July 4-8, 2023 at the University of Maryland

The Episcopal Youth Event is a triennial gathering of Episcopal youth from around the world who assemble on a college campus to learn, laugh, and worship together. According to the EYE website, “it is the single greatest and second largest event The Episcopal Church does.”

The culture of EYE is like summer camp… a really, really big summer camp! Over a thousand young people and their adult leaders and bishops will be in one place, experiencing the breadth of The Episcopal Church and all its diversity. We will spend time in creative and engaging worship, large group plenaries, small group discussions, workshops on a myriad of topics, and so much more.

Learn more about EYE in this informational video from 2017!
Learn more on the EYE 2023 website!

EYE 2023 will take place July 4-8, 2023 at the University of Maryland in College Park. After a delay due to the pandemic, this is the first EYE in five years! It is open to youth ages 15-19 (as of July 4, 2023). Bishop Singh will join our bi-diocesan delegation, representing Eastern and Western Michigan well!

Photo: In 2017, the Eastern Michigan delegation to EYE ran into Presiding Bishop Michael Curry!

With questions, please contact Director for Children, Youth, and Young Adult Formation McKenzie Knill at mknill@eastmich.org or mknill@edwm.org or by calling 810-434-5982.

REGISTRATION

WHO CAN ATTEND?
EYE is open to high schoolers completing grades 9-12. Participants must be no younger than 15 or older than 19 by July 4, 2023.

For some teenagers, EYE will change their lives and church engagement forever. For others, it will be a great summer trip. Either way, not every teenager is ready for group travel and an event the magnitude of EYE. Knowing the stress related to travel and large-scale interactions with unfamiliar people in an unfamiliar place, we recommend prayerful discernment and thought so that all participants have the best chance for a positive experience.

Our adult chaperones will include Director for Children, Youth, and Young Adult Formation McKenzie Knill and our regional youth missioners. Bishop Singh will attend alongside our delegation!

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
Nothing! Really!! The Diocesan Councils of Eastern and Western Michigan have made it FREE for our youth to attend, including all registration fees and airfare.

A required $200 deposit, due by June 15th, will be returned when participants arrive back from EYE.

A NOTE ON THE REGISTRATION FORM…
We are asking that church leadership (clergy, vestry, and/or formation staff) are informed and supportive of the young person’s participation in EYE. We will ask for contact information on the form so we can check in with them!

Also, youth must have the support of their parent or guardian to attend EYE. There will be sections of the registration form that require their input and attention!

The deadline to register is February 1st.

As we look ahead to reimagined regions across both dioceses, Bishop Singh sat down with Western Michigan’s three departing Canon Missioners and the Rev. Canon Dr. Tracie Little, current Canon to the Ordinary for Eastern Michigan to reflect on their ministries and look ahead into our Season of Practice. This long-form video (around 30 minutes) explores aspects of working on a bishop’s staff, what gifts are sought in a regional canon, and the gifts they’ve experienced in our dioceses and in our great Mitten state.

We invite you to respond to similar questions as well, whether as individuals or in small groups from your congregation, such as:

• What gifts are important for the diocesan Regional Canon to have in support of our congregations’ mission and ministry?
• What opportunities might exist for your congregation to collaborate with others through the reimagined regional model?
• What are some gifts you’ve noticed in our bi-diocesan community?
• How have you seen our communities shifting or adapting over the last several years?

We are seeking three new Regional Canons to join our diocesan staff. Click here to read more about the new positions and share with your network.

Greetings Beloved,

I am so grateful to God and to you for the privilege of celebrating my first Christmas with you.

When I started my ministry I was on my first tour as a priest and I had many villages and congregations to take care of. This was in India. One of those churches didn’t have a building. 

We met on Christmas Eve in a hut that had a large room and the adjacent space was a stable. There we were celebrating the Eucharist with the wafting smell of a stable. While we were there, I remember very clearly we heard a lamb, a cow mooing, and a donkey braying. All that was a part of the Incarnation story as we know it. It gives me pause as we come to this Christmas in 2022. 

I have a few prayers. I pray that we will listen deeply. We are living in a time when there’s so much noise and it is very easy to get carried away with whatever noise is coming at us. 

The Christmas narrative is filled with individuals and groups listening deeply. Marry listened. Joseph listened. Their shepherds listened. Their Magi listened. Even the angels listened. In the midst of the listening, there was a new birth. A birth that changed everything for us as we know it.

 In this divided world where there is so much noise. Some of it is about calling people out, calling people names, and just working on the vitriol of this season. We as people who follow Jesus have an opportunity to listen, listen deeply, listen to heal, listen to love, and listen toward joy. 

The second prayer that I have is that we will be joyful. Joy is not based on our reality. Joy is based on God’s presence in our lives. Paul says rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to God and known to all. The Lord is near. It is the nearness of God that gives us the opportunity to rejoice. I pray that we will choose joy. 

In choosing joy we will also come to the third part of my prayer; Do not be afraid. It is a refrain throughout scripture. The shepherds heard it from the angels, do not be afraid, for see, we bring you good news of great joy to all people not just to some. 

My prayer is that we will be filled with courage not because we’re not fearful, but because we have faith in a God who is with us. May you have a blessed Christmas and may God bless you. May God’s blessing be pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing. 

Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year!

—–

Saludos estimados,

Estoy muy agradecido a Dios y a ustedes por el privilegio de celebrar mi primera Navidad con ustedes.

Cuando inicié mi ministerio estaba en mi primera gira como sacerdote y tenía muchos pueblos y congregaciones de los que ocuparme. Esto fue en la India. Una de esas iglesias no contaba con un edificio. 

Nos reuníamos en Nochebuena en una cabaña que tenía una habitación grande y el espacio adyacente era un establo. Allí estábamos celebrando la Eucaristía con el olor de un establo. Mientras estábamos allí, recuerdo claramente que escuchamos mugir a un cordero, a una vaca y rebuznar a un burro. Todo eso formaba parte de la historia de la Encarnación tal como la conocemos. Me hace reflexionar al llegar a esta Navidad de 2022. 

Tengo algunas oraciones. Rezo para que escuchemos profundamente. Vivimos en una época en la que hay mucho ruido y es muy fácil dejarse llevar por cualquier ruido que nos llegue. 

La narración de la Navidad está llena de personas y grupos que escuchan profundamente. María escuchó. José escuchó. Sus pastores escucharon. Sus magos escucharon. Hasta los ángeles escuchaban. En medio de esta escucha, hubo un nuevo nacimiento. Un nacimiento que lo cambió todo para nosotros tal y como lo conocemos.

 En este mundo dividido donde hay tanto ruido. En parte se trata de llamar la atención, insultar a la gente y simplemente trabajar en el vitriolo de esta temporada. Nosotros, como personas que seguimos a Jesús, tenemos la oportunidad de escuchar, escuchar profundamente, escuchar para sanar, escuchar para amar y escuchar hacia la alegría. 

La segunda oración que tengo es que estemos alegres. La alegría no se basa en nuestra realidad. La alegría se basa en la presencia de Dios en nuestras vidas. Pablo dice regocijaos en el Señor siempre. De nuevo diré que se alegren. Que su mansedumbre sea conocida por Dios y conocida por todos. El Señor está cerca. Es la cercanía de Dios lo que nos da la oportunidad de alegrarnos. Rezo para que elijamos la alegría. 

Al elegir la alegría llegaremos también a la tercera parte de mi oración: No temas. Es un estribillo a lo largo de toda la Escritura. Los pastores lo escucharon de boca de los ángeles: no temáis, porque mirad, os traemos una buena noticia de gran alegría para todo el pueblo, no sólo para algunos. 

Mi oración es que nos llenemos de valor no porque no tengamos miedo, sino porque tenemos fe en un Dios que está con nosotros. Que tenga una Navidad llena de bendiciones y que Dios lo bendiga. Que la bendición de Dios se apriete, se agite y se desborde entre ustedes. 

¡Feliz Navidad y un próspero Año Nuevo!

A Conversation with Bishop Singh, Katie Forsyth, and McKenzie Knill

Earlier this year, our three full-time shared diocesan staff members — our Bishop Provisional, the Rt. Rev. Prince Singh; our Canon for Evangelism and Networking, Katie Forsyth; and our Director of Children, Youth, and Young Adult Formation, McKenzie Knill — sat down to reflect on their experiences serving both dioceses, the gifts they see present in our communities, and the opportunities ahead of us in this Season of Practice.

We invite you to respond to their prompt questions as well, whether as individuals or in small groups from your congregation. They are listed at the end of the video, at 22:11.