Youth Ministry Welcomes You
Join Us!
At St Stephen’s Episcopal Church, our goal is to form young people who aren’t afraid of doubt being part of the Christian journey and who are committed to their church and to one another in the midst of the busyness of life in Lamorinda.
Contact Tom, our Associate for Faith Formation with any questions or comments!
Youth Group
Most Sunday nights (starting 9/12 @ 4pm), middle and high schoolers gather downstairs in the youth room for food, games, and a little bit of church-stuff. It’s a great way for youth to start to develop their own relationship with church and to close out the week before school on Monday. Middle school (6th-8th grades) meets from 5:00-6:15pm; high school (9th-12th grades) meets from 6:45-8pm; the two groups share dinner from 6:15-6:45pm.
Confirmation
Every other year, high schoolers are invited to participate in the Rite of Confirmation, including a 1.5 year preparatory course. We’ll have classroom learning, field trips, volunteer outings, retreats, and much more. Confirmation is often understood as a rite of passage for youth to become fully-fledged adult members of the church with their own beliefs and commitments, separate from their parents. The course is an opportunity for them to grapple with faith, doubt, and what is means to be a Christian. We will start our next Confirmation Class in January 2021 and it will run through June 2022.
Acolytes
St. Stephen’s Acolytes are an outstanding group of young people (grades 4 through 12) that play an integral role in Sunday morning worship services and other special occasions. They are involved in the Procession, the Gospel Reading, the Offertory, the Holy Eucharist, and the Recession. We invite them to assist clergy and to learn about the service and its many levels of meaning.
Sunday Morning, Afternoon, and Evening
St. Stephen’s is bustling from 9am to noon and there are many ways for your youth to plug in to the worship, the learning, and the work.
- Youth Sunday School at 9am starting 9/19 with DONUTS!
- Serving as an acolyte at the 10am service
- Sitting in the pew with the family
- Serving with parents as an usher, on the altar guild, on a hospitality team
- Volunteering in Sunday school or the nursery
- Being a reader during the service
- After Church on select Sundays at 11:30 am we’ll have an afternoon youth outing to a movie theatre, mini golf, bowling, or other.
All-Ages Events
There are many ways for our entire community to be together for worship, fun, and formation.
- Parish retreat at the Bishop’s Ranch in May
- Annual Woods-to-Waves fundraising hike at St. Dorothy’ Rest
- Holy Week, including Maundy Thursday foot-washing
- Easter Sunday 9am family service
- Christmas Pageant and family service
- “Feast and Festival” days throughout the year
- Sunday Morning Instructed Eucharists
Hike Church
St. Stephen’s is undergoing a construction project, and we’ve decided to take our fellowship and love of nature around the Bay Area. On certain Saturdays, we’ll be meeting up to hike, have a short service, and eat lunch together as we enjoy the splendor of the outdoors.
- Saturday, 9/4/21 we’ll meet in the SS parking lot.
- Saturday, 10/9/21
- Saturday, 11/6/21
- Saturday, 12/4/21
Ways for Adults to Get Involved
- Sign up to bring dinner to youth group
- Have coffee with the youth minister!
- Donate to the mission trip fund or to the youth ministry general operating fund
- Come on the parish retreat and make friends with a youth
- Follow us on Instagram!
- Brainstorm ways for your ministry area (altar guild, ushers, outreach, etc.) to be more intergenerational in its membership and practices