A REPORT FROM THE CERG YOUTH SUMMIT

I asked Oliver Evans (Akron, OH), one of our district's representatives at the Summit, to share his experience. His words capture (better than any report I could offer) the experience of youth and adults in conversation together to build youth ministry in our region. Enjoy! (M. Buhite)

I am Oliver Evans, a UU Youth who represented the OMD district at the recent CERG Youth Summit. I have been a UU nearly all of my life, attending the UU church of Akron since my early childhood. In the seventh grade, my dad and I heard about OMD Summer Institute at Kenyon College. We had heard of it, but had never gone until that year. My mind was blown by the experience. After returning, I went to church more often, I became involved with the local youth group at my church, and I became involved with the YAC Youth Conferences. This expansive community I was now a part of had truly excited me about the connections that are available through Unitarian Universalism.

The CERG Youth Summit excited me in the exact same way, only on a larger scale than I had ever experienced before. On Friday, December 2nd after a full day of travel, I finally arrived at the beautiful Murray Grove. Since I had flown, I was the first youth there, and had about five hours to walk around, enjoy the beautiful weather, and pick up trash lying around in the woods. By about nine o'clock, everyone had arrived, and I was surrounded by seventeen amazing youth and adults whom I had never met before. During the evening we discussed what our purpose for being together was. We defined what exactly Youth Ministry is, how it affects us, and what we can do about it.

Throughout the next day, we discussed the relationships between districts, congregations, and the region, and where innovation or improvement was possible within those relationships. The aspect of these relationships that excited me the most was between districts and the region, and the possibility of a YAC Swap, as we called it. The prospect of traveling to the Youth Conferences and planning meetings of another district which is run in a very different manner than our own appeared to me to be an excellent opportunity to learn about our own strengths and weaknesses as a district, and to learn where we could improve.

The part of the Youth Summit that was the most incredible, though, was not the actual topic of our discussions, but the way in which we discussed them. The whole weekend, I did not feel like a child subordinate to the facilitator, but like a young adult whose opinion was equal to that of any other person in the room. This sense of equality led to many amazing, insightful conversations with both youth and adults. The entire weekend, I felt as though everybody there really had something important to bring to the table.

The whole weekend was an amazing experience and a wonderful opportunity which I am exceedingly grateful for. By meeting all of these new people, I have widened my perspective on Unitarian Universalism as a whole, making my much more enthusiastic about the church on every level, from my own congregation to the General Assembly with UUs from all over America. I am very excited about implementing the ideas which we came up with, as well as bringing them back to share with the youth in our own district.

The OMD Committees & Teams planning programming, trainings and conferences for our district congregations and members. Volunteers are always welcome to these committees. If you are interested in serving on an OMD Committee please contact a district staff member. If you are looking for professional organization chapters, please see their page.

The Youth Adult Committee is made up of mostly youth and some youth-friendly adults who plan and organized youth conferences for youth ages 12 to 19 in the district.  The schedule is posted below as we currently know it. The staff person who works with this committee is Michelle Buhite, Youth, Young Adult and Campus Ministries Intern.

This page is for district committee members and chairs to access the documents, forms and policies they need. Click here to see this month's budget update.

Use this form to submit mileage only expenses for committee & team work for the district.

 Please complete the following form to be reimbursed for mileage and committee and team expenses with receipts for OMD committee events.