May 26, 2019
Dear people of St. Paul & the Redeemer,
After a difficult but swift discernment process, I have decided my time as your Director of Youth Formation will end after the summer mission trip. It has been one of my life’s greatest honors to hold space with the young people of this parish. I arrived at SPR in December of 2012 as a parishioner, where I found a particularly prayerful space to rest my theology during seminary and a faithfully active space to practice my advocacy during social work school. In August of 2015, I was hired to build up the youth programming in a parish that was choosing to value its young people by committing more resources to the program in hiring a youth leader. I take pride in the ways the young folks of SPR have flourished in the parish these last four years, and I am humbled by the things they teach me each day.
This summer, Dan and I will move to Sunnyvale, California, where I will begin my work as the Director of Youth Ministry at Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Exciting things await us in California:
- Moving to a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation means I may complete my ordination process.
- I plan to pursue my ordination in community activism, and the Bay Area organizing community offers my advocacy work that home.
- A move to the West Coast makes us closer to Dan’s family, and living in Silicon Valley provides him with resources to complete his PhD in Astrophysics and pursue post-doctoral work with ease.
- This position comes with a house, where we will be able to expand our family (beyond our beloved cat Vincent and collection of much-loved reptiles).
St. Paul & the Redeemer has been a true home for Dan and I. Peter, Julianne, and Catherine have modeled radically hospitable mentorship, leadership, and professionalism to me. I am forever grateful for the team that hired me, chaired by Sharla Paul, and joined by Sally Wolcott, Taylor Dugas, Lydia Gajdel, and Andrew Chipman. The staff of SPR are true gems; Christian, Barnabas, Lukasz, KJ, Cynthia, Gretchen, Jack and Roger, and also Monte, Dan P., and Heidi, taught me collegiality, supported my ministry, and cared for me as a friend. The current and former adult volunteers George Arceneaux, Colin Baumann, Lydia Gajdel, Dan Giles, Beant Kaur, Kenji Kuramitsu, Brianna Lambrecht, June Mire, Andrew Rostan, and Cooper Taylor have been essential in shepherding the amazing young folk in our parish.
My focus in the coming weeks will be on saying goodbye, encouraging hearty support for our mission trip, and preparing for a successful transition to a new Director of Youth Formation. That search process will take place this summer, with the goal of welcoming the new person in September. Here are the final events I’ll be hosting at SPR:
- Saturday, June 1, 5-8p - Mission Trip Fundraiser: Wine and Cheese and Documentaries feat. Dawnland
- Sunday, June 2, 5-7:30p, 2019 - Final Youth Group (Fellowship Night at Addie’s)
- Saturday, June 8, 1-4p - Final Girls' Group
- Saturday, June 8 - Final High School Small Group
- Sunday, June 9 - Picnic Sunday Fundraising; we will do the Rite of Leave-Taking during the 10:00 combined liturgy
- Sunday, August 18 - Commissioning of Mission Trip Participants
- Sunday-Friday, August 18-23 - SPR Mission Trip to Minnesota
- Our second annual Youth Sunday will continue the good work we started last year in centering young people’s voices in liturgy on Sun, September 15, 2019.
As a young person, I experienced a few transitions in my church’s youth programming leadership. For me it felt like an upheaval—like dry soil tilled to prepare for planting season, it even felt violent. I have great hope for the new things being done at SPR under Catherine’s leadership, and I imagine this transition will allow in more oxygen, more sunlight, and maybe even set up the soil for new growth for SPR Youth. SPR is a unique and prophetic community to have entered my life. I look forward to watching the prophetic work SPR will do in the years to come.
With much gratitude and peace,
Addie Domske, Director of Youth Formation
domske@sprchicago.org
