Illumination

For the rest of this month EpiscoYouth will be focusing on providing some illumination about available resources. I invite you, faithful reader, to do two things:

1) Send me a quick paragraph to introduce yourself in your ministry context to the Blogosphere, and then tell us about your favorite resource and how we can acquire it. This should be sent to my email so I can edit and format your blog contribution and coordinate when to post it.

2) Invite a new colleage to join the EpiscoYouth Blog as a follower so we can expand our breadth of knowledge through greater participation and exposure.

I offer thanks and praise for our colleague, Jay Phillippi, from Western New York, for agreeing to be our first Illumination contributor. Following is his brief autobiography and what he has to offer on the topic of resources. Thank you, Jay, for the gift of research and sharing!

I've served as diocesan youth missioner for the Dio of WNY for the last 9+ years. Prior to that I had a nearly 20 year career as a radio disc jockey working in western PA and NY. Through out my life I have been a story teller and I've never had more fun (or better material!) A lifelong Episcopalian (OK I wasn't baptized till I was actually 30 days old but after all this time who's counting?) I felt an unexpected call to help out with the youth ministry at my home parish in Jamestown NY about 20 years ago. That offer to "help out" has taken me to some very unexpected, exciting and holy places along the journey. Married to my college sweetheart and with our only child about to graduate from college I'm wondering what's the next phase of my life and where it's going to take me. I'm getting better at trusting that God will open the right doors for me.


So did you ever have an idea that sounded like a really GREAT idea only to get half way through the process and wonder what on earth you'd been thinking? That's what happened with the 52 resources in 52 week challenge. I've been blogging for about 6 years. First as a way to share my experiences with the folks back home about my first trip to General Convention. Since then it has grown into a place to share thoughts, dreams, ideas, sermons, jokes and silly stuff. One day I looked around my office and realized that I had all these resources and no easy way to share my thoughts on their strengths and weaknesses with the youth leaders with whom I work. So I thought: Hey, one review a week. Piece of cake! By September it was tough making sure that I had something useful to review and the time to review it. In the end I hope I've created a resource list that will give folks a starting place as we all search for better ways to share the Gospel and live our lives.

Here's the link to Jay's Blog: DaYouthGuy Thinks Aloud

Enjoy exploration of the 52 resources as reviewed by Jay. I hope this stirs your imagination and that you will respond with your favorite resource(s) soon!