The National Young Adult Ministry Summit meets in Washington, D.C., last month. (Photo Courtesy of Makana Aiona)
Creating collaborations between Catholic young adults and their communities was a hot topic at the National Young Adult Ministry Summit in Washington, D.C., May 5-7.
The first-ever such meeting, organized in part by the National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association (NCYAMA), brought together dozens of ministry leaders from across the country for three days of sharing stories, strategies and resources.
Representing the Aloha State was Makana Aiona, diocesan young adult ministry coordinator. Back in the Islands refreshed with new insights, he reported to the Hawaii Catholic Herald what he gained.
Aiona was one of 40 attendees. Organizers kept the inaugural event small.
“It was very kind of grassroots-ish,” Aiona said.
A volunteer board of directors — all young adult ministry professionals — runs NCYAMA, which has been around since 1982. The organization provides consulting, training and advocacy for dioceses, parishes, schools and groups. It also gives advice to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and works with youth ministry and vocations organizations.
NCYAMA partnered with Catholic University of America to create the summit as a way for ministry leaders like Aiona to voice concerns and better understand their mission.
“They wanted to know what we needed, what we were doing, what we were having trouble with and what we would like to see on the national level,” Aiona said.
Before heading to Washington, participants filled out a survey to set an agenda for the summit’s three large group discussions and breakout talks.
Each session was about an hour long. Topics ranged from social media evangelization, to reaching non-practicing or disengaged young adults, to catechesis for different stages of “young adult life.”
Sessions and daily liturgies were held in the St. John Paul II National Shrine.
“The pace of the three days was pretty fast,” Aiona said.
Successes and struggles
Young adult ministry in Hawaii, as in other U.S. dioceses, has had successes and struggles, Aiona said.
One challenge discussed was the practice of pairing young adult (ages 18-39) ministry with youth (high school) ministry. They dubbed this the “slasher” role in reference to the diagonal line in the title “youth/young adult minister” which joins two very disparate jobs.
“‘Slashers’ feel really tied,” Aiona said, “because we’re finally coming to grips with the immensity of the young adult ocean.”
It is nearly impossible to reach the older group when it is linked with the younger set, Aiona said. The church often treats its young adults more like “big youth” than “adults,” he said.
“We need to ‘slash the slash,’” he said, and separate the two ministries.
Young adult ministry, he learned, is better focused when it serves beyond the parish walls.
“A successful young adult ministry is going to be the most successful ‘collaborator’ in the parish community,” Aiona said.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl highlighted the concept of community collaboration at the summit. The archbishop of Washington, D.C., worked with young adults on an initiative called “Christ in the City.” They regularly took to the streets and started conversations with passersby about Mass, confession, adoration and prayer.
“They’ll go out on a Saturday or a time when they know a lot of young adults will be out,” Aiona explained. He hopes a project like that can happen here.
Another challenge talked about at the summit was the difficulty of doing young adult ministry on a diocesan level.
Larger Mainland dioceses have bigger young adult ministry staffs and parishes accessible by car. Hawaii has limited resources and parishes separated by water.
“Nobody else has the reality of having to island hop to get across your diocese,” Aiona said.
Aiona proposed one solution: groups of young adult ministry coordinators from each island. Committees could organize activities such as Theology on Tap and sports tournaments.
To connect young adult Catholics with broader diocesan initiatives, Aiona has reached out to the Office for Social Ministry, the Office of Religious Education and Respect Life Office. He hopes these ties will bring forth more diverse learning and community-building activities.
“If we want to see the community and the collaborating happen in the parishes, we need to make sure it happens in the chancery,” he said.
Aiona is grateful for the insights gained at the National Young Adult Ministry Summit. With three years under his belt as the diocese’s young adult ministry coordinator, it has been helpful to reassess how well he has met the goals set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“The goals are to connect young adults to Jesus, to the church, to its mission, and then to a peer community,” he explained. “We’re going to have to try and take a different approach than just plugging holes.”
“We don’t want to become too systematic,” Aiona added. “We want to remain a ministry guided by the Spirit.”
