COA at Concord Inspires With Energy, Enthusiasm

First Parish in Concord, Mass. (776 members), has a Coming of Age program that does it all––keeps youth interested, motivates adult volunteers, and inspires the congregation. The secret? High-energy activities, committed leaders, and lots of planning.

“The first thing we do is engage them with a retreat where we do a ropes course and problem-solving games,” says Mark Richards who coleads the course with Laura Palin. “We want them to understand that this year will be fun and valuable and that we’re not going to bore them to tears.”

Mentors are recommended by senior minister the Rev. Gary Smith and have a full day of training. Youth and mentors are introduced at a dinner where ribbons held by the youth and parents are cut, symbolizing the break that occurs when youth come of age. At Concord one mentor is responsible for two youth. The youth like having three-way conversations and often share more, says Richards.

Here are other Concord COA events, in order:

A daylong social action project.

UU heritage tour of Boston, including mentors.

A Sunday afternoon event––Climbing the Family Tree––has parents writing a letter to their youth about what it was like to have them as a child.

“At this point,” says Richards, “we’ve established a base for where the kids are coming from in their families and their religion. Now we get into exploring their values and discovering who they are.”

Mentors and youth meet on a Saturday night for conversations about UU principles. A January retreat uses a Wizard of Oz theme for discussions about values and empowerment.

A series of Sunday afternoon events follows this retreat. Session titles: My Music (youth bring instruments and talk about why they like music), Spiritual Practices (congregation members share theirs), and “Imagining the End,” a discussion about death.

Then comes a two-night stay at a YMCA camp where the youth are invited to search deeply for what they think and feel. They write in journals, reflect with mentors, do maskmaking, and go off in the woods alone for six to eight hours before coming back to a feast that goes late into the night.

In the spring the youth meet with the ministers, talking about what they’ve learned and what they’re prepared to give back to the church. Youth and mentors do another daylong social action project. The final event, a COA graduation in May, includes the youth talking for three to five minutes about what they believe.

And what about inevitable conflicts with sports, etc.? The youth are asked to commit to the nine-month process. An occasional absence is permitted, but youth who have heavy sports schedules usually don’t do the program, says Richards. Last year there were 22 in the program. This year there are 10, and possibly 40 next year.

What does the COA program add to congregational life at Concord? “The Sundays when the youth speak their credos are among the most rewarding of my ministry,” says Smith. “There are many people who have told me that they visited for the first time on one of those Sundays. They said they stayed because if this was a place where kids could speak so eloquently and articulate their beliefs they wanted that for their own children.”

Sarah Reilly took the Concord COA course two years ago. “It opened my eyes to a lot of important issues and I got to know other youth and adults really well,” she said. “I had a lot of other things going on that year too and COA was a great place to be when I was feeling overwhelmed. I loved it.”

For more information e-mail Richards at mark.s.richards@verizon.net.