A Virtual Gathering
July 25-26,2020
Although we cannot meet in person at Purdue, your ability to connect and encourage one another does not end. For UCC youth, young adults and ministry leaders in the immediate pandemic this gathering will bring us together for important conversations and activity.
We will gather on July 25 and 26 for online service projects (Sat), workshops (Sat) and a worship service (Sun) and hear from these amazing voices:
offerings range from a session on using social media to drive climate action, to an open invitation, now posted online, urging young people to put poems or freestyle raps to a hip-hop beat. That invitation comes in one of two NYE videos that premiered during live-chat sessions in May and June (see related story).
Youth, young adults and adult advisors can register here. It’s free. “Even if they registered for the in-person NYE, they will need to register again,” said Trayce Potter, the UCC’s national minister for youth and young adult engagement, noting that the process is quick and easy.
When COVID-19 forced the in-person version of NYE to be put off until 2022, organizers still wanted to offer something online this summer, Potter said. But they knew they couldn’t simply replicate all the content virtually.
“Moving to online helped us to pause and be present to what was happening around us in that moment,” Potter said. “So instead of taking what we had prepared for the in-person event, we wanted to find a way to offer meaningful experiences and encouragement to our youth around the theme of ‘UNITE through the Extraordinary,’ as these are indeed extraordinary times.”
The NYE weekend has three components.
The immersive service project, available on demand via YouTube starting at 9 a.m. EDT July 25, will help interactive viewers “enter into the stories of people migrating across borders around the world right now, through firsthand accounts, videos, Google Earth, and more,” Potter said.
“The experience is not for its own sake though,” she said. “Individuals and groups will be immersed in the intersecting issues and ultimately brought back into our own context to understand what it means to create a just world for all, for migrants and refugees in our communities, how we might begin the work, who is already doing the work, and what the risks are when we step out and embody our faith in this way.”
Workshops on the afternoon of July 25, also via YouTube, are scheduled on these topics so far:
Social Media to Drive Climate Action
Just Say Know! Uniting for Justice through Faithful Sexuality Education
A Voice of Palestinian Youth
GMP Meets NYE (with General Minister and President John Dorhauer)
Mental Health/Illness and Our Christian Faith
Brave Space
Mindfulness in Times of Change
Deaf Community Ministry, Advocacy and ASL
Art as Resistance & the Immorality of Drone Warfare
I Want You(th) to Make a Difference
Details on those workshops – and more that may be added – will be shared at the NYE website and by email with registered participants, Potter said.
Virtual worship at 4 p.m. EDT Sunday, July 26, will feature Potter, Lea Morris, Tracy Howe Wispelway and the Refresh Collective. It will be presented via Facebook Live.
Potter said she hopes the finale will encourage people to look ahead to the rescheduled in-person NYE at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., June 27-30, 2022. “It was a difficult decision to postpone our 2020 in-person event and transition to a series of virtual events because so much work and prayer had gone into the planning by so many,” she said. “We celebrate all that our planning team accomplished and look forward to being in person at Purdue in 2022.”
NO JUSTICE NO PEACE
July 28, 2020 | 3:30 Eastern
Youth and young adults within the United Church of Christ will be gathering virtually with special guests to host a 75-minute rally around the topic of Race Relations & Justice as a starting place for future engagement and leadership development opportunities.
For more information please reach out to Rev. Trayce Potter, Minister for Youth & Young Adult Engagement.
CREATIVITY & JUSTICE IN QUARANTINE
LOVING YOUR NEIGHBOR IN QUARANTINE
Have you checked out the Spotify playlist yet?
Your NYE team has spent weeks curating the perfect playlist for NYE Unite! event – including featured artists and tunes from some of the most beloved artists today. This working repertoire is the ideal way for you to connect during the pandemic and elicit in yourself a renewed sense of resilience, courage and faith.