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The Quest What if instead of just being lectured about God you could experience God yourself? What if instead of just reading about what Jesus said to others 2,000 years ago, you could hear what Jesus has to say to you today? What if instead of just listening to speeches about peace and love, there was a peaceful weekly refuge where you could live out the vision with your fellow Fish? Now, that would be a Quest worth taking. Come and start this years’ Quest, searching after your own understanding of Christian truth and peace. So, what’s a Quest? The Quest is open to any and all high school students who seek a peaceful space in their week and a deeper understanding of scripture. The Quest is a chance to experience the church’s ancient traditions and open to those who wish to live out the vision of a small group community. The Quest has two formats to provide varied opportunities for spiritual growth. Quest for the Spirit The first format of our Quest, “Quest for the Spirit”, focuses on the ancient spiritual traditions of the church: meditation forms drawn from ancient monastic traditions (e.g. Benedictine meditations, lectio divina, and Gregorian chant); guided meditations developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola; Quaker “centering down;” Protestant “centering prayer;” Buddhist breathing and walking meditations; and Eastern Orthodox gazing exercises with icons. After a brief introduction, we experience each meditation together and reflect on our shared experience. After reflecting on our experience, we close with prayer. The goal of Quest for the Spirit is to learn and to be drawn into age old Christian practices that help us create a space in our lives to experience God’s presence. Most of the meetings are in the YG Lounge from 7:00pm to 8:30pm on Thursdays, but we also head out to meditate under the stars, around the pond at the Nature Center or on a bluff at the Ward-Pound Ridge Reservation. Quest for Truth The second format of our Quest, “Quest for Truth”, is a communal discussion of theology, ethics, and our own personal stories and questions of faith. Based in the knowledge of God as revealed to us through scripture, tradition, reason, and experience, Quest for Truth offers an opportunity to gather with other high schoolers and put away questions for tests and exams in favor of asking life’s biggest questions, including our own purpose and God’s plan for us. For example, we may focus on Genesis 1:26, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.” We would try to answer questions like: “How can we, a diverse people, all be made in the image of God?” “What then does God look like?” “If we are all created in the image of God, how do we begin to understand the topic of equality?” “How does Christ play into our understanding of the divine image?” The goal of Quest for Truth is not just to be able to repeat the words of theologians, but to find our own answers in scripture, new questions in the light of our mature reason, and discover new relationships with God through time spent with one another. Most of the meetings are in the church library from 7:00pm to 8:30pm on Tuesdays. How can you know if The Quest is for you? There’s only one way to find out. Come check it out any time. Our Quest Leadership The Quest is led by our Senior Minister, Skip Masback, Associate Minister, Jonah Bartlett and Directors of Youth Ministries Caroline Ainsworth and Chris Guda. The Quest Mission Trip Service to others is a cornerstone of youth programming at our church and the Quest Mission Trip is a highlight of the year. Mission trips are life-changing experiences, not just for the members of Quest, but for the people we serve. Each trip provides us with opportunities to dig deeper in our relationships with God and each other; to serve God and one another; and to experience a part of the world and a culture that is different from ours. The Quest Mission Trip is different from the larger YG Mission Trip and is limited to 40 participants. The schedule for the trip is designed to continue the practices of meditation and communal discussion that we have engaged throughout the year. Each day is broken up with breaks for mediation to draw us back to the presence of God and then rounded out with a time of reflection with our nightly vespers. The smaller group size allows us to dive more deeply into the topics of our nightly vespers and to focus more deeply on serving one another. The Quest Mission Trip is always right after the New Canaan public school year ends in June. The exact dates are dependent on when the last day of school occurs, and the trip will be around 10 days long. In recent years, Quest mission trips have traveled to the Second Mesa of the Hopi Nation in Northeast Arizona; San Pedro, Belize; Edisto Island, South Carolina; Barrio Piņas, Puerto Rico; Grand Coteau, Louisiana and the town of Harts in Exuma, the Bahamas. Puerto Rico Mission Trip Pictures South Carolina Mission Trip Pictures
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