Dear St. John's,

I am thrilled to announce that the Santa Cruz County churches have hired Pamela Stevens as our Regional Youth Mission Coordinator, to arrange and oversee a joint youth program for students in 6th-12th grade from all Episcopal churches in Santa Cruz County. Pam begins work with us this month.

Our youth will join the youth from St. Andrews Ben Lomond, St. Phillip's Scotts Valley, Calvary Santa Cruz, and All Saints/Christo Rey Watsonville for faith formation, confirmation classes, and fun social events.

You may remember that the Santa Cruz County churches received two grants last year (one from the diocese, one from The Episcopal Church at the denominational level) to fund this position as a new ministry to youth in our area. Since none of our churches has a "critical mass" of youth in this age range to make a desirable, fun youth group, we decided to join forces and get all of our youth together.

I was blessed to participate in the interview process for this position along with Rev. Mary Blessing from St. Phillips, Rev. Austin Leininger from Calvary, and the Rev. Michael Dresbech from All Saints. (St. Andrew's is now in the middle of a clergy transition period, but the Rev. Blaine Hammond was involved in organizing this ministry before he retired.) All of us felt that Pam was the ideal candidate for this position and are excited about working with her.

For practical purposes, the position will be based at Calvary. Pam's employment will be through them, and Father Austin will serve as her official supervisor, but all the clergy in the county will be working with Pam as she plans activities for the youth at our churches.

The first regional youth event of the year will be TOMORROW NIGHT, Friday, Aug. 24 from 5-8 p.m. -- a beach bonfire down at Rio Del Mar beach right here in Aptos. (Hot dogs and s'mores provided; please bring a water bottle and a side dish.) Pam Stevens will be there to meet youth and their parents. (Non-youth and non-parents from St. John's are also welcome to stop by and say hi if you'd like.)

Pam will also be coming to St. John's sometime this fall to preach and be introduced to the entire St. John's community. I will let you know when a specific date has been arranged. When she comes to visit us, please join me in warmly welcoming Pam to this important ministry with our youth!

Many blessings,
Mother Tracy+
 

MEET PAMELA STEVENS
Santa Cruz County Regional Youth Mission Coordinator

Pam grew up in Los Angeles, and after relocating to Sacramento in 2009, she was received in The Episcopal Church with her parents from the United Methodist Church.

After serving as a youth ministry leader in her parish while working as a renewable energy project developer, Pam began a process of discernment to ordained ministry. Pam earned a B.A. at UC San Diego, an M.Div. at Yale University, the Anglican Diploma from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. She is a  Ph.D. student at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, where she studies how historical missions relate to tensions in the Anglican Communion.

Pam was a Youth Ministry Fellow at Yale Divinity School and continues to find hope and joy in the particular evangelism of faith formation. She most recently has worked at St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Menlo Park as Children's and Youth Minister.

Pam is a native speaker of Spanish; she enjoys praying and worshiping in Spanish within a Hispanic/Latino context.

She is an avid crafter; she loves reading, playing guitar and ukulele, church camp and retreat time with her family, hiking, and boating.

Pam is married to David, a retail design project manager, and is stepmother and godmother to Deven, a college student and Episcopal Camp staffer. The family also includes Christian and Robert, Deven's friends from church, who are now both college students.