Mission and Core Values
Our Mission: To provide the youth St. Peter’s (Grades 6-12) with opportunities for spiritual growth, personal development, and Christian fellowship, in a caring, safe, Anglican environment.
Our Core Values: We strive, at all times, to lead, teach and maintain:
- Mutual respect
- Consistent prayer
- Speaking the truth in love
- Inclusiveness for all
- Individual responsibility
The Vision by which we strive to achieve our Mission and to uphold our Core Values is realized by:
- Strengthening the relationships of our youth with God
- Building a strong sense of community among our youth, and between youth & adults
- Fostering an awareness and appreciation of our youth and their gifts
- Increasing the involvement and visibility of our youth in the life of the parish community
- Teaching our youth about their responsibility to improve society by participating in outreach
- Modeling all of these behaviors ourselves
Our Mission and our Core Vision are achieved by knowing and using the Journey to Adulthood program for our Christian Formation classes and for our youth activities and events. We depend upon the love, guidance and dedication of 12-16 adult volunteer youth leaders who lead by faith and example and are deeply committed to helping our young people grow closer to Christ, to grow in their faith, and to serve others, while teaching them the skills they will need in adulthood, how to protect themselves and to become “wHoly.”
The Journey to Adulthood Curriculum
St. Peter’s uses the Journey to Adulthood Program. This curriculum is divided into three sections: Rite 13, for 12 and 13 years; J2A, for 14 and 15 year olds; and YAC (Young Adults in the Church), for our 17 and 18 year olds. In the same way that the ideas of the Rite‑13 ceremony and the fun, informative lessons infuse life and energy into the Rite-13 group, so the events, liturgies and lessons grounded in the Six Affirmations and the Six Skills of Adulthood infuse life and energy into the J2A program. J2A picks up where Rite‑13 leaves off – J2A builds on the community and trust which the group has established. During the Rite-13 program, teens are encouraged to learn, celebrate and play, reminding young people that their very lives are a gift from God. J2A shifts into high gear and sets to work learning these concepts through a variety of venues: classes, trips, lock-ins and cementing friendships. The lesson plans are geared to the three types of meetings for our youth: Sunday morning meetings, weekend afternoon or evening meetings, special events/outings. These are enhanced by trips ranging from beach trips to ski trips to mission trips and, of course, The Pilgrimage. By regular participation in these meetings, events and trips, we have been able to form a successful, cohesive group of wonderful young people who grow to love the Lord and each other. The third year of the J2A section is primarily concerned with learning about and from careful preparation for the crowning piece of the program: Pilgrimage.
In conclusion, each portion of the curriculum includes liturgies to mark Rites of Passage, and a core of lesson plans, activities and games which enable us to accomplish these overall goals. At every stage, the curriculum encourages us to include individual resource people from the community. Our young people have the opportunity to form fast friendships with many adults in the parish, while growing and maintaining a solid connection with their primary leaders and of course, with one another. These connections form solid, lifelong commitments to St. Peter’s, to the Episcopal Church and to the wider Christian community for each of them. Over the years we have seen our young people develop a desire, through the Journey to Adulthood curriculum, for continued spiritual exploration, and growth of their spirituality long after graduation.There is no better proof that this program succeeds than to see these young people return to St. Peer’s for services and events and to see the joy in their faces as they experience the love of those who welcome them home.