Young Adult & Campus Ministries Broadcast Newsletter
Celebrating Graduation

The Episcopal Church Faith Formation Department’s Office of Youth Ministry and Office of Young Adult and Campus Ministries have been collaborating with youth ministers, campus chaplains, and young adult ministers around the church to curate resources, ideas, and liturgies to help celebrate those who are graduating from high school and college.

Available Celebrating Graduation resources include prayers and blessings, service videos and virtual choirs, worship bulletins and scripture, as well as a collection of resources and ideas for celebrating 2020 graduates during this pandemic.

As graduation season began in the midst of closed school buildings and online learning, partners in ministry indicated that they wanted to collaborate and pool resources to help everyone have a meaningful celebration. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry also wanted to send a message of hope, love, and encouragement to those who are graduating and marking special transitions in their lives, saying, “I thank God for you, thank God for your fortitude, for your doing the work, for your staying the course as they say, for your finishing the race as the Bible says. It has not been easy. And we thank God for you, and say congratulations to you.”

Watch the Presiding Bishop’s message here.

Congregations, ministries, and dioceses may find these resources helpful as they look for ways to honor graduates missing out on traditional spring rites of passage. 

These rituals and liturgies are designed for marking time through the liturgical year, for sharing the common story as Christian souls engaged in a mortal journey on Mother Earth. During this time of isolation in a pandemic, please make sure that, in addition to the graduates, the rising seniors also know that they are valued in appropriate and helpful ways.

You can find the resources on https://lessonplansthatwork.org/celebrating-graduation/. This is a work in progress and new resources will be added to the page. Please share ideas, resources and stories of celebration in your ministry context by emailing Shannon Kelly.
2020 YACM Leadership Conference Update

The Young Adult and Campus Ministry (YACM) Annual Leadership Conference will still be held June 23-26, 2020. However, given the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic we are currently living in and after consulting with both the conference planning team and the YACM Advisory Council , we are moving the conference to an online format with a $0 registration fee .

You do still need to register so that you get the sign-in information, updates, and schedule as we develop them. Register by clicking here .

A new website for the conference is being built with an updated schedule, registration link, and information. ( https://events.episcopalchurch.org/yacm/)

This annual conference is an opportunity for Episcopal leaders in ministry with young adults (ages 18-30) on and off college campuses to meet and connect with one another and to be nourished and nurtured in their ministry. 

Please stay tuned for updates as we adapt the schedule and offerings for our conference. While I am disappointed we cannot be together in the same place, I am hopeful that this might give more people the opportunity to join us.

If you have questions, please contact me via email at skelly@episcopalchurch.org.
Young Adult and Campus Ministries Survey

Please take the time to let us know more about your ministry!

We know that many young adult ministries and campus ministries are not included and cannot be fully represented on the parochial report that congregations and diocese submit. Therefore, we have worked with the General Convention Office to help us devise a way to collect both quantitative and qualitative data on ministries with young adults (age 18-30ish).

This survey seeks to gain information about the scope of ministries with Young Adults (ages 18-30) in The Episcopal Church. Think of it as a (sort of) parochial report or a survey of ministry for anyone who works with young adults such as: college chaplaincies, intentional communities, parish based ministries, stand alone young adult ministries and diocesan based young adult programs. This seeks to gain more demographic and statistical data around what ministry is happening with young adults across the Church.

If you could take some time to fill in this survey, we will be sharing the results and talking more about what we discovered at the conference in June as well as sharing the information online. This is the first survey like this that we have done for a while and we want to get everyone to chime in who has any kind of ministry with young adults. Please spread the word and share the link. We hope to do this kind of survey much more frequently to help all of us get a better picture of the amazing ministry and work that is being done with young adults.

Helping Young Adults Connect

In an effort to help young adults connect with ministries, communities, and churches when they move, we have a Referral Form online. Either the young adult can fill it out or someone can fill it out on their behalf. When we get a referral, the YACM Office and Council works to connect them with folks in their area.

If you are a young adult (or know a young adult) who is looking for community and relationship as you explore your faith and way in life, we want to help you find a connection to a ministry, chaplaincy, local clergy person, leader, or organizer. We know that finding a community can be a daunting and overwhelming task. By filling in this form, we will do our best to connect you to a congregation, young adult ministry, campus ministry, or other kinds of ministry near you.


The Rev. Shannon Kelly
Director for the Department of Faith Formation and
Officer for Young Adult and Campus Ministries
646-285-8445 (cell)