· CHILDREN'S EDUCATION

· ADULT EDUCATION

· EFM

· JOURNEY TO
   ADULTHOOD
      RITE 13
      J2A
      YAC

· VACATION BIBLE
   SCHOOL

· SERMONS

· CURSILLO

· HAPPENING

· NEW BEGINNINGS

·  DOY

· RESOURCE LIST
     Reading Recommendations
     Related Links

J2A

J2A works with 13, 14 and 15 year olds as they practice adulthood skills and positive life attitudes. The group meets during the Church School hour on Sundays to discuss issues and reflect on how our spiritual life can become a way of life in everyday situations.

During the summer of 2001, 13 of the J2A pilgrims, accompanied by leaders Oscar Hartman and Barbara McDonald, spent a weekend in Washington, D.C., visiting the Holocaust Museum, national monuments and memorials, touring and attending services at the National Cathedral, and joining in the annual Mississippi on the Mall celebration. The following is an account of the trip.

Pilgrimage 2001 to Washington D.C.
Click for photo gallery.

J2A Goes to Washington

The curriculum for J2A includes a "Big City Tour" to give the teenagers a taste of life in a different environment from our everyday world. The Chapel J2A tour to Washington, D.C. in June was by no means just a sightseeing vacation. The group and leaders learned a lot about life, and the particular theme that emerged was inclusion vs exclusion.

Actually, the theme had already surfaced in the spring when the J2A group decided to devote a portion of their summer doing service projects such as tutoring at Ridley M.B. Church, presenting the skits at Vacation Bible School, and assisting with Horses for the Handicapped, Sims House, Ronald McDonald House and the Children's Hospital. Discussion focused on how we become insulated in our cozy environment and how it feels to reach out to those outside our environment and how those to whom we reach out feel.

The Chapel pilgrim group was composed of Josh Aldy, Stephanie Bell, Matt Ellis, Matthew Farquhar, Thomas Fuller, Mary Lawrence, Susan Lawrence, Samantha McLeod, Emily Mills, Elizabeth Rainey, Stacey Stater, Anna Smith and Hannah Warwick.

From the point of view of the leaders, Oscar Hartman and Barbara McDonald, it was fascinating to watch the 13 Chapel pilgrims continually doing their best to be inclusive to everyone they encountered from bus drivers to the Presiding Bishop of the U.S. - and most interesting to watch the reaction of the pilgrims when their inclusiveness worked and particularly when it was rebuffed. Just a few examples of the group's efforts to be inclusive and respectful of all humans, especially those different from them:

...Matt Ellis carrying packages to help an elderly lady off the bus (truly touching once we realized Matt wasn't getting off at the wrong stop!)
...singing "M i s s i s s i p p i " with a senile black man who remembered the song from his youth.
...giving a donation to a homeless man who responded, "Thank you, Jesus" to each.
...calling Helen Rose Patterson to join the group (Helen Rose would be a member of the Chapel group had she not moved to the Washington area)
...adopting a family from Chicago on the long walk and subway ride to the Jefferson Memorial to the delight of the two young sons in the family.
...helping a French couple who knew little English find the pizza place.
...cheerfully greeting everyone they saw and not understanding when many did not return their greeting.
…taking genuine interest in hearing the story of the South African taxi driver in Chevy Chase, MD who drives cabs day and night all weekend to pay for his medical school.
…trying to figure out if God caused the Holocaust to teach us a lesson or if He just allowed free well to take its course.
…following in the footsteps of a real person who experienced the Holocaust (at the Holocaust Museum each visitor is given a dossier of a real person to read on each floor of the exhibit, finding out at the end if that person lived or died).
…being troubled about the ship full of Jews fleeing the Holocaust not being allowed to dock in the U.S.
... empathizing with the abnormal Edward Scissorhands during the movie we watched the extra night we got stranded in D.C. due to bad weather.
…recalling the story of characters in the Bible who were excluded from normal society as they viewed their statues on the Pilgrim's Porch at the National Cathedral.
…trying to guess the identity of the statues on the main altar at the National Cathedral, learning that they were representations of the people in Matthew 25:34-40 who clothed, fed, and gave drink to those in need, tended to the sick and visited those in prisons - interestingly the same verses the group had studied in discussing their summer servant ministry.
…being sprinkled with holy water by the Presiding Bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church after hearing the retired Dean of Canterbury state "The Holy Spirit is for all people, not just the good or the holy" in his Pentecost sermon at the National Cathedral.
…feeling extra special when the Dean of the National Cathedral interrupted the receiving line for the Presiding Bishop to make a picture of the group with the Bishop.
…the losers not whining when the group vote was not their first choice.
…making sure no one in the group was missing and that everyone was involved in the pillow fights.

Some also experienced exclusion firsthand when their subway tickets malfunctioned and they were left inside the gate as the group moved on (not to worry, a leader was always close by to make sure the straggler was not lost). And they all felt excluded when a mentally handicapped man loudly chastised them for sitting on the ground to await the subway after a long day of walking, and again the next day when the airlines cancelled their flight home.

The special gifts each pilgrim is blessed with shined forth during the trip. The following is an account of the major activities of the trip provided by three pilgrims who have the gift of beautiful prose - Josh Aldy, Susan Lawrence and Elizabeth Rainey:

No trip to Washington D.C. would be complete without visiting the monuments. J2A was no exception. Starting out at the majestic Washington Monument, the group walked the length of the reflection pool to the Lincoln Memorial and ended at the Vietnam Wall, which perhaps was the most moving of all. Night set an eerie mood over an already cheerless place.

"The Vietnam Memorial wall impacted me greatly to see how many soldiers died fighting for our country and gave me compassion for the families of the soldiers that perished during the war," commented Elizabeth Rainey, one participant of J2A.

The monuments were beautiful, as well as moving, and really brought the J2A group together.

On Saturday, the J2A headed to the National Cathedral. We walked around the church, looking at the amazing details of the church. When we looked closely, we could read inscriptions, passages, and see both terrifying and humorous gargoyles. Our group took a "pilgrimage tour" led by Mrs. Connie Wones instead of the usual tourist's tour. We saw the beautiful stained-glass windows that illuminated the whole cathedral. Many of them showed the story of creation, ending at the altar where Jesus is shown reigning over the whole world. The whole group's favorite window was the Moon Window. It was in the middle of the nave, and it contained a piece of the moon.

We did an activity to learn more about the special meaning of the windows and Woodrow Wilson's tomb (which is in the cathedral). We saw the pilgrims' steps, which lead the way to a special area where groups like us can sit for church. The doorway was covered in carvings of saints and figures like Nicodemus. We had to try and guess the names of each carving. After touring the church, we had lunch on the sixth floor and talked about religion and what it means to us.

By far the most emotionally moving experience the J2A group encountered while in Washington D.C was the visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Housed in a rather large gray concrete building, its outside appearance gave no indication for what they encountered when entering the museum.

Once arriving at the start of the exhibit, the J2A participants were overwhelmed by over 900 artifacts, 70 video monitors, and four theatres showing historical film footage, that was sprawled out over three floors and that illustrated the persecution and murder of around 6 million Jews by the Nazis.

According to one J2A member, Josh Aldy, "It was more touching than I could have imagined anything could be. To me, the most moving part [of the exhibit] was the part on the mobile killing squad. I will never forget the look in one man's eyes right before he was shot."

The exhibition took approximately three hours to complete, and after leaving the museum the whole group had a new, more personal view and greater knowledge and understanding of one of the most horrific instances in all of history.

Saturday evening, we went to see "Shear Madness," the long-running murdery mystery comedy at the Kennedy Center. It was an audience participation play, and, of course, all of our group correctly guessed who the murderer was.

On Sunday, we attended the 11 o'clock service, which had beautiful organ music. We met the retiring dean of Canterbury and the Presiding Bishop of the U.S. Going to the cathedral helped us see what God means to us personally, taught us more about our identities as young Episcopalians, and showed us how religion ties our group together.

It had been a long time since the group had been home, but no one felt homesick thanks to the 11th annual Mississippi on the Mall Sunday afternoon. Mississippi on the Mall is an annual festival held for Mississippians in Washington, D.C. Complete with catfish, hushpuppies, watermelon, and live music, Mississippi on the Mall was great fun for everyone. Even though the Washington Monument was in plain view, President Bush flew over in a helicopter and signs of Washington were all around, the unmistakable feel of Mississippi was there, and for a few hours, homesick Mississippians and the J2A group got to go home.

Pilgrimage 2000
Every other year, the J2A pilgrims and their leaders participate in a pilgrimage - a pilgrimage is different from a vacation in that it is a journey with intention, the intention of finding God. Leaving town on pilgrimage is a way of distancing ourselves from the clamor of the world in order to hear again the voice of sheerest silence that speaks to our truest selves. The 2000 Pilgrimage took the group to New Mexico. The following report on the 2000 Journey to Adulthood Pilgrimage was provided by leader Cheryl Welch:

The Journey to Adulthood Pilgrimage was the culminating experience for the J2A Class of 9th through 11th grade youth at Chapel of the Cross. The youth who went on Pilgrimage were Claire Brabec, Jenny Lind Bussey, Julia Landrum, Beth Christian, Allison Beach, Lizzy Jones, Matthew Hosler, Joel Thomas, Schyler Smith and adult leaders Al Doty and Cheryl Welch. This class has been together for two years and forms the middle group of the Journey to Adulthood program.

The Journey to Adulthood Pilgrimage was a success in many ways. We had fun, we worshiped, we explored other cultures and their spirituality, we played, and we got closer to God through many new experiences.

We stayed at Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiu, New Mexico, in the northern high desert. Ghost Ranch was wonderful - not a four-star hotel, of course, but very adequate and good food! It is a Presbyterian Conference Center now. Artist Georgia O'Keefe lived there years ago and painted all around the area.

We did two hikes on the Ghost Ranch grounds - to Chimney Rock and up Box Canyon. The adventuresome group that hiked to the end of Box Canyon described it as "heaven" - certainly the closest we could get to it while still here on earth. We went to Abiquiu and looked around the Indian village. That is also where Georgia O'Keefe built a house and lived. We saw her house by peeking over the walled garden. We went to a monastery - Christ in the Dessert. The monastery was 12 miles up a gravel, narrow road. It took us 35 minutes to go the 12 miles! We sat in their church and read Psalms together. They were having a conference of monks from around the world for Jubilee 2000, so we could not speak to anyone - even though we rang the bell three times! Then we found out why they weren't answering the bell!

Our consultant, Doug Conwell, arranged for many new experiences for us. We went to White Rock, a white geologic formation considered to be a holy place by the Indians. Tio Manzales, an elder from the tribe, met us there and talked about nature and his spirituality. Tio had also worked for Georgia O'Keefe when he was 13, so he had lots of stories to tell! We went to a mosque, and that was an interesting experience. There were no services gong on, but it was open, so we went in and saw it. While we were there, we sat in a circle and chanted all the various names for God. Lots of ways to worship! We went to the Sanctuario de Chimay, a church which has healing dirt and is known for its healing powers. It was amazing to be there on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. and there was a steady stream of people coming in and praying. We all got some of the healing dirt - we took zip-lock bags! There was a room attached to the church which had crutches hanging on the wall, pictures of people healed and testimonials all around. It was amazing!

One of the most wonderful experiences was a trip way out in the "no-where land" to a cliff dwelling which was occupied in the 1200s. The cliff dwelling Doug had arranged for us to go to was closed because of the forest fire, so he hustled and found another one for us. He also arranged for two Indian women - Beatrice Duran and her mother who was in her 70s - to go with us. They told us about their heritage and their belief in ancestor spirits. Saya, the mother, sang and prayed in her native language. Then we all hiked up the canyon for 45 minutes to get to the dwelling! It was really magical to be there in the place by ourselves and to think people had occupied it 800 years ago. The kids loved it - it was a high point of the trip. Al and I told them how special it was since a lot of the dwellings are tourist attractions and are roped off so that you can only walk by them and look. It was really well preserved - a three-story dwelling with a secret passage going from the first to third floor. We all had some quiet Sabbath time while we were there. We ate our lunch sitting in what Beatrice said had been the kiva.

We went rafting down the Rio Grande River and enjoyed it a lot. It was a level three river. The wonderful thing was that the guide tells you everything to do - paddle front, back paddle, etc. So he has all the knowledge, and you do what he says to do - a team-building exercise! We all got in the river and went floating down on our backs - leaders included! We went into Taos and saw the Taos Pueblo, the Rio Grande Gorge bridge and did some shopping. We ate dinner at Fred's Place which was a unique experience! The ceiling was painted half like heaven and half like hell. We sat in the heaven part! They loved it!

On our way to Albuquerque to the airport to fly home, we stopped in Santa Fe and had three hours to see all the museums, churches and shops.

It was really a wonderful pilgrimage with lots of new experiences for the youth. None of them had ever been out there so it was a new climate and culture for all! I do believe that it was an experience for laying down a thick layer of spiritual growth for both the youth and adults. We appreciate all your prayers and support, which made this pilgrimage possible.