jesus had a very specific vision of the Kingdom, one where God's
name is hallowed and God's will is done, where sin is forgiven
and evil overcome. He envisioned a world where all people
put God first and cared for the needs of others, where all
people had equal status and dignity, and where all people
reveled on earth in communion with God and one another.
Jesus made this possible. The Kingdom is accessible today!
The problem is, too many of us do not believe in this reality
and therefore do not live into this new possibility. God
won't mess with free will, so instead he is gently inviting us
to "repent and believe...the Kingdom of God is at hand". (Mark
1:15) We must choose it with our actions. It's been
over 2000 years since Jesus made the Kingdom possible, yet not
enough people have responded to the possibility of something new
on earth. As a result, evil maintains its power despite
its defeat. The poor and oppressed remain poor and
oppressed and the outcast and despised continue to suffer.
What a shame. St. James Youth Ministry, therefore, is
committed to the same Kingdom-building efforts that Jesus
modeled during his life. We choose to believe in the
possibility of heaven on earth and our events and activities are
designed to bring it into being.
A justice-oriented ministry!
Jesus had an odd group of friends. His close friends were
the poor, the hungry, the despised, criminals, sick people, and
other folks living on the margins of society. His mission
was to befriend them, heal them, and lift them up to a level of
status and dignity that even they didn’t think they deserved.
In doing so, he was liberating them from the societal chains
that bound them, effectively removing their hurt and pain.
The fact that he touched lepers, a prohibited action by Jewish
law, showed that his concern for human well-being was more
important than the rules of old. Something new was showing
up. Jesus demonstrated new priorities. What does
that mean for us as followers of this man? For members of
St. James Youth Ministry it means – as the hands and feet of
Christ – we are called to pick up where Jesus left off. We
therefore embrace the preferential option for the poor and
choose to focus our service efforts on the same situations of
injustice, poverty, and oppression that Jesus addressed during
his ministry.
“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave
me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I
was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care
of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
(Matthew 25:35-36)
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is
this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction.”
(James 1:27)
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Please join us as a St. James Youth Ministry
participant!
All are welcome!
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To learn more, please contact:
youth@stjames-cathedral.org
Social Media:
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/cathedral.youth
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/saintjamesyouth
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