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

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.      

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.

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.”

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)

Please join us as a St. James Youth Ministry participant!
All are welcome!

To learn more, please contact:
youth@stjames-cathedral.org 
 
Social Media:
 
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/cathedral.youth
 
Twitter:  www.twitter.com/saintjamesyouth