The bread part

During this Season of Giving, your generosity to Jacksonville Campus Ministry serves to grow the faith of our misfit group of students searching for who they are and how they relate to the sacred. This past spring break, we took 17 students to Germany with the Lutheran Campus Ministries from UNC and App State. Our JCM students were a mix of Episcopalian, Lutheran, Jewish, and others looking for a way to connect to something ancient, holy, and sacred. They hadn’t found their foothold for that connection when they started coming to our primary means of weekly gathering, Food for Thought. 

During our first weekend in Wittenberg, we worshiped in German at Castle Church. At the end of the service, our students surrounded me and lowered their voices. “What about the wine and the bread part?” They insisted that I go ask the pastor. I learned that the church only offers communion once a month. “That is not really okay with us. You talk about how important communion is all the time. And now we are here all together in Germany worshiping. We really want communion.” 

A few days later, we were in Mansfeld Castle, and when our students saw the 600-year-old chapel, they said, “This is it. This is where we want to have worship and communion.” They planned an interfaith worship service and offered beautiful readings from different places of faith. We celebrated Holy Eucharist with our misfit group of college students. Nothing about the ancient setting and the modern readings made real sense to anyone but us, but they insisted that we share the body and blood of Christ Jesus together. 

Now, every time we end a significant gathering, I ask them how they want to mark our time together. They insist on communion. Once, it was an expensive bottle of wine and hamburger bun my mother had on hand as we ended a retreat in her home. Another evening, it was a mini bottle of cheap wine and a giant sheet of lavash. These experiences were a first for many of our students, who have since expressed a deep desire for worship and communion. They crave the sense of community and connection that comes with these rituals.

During this Season of Giving, your generosity to Jacksonville Campus Ministry will provide for the ongoing ministry of Food for Thought, retreats, and pastoral care helping make space for our students to ask questions, grow, and deepen their relationship with God. We invite you to consider a gift of $20, $50, $150, $500, or even $1000 or more to invest in this vital ministry with young adults. Thank you for partnering with us in this ministry we all share.