Community Knit by God's Love

Beloved in Christ, 

This week, I am at our diocesan youth camp in western Minnesota. We spend each morning in worship and Bible study, followed by afternoons full of all the well-loved camp activities like canoeing, swimming, and various outdoor games. We conclude each day around a campfire for worship, singing, and trying to avoid Minnesota’s eagle-sized mosquitoes. I even got to experience a thrilling new-to-me activity called “flying squirrel,” which involves being lifted up by a pulley system and left to a delightfully harrowing swing forty feet above ground. In a truly memorable moment, I was lifted up after shouting “Bishop flying!”, to which a chorus of young voices thundered back: “Fly on, Bishop!” 

More than anything, camp is a place where a community of young people and caring adults from diverse backgrounds gather to form a weeklong community of love. Throughout the week, each camper and adult are fully seen, cheered on, and celebrated simply for being who they are, with all their gifts, challenges, and wonderful idiosyncrasies. Over and over, the message is you are loved, deeply and unimaginably, not because of what you do, but because of who you are. And who you are is precious and cherished by God and your fellow disciples. It is always, for me, a small glimpse of what the Kingdom of God looks like. 

We are gathered, of course, in the shadow of a world that continues to feel frightening and hard, especially for the most vulnerable among us. What we are up to this week is not about escaping from the world’s pain. It’s about doubling down on the church’s core work of building a community of love, and equipping young people to resist the world’s ever present darkness with the light of Christ. Camp is an image of what the church can be at its best and most vital: a community knit together across God’s beautiful diversity, sent to enfold a painful world into God’s healing embrace of love. Even if you don’t have a chance to do the flying squirrel, I hope that in these days, you will double down on being about that core work, wherever you are planted. 

Grace and Peace, 

The Right Rev. Craig Loya