Reaching Youth and Young Adults

A Message from Bishop Benfield Reaching Youth and Young Adults As many of you have heard me say previously, young people are attracted to The Episcopal Church. The proof we have here in Arkansas is the growing number of young people who show up for worship, participate in special events, and, yes, start thinking seriously about seminary as young adults. At the Young Adult Festival that was held in conjunction with General Convention last month in Indianapolis, Arkansas evidently had more participants than any other diocese. These people keep connected the way most young people keep connected these days: through social media. Teenagers and young adults use Facebook and Twitter, posting photos and commenting on one another’s postings. To encourage this participation in life in the church, Randall Curtis has launched a new website for young people—eycarkansas.org. But it is not only for young Episcopalians. Even this middle-aged bishop is a follower. I encourage you to take a look at it some time and see what our young people are up to. You will find that young people are serious about faith, and that we are serious about making certain that this new generation has the necessary tools to proclaim the good news of God’s overwhelming love. Faithfully,