General Convention Official Youth Presence

Every three years at the General Convention of The Episcopal Church there are 18 high school aged youth who are given voice and vote in the House of Deputies.  They are called the General Convention Official Youth Presence (GCOYP sometimes shortened to just OYP).  GCOYP was created as a way to insure that the voice of the younger generation of  the church is heard at its highest council.  The process to select the two from our province (Province 2) gets underway today.  Here's what we're looking for:

• A high school aged young person who has demonstrated leadership abilities
• Who can work with both youth and adults
• Who can work in a disciplined environment.  GCOYP work from around 7 AM till 11 PM every day during General Convention (dates below)
• Who can commit to all training dates (April 12-15) and all of General Convention (July 5-12)
• Who is comfortable communicating verbally and in writing
• Who is prepared to move to the next level of leadership in our denomination.

ALL Expenses are covered by the budget of the Youth Ministry office of The Episcopal Church.  This includes transportation, housing, food and reasonable incidentals.  The chosen youth and their families bear no financial burden what so ever for being involved.  This includes both training and GC.

Each youth will need a non-family member adult recommendation.  Adult can also nominate a young person.  Please remember that only 2 (a total of 2) youth will be chosen from the province.  So you will be up against young people from Rochester, Central New York, Albany, New York, Long Island, Newark, New Jersey, Haiti, The Virgin Islands and the American Churches in Europe.  It was just two GC's ago that a young person from WNY was selected (Samantha Cutlip).  So please carefully consider if this might be something you are called to or that you believe a young person from our diocese might be gifted to serve.  

The application window is Dec 1 2011 - January 15, 2012.

 

Go HERE for youth application

Go HERE for a nomination by an adult

If you have any questions please get in touch with me ASAP!

Peace

Jay