June Newsletter from Executive Director Kelsey Rice Bogdan

Several years ago, I was invited to speak at an Episcopal campus and young adult ministries conference here in Boston. I remember sharing about the time that a Prayer Partner and I gingerly dug a dead bat out of the garbage, packed it up in a cooler on ice, and took it to the state lab to test it for rabies (which, thankfully for the fellow who had been exposed, the bat did not have). I ended my vignette by saying, "Nobody has a job like ours."

Seven years after I arrived on the doorstep of 40 Prescott to start my first day of work at Life Together, I can still attest to the truth of that statement. The work encompasses amazing moments, deeply broken situations, and just plain weird stuff. Staff and fellows have blessed us with their gifts, and then moved on. The world we are forming leaders for, both within the church and beyond it, has shifted in profound and deeply destabilizing ways over the past seven years-- even in the last week, the seismic loss of reproductive rights in this country has been a source of grief and anger for myself and many others. All of this has impacted our community. It has impacted me.

Last spring we worked with consultants from The Capacity Institute to evaluate Life Together's program model in this liminal season, asking what we need to do to serve Gen Z effectively. And in the midst of it, I realized that in order to do justice to the feedback we were hearing from YOU-- our alums and and friends-- I needed to pause for myself. Over the years many of you have taught me the value of self-care and community care, of naming what we need and trusting that together, we have enough for all of us to thrive. This is not a space I always lean into naturally. But I decided to trust the still, small voice telling me what I needed in this moment, a voice I was able to heed because of what I have learned from our community. I requested a sabbatical.

Starting on July 5, I will be away from Life Together through late September. In my absence, our Associate Director of Training and Recruitment, Jocelyn Collen, will be leading our community through Orientation and the first month of the program year. She will be joined by alum Joyce Chae ('19-'21), who returns to Life Together to support preparations for the new program year. I know that they will lead with energy and joy as they welcome our new cohort to Boston in August. I also trust that this community will be there for Jocelyn and Joyce to lean on. I look forward to returning this fall, refreshed and ready to dig more deeply into the changes Life Together needs to make in order to thrive in the coming years.

Please keep all of us at Life Together in your prayers as we launch this program year, and as I lean into a time of sabbath. Your support means so much to us in this season.

March Newsletter from Executive Director Kelsey Rice Bogdan

Fellows who join Life Together are a spiritually eclectic bunch. While the program itself is grounded in the Episcopal tradition with a contemplative Christian flair, the young adults who comprise our community bring a variety of spiritual expressions. Yet within that diversity, sacred chant has been a unifying practice. We listen to one another and meld our voices together into one sound. We begin to tease out harmonies (sometimes poorly, in my case!). We feel the vibrations in the air and in our own bodies, as something emerges that we could not have created alone.

It is particularly beautiful when fellows bring new chants into the community as an expression of that cohort's spiritual journey. When I arrived at Life Together nearly seven years ago, To the Hills expressed our hope for justice in the face of challenge. Later cohorts introduced Loosen, Loosen, giving words to anxious times. The pandemic last year made it hard for the community to chant together. Yet even then, fellows introduced me to a chant that continues to resonate during this challenging season. Blessed Motion starts out: "I believed in solid ground / until I saw the earth in motion / in the winds of steady change / and in the ever-rolling ocean."

As we continue to move through each new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we witness the old sin of racism morph into new expressions, as the war in Ukraine highlights the injustice of all wars, the imagery of change speaks to me in a new way. We cannot be stagnant in the face of the crises around us. We are called to blow like the winds, to move with the Spirit, to combat injustice in new ways-- for the world, for the Church, and for ourselves.

This winter Life Together has been looking closely at our program model and how it can meet the needs of Gen Z young adults. I am grateful to all the fellows, alums, and others who shared their wisdom with us. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more information about what we've learned, and how we will move forward as a result. But that process has already highlighted for me how we must move more deeply into commitments around racial justice and local engagement if we seek to strengthen fellow leadership. And it has challenged us not to let a scarcity mindset limit our vision for transformative leadership.

In the midst of change, a strong community helps ground us in our values, even as we move in response to the needs we see around us. That's why I also hope you will save the date for our annual celebration and fundraiser, Linked Through Love, on May 7 from 4-6 pm. Holding flexibility with public health needs, we are planning to gather in-person at Christ Church in Cambridge, in the parish's garden space if weather allows. Look for details and formal invitations in your inbox soon! Your support has been critical in navigating all the changes and challenges of this season, and it would mean so much to all of us to see you there.

Alumni Profile: Linden Rayton

Name and pronouns: Linden Rayton, she/her

Cohort year: 2011-2012

Where are you living now? Hopkinton, New Hampshire

What are you doing now?I am taking on two new professional and family identities, and expanding my personal philosophy and theology as a result. In late January, I created a business called Living Water Nature Programs, LLC, which offers faith-informed nature education. My mission is to bring people into deeper relationship with the outdoors through exploration, education and reflection. It is a natural growth from the successful nature programs I have been offering to my community since the pandemic began and I lost what I thought was a safe job. Although the licensing happened in late January, this was a culmination of months of reflection, discernment and prayer on my part. I've never been one to so publicly combine my Christian faith and science/nature education profession. I definitely don't have quite the right language yet, and truly I have no idea what this will look like in four or five years. But it is a call from God that I am finally hearing clearly, so here I am. I wish I had a website I could hyperlink here, but I don't have that yet! So you can find me on Instagram @thefaithfulnaturalist where you will see my journey into this world.

Approximately four days before I finally made my business official, we welcomed our first foster placement into our family, a 9-day-old baby girl. She is now 7 weeks old and joins our 4yo son and 5yo daughter in filling our household. This too is the culmination of months of work, and it has been everything you imagine it is- very complicated, challenging and rewarding. Becoming part of "the system" has been intense, and driven home the need for social justice here in the US in ways deeper than I've experienced before. We are taking everything one day at a time. Which, frankly, feels annoyingly slow at the moment as she is going through a (normal) period of development that involves lots of crying. Hopefully by the time you read this things are different!

How has LT impacted your life?
One year ago I took an online class through Bexley Seabury called "Discerning My Path." One of the activities asked us to come up with four "contexts" that had formed us. One of the contexts that I immediately listed was Life Together. Life Together taught me practical skills such as the power of language, listening and good communication, but it also helped me experience a deeper, more inclusive and more contemporary kind of Episcopal Christian worship than I had before, and that forever changed me. I take a lot of pride in our church and I love the way we engage the world. But I think many Episcopalians have a hard time talking about God and accessing their faith. Life Together helped me break through that, and I couldn't be more grateful. I want to pass that gift along as best I can in my own vocation.

Anything else you’d like to share? I am looking forward to spring!!!

Alumni Profile: Amber Sarpy

Name and pronouns: Amber Sarpy (she/her)

Cohort year: 2009-2010

Where are you living now? Austin, TX area

What are you doing now? Music Therapy/Mental Health Counseling; Executive Director of The Clear and Blameless Word Ministries; Children's Ministry in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas

How has LT impacted your life?

Life Together was a pivotal moment in my life. I was in a great transition period. Prior to becoming a Life Together intern, I applied to attend graduate school. I was also advised to apply to be a DioMass Intern. I became part time grad student and a DioMass Intern at the same time. I found myself living with many identities that year: a woman, an Afro-Latina, a musician, a music educator, the daughter of a Nondenominational Pastor, a graduate student, an intentional community member, a community organizer in training, and a young adult minister. I was given the opportunity to explore how the many facets of my identity, at that moment, would inform the work for that year. It was very sobering. 

The impact this reality made on my life has been long lasting. It taught me that in order to do meaningful work I need to embrace and understand that comfort is not always productive. It's nice to be comfortable, but if we peel back its layers, who is benefiting by it, and who is not? I also learned that oftentimes, I will know what to do as I go, rather than at the onset of a project, if I am intentional about seeking God's will for whatever the work entails. This knowing is best done in community with people who have been empowered to speak up for what they need, what they see, and what they do not see.

Anything else you'd like to share?

These days you'll find me raising my son and enjoying life as it is, rather than what I thought it would be. Happiness is sometimes a temporary notion, but God's joy is eternal. To follow us you can locate us on YouTube at It's Tomato's Mommy.

December Newsletter from Executive Director Kelsey Rice Bogdan

Back in my first year as Executive Director, I wrote a piece for this newsletter in which I spoke of the “cold barrenness of winter.” One of our fantastic alumni, who is an environmental educator, wrote back a few days later: the land is NOT barren in winter, far from it. Under the blanket of snow, microorganisms are preparing the ground for growth. The cold kills off harmful pests. Winter prepares the way for new life in the spring.

Maybe it makes sense, then, that the two seasons of preparation in the church calendar, Advent and Lent, fall in the darkest and coldest months in the northern hemisphere. During those seasons, we are called to slow down, to be quiet, so that we can hear the still, small voice calling out the seeds of new life within us. But at Christmas, too often we settle for the cheap version of preparation that we see modeled around us: lengthy shopping lists, perfect home decor, or for some of us, plowing through the landslide of work tasks before wearily putting on the holiday out-of-office message. Convinced that the quiet and darkness are barren spaces, we ward them off with the noise and glitzy light of our busy-ness. And the soil of our souls remains malnourished.

Yet I’m drawn to what Black author Cole Arthur Riley writes on Instagram (@BlackLiturgies) about Advent: “As we wait, we remind ourselves that darkness (which is far too often reduced to a trite symbol for sin and death), actually has the unique capacity to bear the divine. In Advent, we reclaim the holy dark.” What would it mean, in these final days of Advent, to reclaim that darkness, to recognize its divine potential? What would shift within us?

When I think about the holy dark, I think about reflection, openness, willingness to let the cold kill off what no longer helps me so that I can make space for growth. And it is in that spirit of holy dark that Life Together is entering its own season of reflection over the next few months. Accompanied by consultants from the Capacity Institute, we will explore where Life Together has been in the darkness of this pandemic season, and where it is going in the years ahead. We want to reflect on the needs of Gen Z young adults and what we are called to offer the next generation of prayerful and prophetic leaders. It is a chance to prepare the soil for a new season in our organizational life. I am eager to begin this work, and excited to share what we are learning with you in the coming months.

May you embrace the holy dark of these final days of Advent, and find the joy of new life this Christmas. Happy holidays to all of you in our Life Together community!

Alumni Profile: Patrick Kangrga

Name and pronouns:  Patrick Christopher Kangrga (he/him)

Cohort year: 2013-2014

Where are you living now? Jackson, Mississippi

What are you doing now? Lay Ministry; Director of Youth Ministries at St. James' Episcopal Church in Jackson, MS. 

How has Life Together impacted your Life?

I participated in two years of Episcopal Service Corps programs. My first year was in Maryland with the Gileads. Life Together followed. If my experience with the Gileads was like opening a door, then my experience with Life Together was like turning on the light switch in the room to which that door led. The Gilead's gave me opportunities and possibilities that, if I am honest, I thought would always be out of my reach. Life Together helped me to discern one of those possibilities as a life calling.  

Before going to Maryland, I had these two wonderings that I had put into the back of my mind, "What would it be like to be a priest or pastor?" and "What would it look like for me to have more meaningful involvement with children or youth in church?" I did not address these questions all that much at the time for two reasons. First, I had attempted a college degree and had failed at it. Second, I could not imagine that someone like myself would ever be acceptable or worthy of being a minister in the eyes of others or God. 

The benefit of my Life Together year was that it gave me more chances to gain experience. I learned from others and I learned about myself. I could try things and fail even miserably, knowing grace was abundant. Ultimately, this gift of failing with an abundance of grace was the true blessing I received from Life Together and the entirety of my ESC experience. I suspect a world without Life Together and ESC would have been far less gracious to me. And I think the old me, the person I was before Life Together and ESC, would have had little grace too. But the person I am today and the person I believe I continue to grow into sees the beauty of the story God was writing. How the chapters that came before gave birth to the chapters that followed and the one I am living now.  

Anything else you'd like to share?

There is no doubt in my mind that my experience in the Episcopal Service Corps and with Life Together has allowed me to live my best life. I have a career that I see as a calling. I love what I do to earn a living. I have been able to become more involved in the wider Episcopal Church. I have been a part of Forma, A Ministry of ECF, the Network for Christian Formation for the Episcopal Church and beyond for some time now. I joined Forma's leadership and recently became the Interim Chair. 

Also, I have been able to do things that I always wanted to do because of my career. I walked the Camino in Spain with some youth. Because I make a decent salary and am given vacation, I have gone to some of my top dream destinations like Florence and Rome, Italy. I learned to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef. 

I have even been able to revive one of my earliest passions. I am a published author. Not a book yet but I have several devotionals, meditations and essays published related to my church work and faith life.

September Newsletter from Executive Director Kelsey Rice Bogdan

It’s September again, with another Life Together cohort beginning a year of community life and site placement work. For me, there is something comforting in the rhythm of our year– even in the midst of the uncertainty wrought by an ongoing pandemic, fellows still arrive in Boston, full of excitement for this new adventure and openness to all that the year holds. 

Their arrival reminds me that for all our American notions of time as a linear march into the future, our experience of time is often cyclical. Summer fades into fall, then hardens into winter before life bursts forth again in spring. Year after year, the Christian liturgical calendar takes us through the central stories of the faith, from waiting for Jesus’ birth in Advent to the Holy Week journey through his death and resurrection. Each of these cycles offers the opportunity to learn something new, or revisit something the season has already taught us. The time is the same, yet different.

After a year in which most of our training and formation activities took place online, this year’s Orientation felt like a return to familiar milestones. A fully vaccinated cohort allowed us to meet in-person, while wearing masks indoors in accordance with guidelines from the Diocese of Massachusetts. Once again we prayed together daily and stumbled through our first attempts at public narrative. Perhaps most powerfully, the Co-Creation Dinner returned this year as an actual dinner, with a small group of pre-registered guests joining us on the lawn in front of our new home in Dorchester for spring rolls and kebab skewers prepared by a rock star food team. As we circled up for worship, I felt overwhelming gratitude— for this group of young adults who said “yes” to transformation, for the community whose steadfast support has sustained us through this challenging season, for a God who is always doing a new thing for us to perceive.

Yet much has changed as well. After 20 years in the training room at 40 Prescott Street, we were nomads this year. We held trainings in four different locations over eight days, and that doesn’t even count visits to site placements and a field trip to Boston’s King’s Chapel. And our cohort is smaller than in previous years, with six fellows living in one community house. We are trying new formats in the training space out of necessity, reflecting the needs of a very different group in different circumstances than in years past. And as we move into the program year, we’re more deeply asking questions about generational changes among our cohorts: how are we called to build Gen Z leadership?

I believe that Life Together, with its culture of learning and experimentation, is well-equipped to navigate these changes. But to do this learning, we will need your help! Stay tuned throughout the fall for opportunities to offer your thoughts on this cycle in Life Together’s organizational life. This includes our triennial Alumni Survey, which we hope you’ll fill out when that becomes available later in the fall. Because regardless of the season, it is the engagement of this community that makes possible all that we do.