Eden Chapel pastor serves as Boy Scout chaplain to complete interreligous training
At the meeting of the Clergy Orders and Fellowship on Tuesday, January 9, 2024, Bishop Jimmy Nunn, on behalf of the Council of Bishops, honored Rev. Katie Paul with a certificate of completion from the United Methodist Ecumenical and Interreligious Training: Young Adult Network (UMEIT: YAN). Paul is the pastor of Eden Chapel UMC outside of Stillwater.
The two-year, monthly cohort meetings were usually via Zoom meetings, but two in-person meetings took place - first in Atlanta in September, 2022, and again at Cliff College in the United Kingdom in September, 2023.
The students met together online for devotion, learning and actively leading. Those who were able also met in person two times. Each student created a project to promote ecumenical and/ or interreligious engagement in their context.
The chaplaincy work was Paul;s project, as all participants committed to passing on what they had learned through the work of a ministry project.
Paul shared of her experience, “I served as a protestant chaplain for three weeks at Philmont -one of the BSA high adventure camps -- in New Mexico. I was able to put my ecumenical and interreligious training to work interacting with scouts from a variety of faith backgrounds or no faith. As a chaplain, we would lead daily worship services at base camp for scouts and staff as well as a few worship services a week in the backcountry.
“One of the other frequent jobs was conflict resolution between scouts and sometimes with their adult advisors, and seeing the power of reconciliation made a huge impact on me. Serving as a chaplain to scouts was a great opportunity to encourage spiritual growth and curiosity in today’s teens and young adults.”
The chaplain corps is made up of a coordinator plus a Jewish chaplain, an LDS chaplain, three Roman Catholic chaplains, and three protestant chaplains of various mainline and evangelical backgrounds. Each has to be comfortable interfacing with
scouts of any denomination and faith background (or no faith background).
Paul is working with the coordinator on a short preaching guide offering tips on how to connect well during the evening worship services held for scouts and staff daily.
Paul reflected, “One of the highlights was baptizing a teen girl whose faith had deepened through online worship with a congregation she’d never be able to visit. Another highlight was hearing the call to ministry from two young adults on staff and encouraging them to keep listening and discerning.”
The preaching guide takes into account that there are often people who have never been to church before alongside those who have been often as well as those of different faith backgrounds than the service that they are attending to expand their horizons. The goal is to help the preacher to make connections with an average 15 year old, the unusual setting that they are in, the challenges that await them or that they are just returning from, and God’s living word.
Paul plans to return this summer.