A New Chapter for Our Young People
I am very excited about a new chapter beginning in the life of Mary, Mother of Our Savior Parish. This year, we are making a significant investment in our young people with the addition of Will Anderson as our full-time Youth Minister & Campus Minister and a renewed commitment to building a vibrant culture of youth ministry.
For those unfamiliar with the role, youth ministry is about much more than organizing activities. It is about relationships, belonging, and discipleship. Working alongside our clergy, staff, and trained adult volunteers, Will will help create a welcoming and safe environment where teenagers can build healthy friendships, ask honest questions, grow in their Catholic faith, and encounter Jesus Christ. He will coordinate opportunities for prayer, service, retreats, fellowship, outreach and plenty of fun. Will will also serve part-time in campus ministry at Notre Dame Junior/Senior High School, strengthening the connection between parish and school.
At the heart of this ministry will be our weekly Youth Ministry Nights, beginning Monday, September 14, from 6:30–8:00 p.m. at the Seton Center. All teens in Grades 7–12 throughout the Greater Utica Area are welcome.
Youth Ministry Nights are intentionally different from our formal Faith Formation and Confirmation preparation programs. They are completely voluntary. There is no registration required and no expectation that teens attend every week. Come once. Bring a friend. See what you think.
Monday nights will include food, games, faith conversations, small groups, prayer, and community, along with social events, service opportunities, retreats, trips, and other experiences throughout the year. Our Grades 7 & 8 Faith Formation includes a special track within these nights, and Grades 9 & 10 Confirmation candidates are strongly encouraged to participate. But Youth Ministry is bigger than a requirement. We want teenagers to discover that the Church is a community where they are known, valued, and invited to belong.
And this mission belongs to our entire parish family. Parents and grandparents, personally invite the teenagers in your lives. Offer to drive them and tell them to bring a friend. And even if you do not have teenagers in your family, you have an important role through your prayers, encouragement, and witness. Our older parishioners carry a lifetime of faith, wisdom, sacrifice, and fidelity that our young people need to see. No generation in the Church walks alone.
Having a full-time Youth Minister is an extraordinary opportunity to invest in the next generation not apart from the rest of our parish family, but as part of our shared mission. A healthy parish makes room for every generation, and when one generation helps another encounter Christ, the entire Church becomes stronger.
I cannot wait to see what God builds among us!
Mondays | 6:30–8:00 p.m. | Seton Center, 2 Barton Ave., Utica Follow @UticaCatholicYouth on Instagram.
Your Servant in Christ,
Father Jason C. Hage, Pastor
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!
Mary, Mother of Our Savior, pray for us!