Interview
The workshops focused on the intersections of mental health and youth in the church, helping participants understand more about mental health and wellbeing, and providing a platform for dialogue.
John Christensen, WCC project officer for the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network and Mental Health, served on the team leading the workshops. He shares his reflections on the gathering.
What was your biggest takeaway from this very large gathering in New Orleans?
Christensen: I don't think I can truly put into words what it means to know that, as a faithfully active young person in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), I am not alone.
I went to the Youth Gathering in 2009 (also held in New Orleans). As someone who grew up the son of not one but two ELCA pastors in a state with relatively few congregations, there were many times where I felt like the lone or the token young person involved in church. But coming to the Youth Gathering in 2009 and now again to the Youth & Young Adult Gathering in 2024, it reminds me that I am not alone.
A quote on-screen during one of the sessions I attended during the week put it perfectly: "Some theologies say it is not an individual but a collective people who bear the image of God." (Cole Arthur Riley, This Here Flesh)
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Dr Manoj Kurian, director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on Health and Healing, during one of the workshops held during the event in New Orleans.
John Christensen/WCC
What were the most impactful points of the information you shared?
Christensen: The first one may seem incredibly obvious but sometimes we need to be reminded. Mental health struggles affect more than 25% of the global population at some point in their lives. In 2019, 14% of the world's adolescents (ages 10-19) were living with a mental disorder of some kind. Alongside that, 71% of people dealing with some form of psychosis do not receive adequate mental health services. This leads to suicide being the 4th-leading cause of death in people 15-29 years old, globally.
But, there is still hope. Thankfully, it is more and more common for people to talk about their mental health. Even when there are limited medical resources, community resources (such as church communities) can be a resource that contributes to the lessening of the negative effects of mental health struggles.
What do you see as the biggest challenges ahead? Has that changed as a result of your experience?
Christensen: Even in the days leading up to the Youth Gathering, Dr Manoj Kurian, director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on Health and Healing, and I began positing that this project could actually be bigger than the mental health of young people. While this is still a bit in the works, other communities that have been talked about as focus communities include Indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities.
That is on a grand-scale of the project overall. On a much more minute scale, each of the three days that we led these sessions at the ELCA Gathering, we asked for feedback and then took that into consideration as we went forward. Comments included: ”Please be specific about and stick to a time-limit for participants speaking," "Please add some more physically engaging elements; 2-3 hours is a long time to sit down," and more.
Although we ultimately felt that we did a great job with all three sessions, I know I can speak for all of us when I say that I believe that the sessions only got better as time went on -- and I am sure they will continue to do so as we bring this into contexts with other member churches.
