Youth Ministry at Grace Church

Grace Church has a vibrant and growing Youth Ministry Program. On Sunday mornings, we have classes for all ages. The younger children participate in the Godly Play Program while the older youth participate in the Journey to Adulthood Program. On Sunday evenings we have youth groups for grades 4 and up. We also have a youth group for college age youth. The youth groups meet on the second and fourth Sundays of the month.

Our older youth groups focus their efforts on work in the area of the Millennium Development Goals, MDG's. Developed by the United Nations, the MDG's are an ambitious yet attainable group of eight goals having to do with the most important and intractable problems in the developing world (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ ).

Our older youth groups also support World AIDS Day with a display of the AIDS Quilt. Grace Church was introduced to the MDG's when we combined a display of the AIDS quilts with a Eucharistic service to benefit local AIDS ministries. In both 2005 and 2006 we mounted panels of the AIDS Quilt (http://www.aidsquilt.org/ ) at Grace to mark World AIDS Day (http://www.worldaidscampaign.info/ ).

Additionally, our older youth groups have sponsored an U2Charist at Grace. This is an innovative Eucharistic celebration using the recorded music of U2 in place of traditional hymns and service music. The U2Charist also features a photographic display that complements the music and a PowerPoint presentation of all the text for the service. We have had two U2Charists at Grace, each drawing over 300 participants.

Missions Trips

Each summer a group of youth (high school and college students) and adults from Grace Church embarks on a one week mission trip to work in communities with demonstrated needs and to form a Christian community. Our destinations have included Portland, Bangor, and Damariscotta, Maine, New Orleans, and Hayneville, Alabama. In addition, a group of youth traveled to Johannesburg, south Africa in 2007 to participate in a pan-Anglican conference focused on the Millennium Development Goals and in Particular on the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. An article on our group's trip can be found at (). A PDF copy of the report from the TEAM Conference can be found at ().