Church Youth Group Showers Congregation with Gratitude and Hope on Super Bowl Sunday
by the
Rev. Andrea Baker, Associate
Rector at Faith Episcopal Church, Cameron Park
At their annual youth-led service at Faith Episcopal Church, the JCrew (Jesus Crew) youth celebrated “The Feast of the
Presentation of Jesus in the Temple” by presenting the congregation with a
liturgy overflowing with gratitude and hope. As always, before and after the 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. services on Super Bowl
Sunday, the youth collected approximately 2,000 pounds of nonperishable items
for the Food Bank of El Dorado County. As
always, the youth read the lessons, and wrote and led the Prayers of the People
for both services. As always, the JCrew
Band led the music, and the youth shared a Response to the Word.
Inspired
by the video Grateful: A Love Song to the World, the youth
decided at their first planning session that the JCrew Band should play the video’s
theme song for the Offertory. “The kids just blew us away,” reported leader
youth Kimberly Furnari, who had shared the video with the youth after watching
it in a yoga class. “We thought the
video might give the group some ideas,” Furnari said, “but we never anticipated
they would want to play such a complicated song with so little time to
prepare.” 
When sophomore Alec Mattos showed
up at youth group the next week saying he had learned the lead rap part by
watching the video on YouTube, the youth leaders looked at each other and said,
“Okay… I guess we’re doing it.”
JCrew
Band leader Ken Shepard had already gone to work writing out the chords by
listening to the song. With the help of
parish administrator Barbara Gillsepy who tracked down songwriters Namesh “Nimo”
Patel and Daniel Nahmod on Facebook, Shepard received permission to perform Grateful and a request from the artists
to share a video of the JCrew Band playing the song, which Nimo Patel shared on
his Facebook page with a shout out to the JCrew youth.
At
the third and final meeting to prepare for Youth Sunday, 8th grader
Emma Harvey showed up having taught herself the piano part. Seniors Cynthia Arocan and Lauren Olson stepped
up that same night with powerful personal testimonies about “Gratefulness” and
“Hope” that they had written for the sermon. Another crew of youth constructed a “Tree of
Hope and Gratitude” on a wall in the narthex. At each service on February 2nd parishioners wrote messages
of gratitude and hope on paper hearts and stars that were blessed at the
Offertory and hung on the tree.
On
Monday, February 3rd, youth leader Matthew Batkin best expressed the
sentiments shared by so many of the more than 300 parishioners who attended
Faith Church on Super Bowl Sunday, “I’m
still on a Youth Sunday high!”
Click here (or here) to view the original video, Grateful: A Love Song to the World, by N. Patel and D. Nahmod
Click here to view a video of JCrew Band performing Grateful
Click here to hear the Youth Sermon
Click here to see more photos of Youth Sunday 2014 at Faith Episcopal Church
Click here to view a video of KCRA Channel 3 TV News coverage of the Food Drive
All photos reprinted with permission of photographer, Barbara Gillespy.