Hearing the Call: Rudy Cepko, YRU2 Mentor and Advisor

“I believed that my day job as an RN in the Pediatric ICU at UMass would make it easy for me to handle a bunch of teenagers.  However, I was surprised to encounter teens willing to gain more knowledge in their spiritual quest and to learn how to use this in their everyday lives.”   Rudy Cepko  

For many years I had not stepped into a church except for weddings and funerals.  In the mid-1990s, my wife, Alesia, started attending church to sing with UU choir.  She was impressed by the message that she heard from Barbara Merritt and suggested that I try the church.  I felt I was in a place that spoke to me, and our son Stefan was enrolled in the Sunday school programs.

I had some involvement with church stewardship as a volunteer in the Garden committee.  Mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, planting and laying yards of mulch were part of my contribution to the church. Then when my son, Stefan, was in YRU2, he asked if I would be interested in becoming an assistant during the Sunday meeting.  I believed that my day job as an RN in the Pediatric ICU at UMass would make it easy for me to handle a bunch of teenagers.  However I was surprised to encounter teens willing to gain more knowledge in their spiritual quest and to learn how to use this in their everyday lives.  Some questions require very animated discussions, and though not all are answered, many lessons are learned by all involved.

Teenagers are not always the most engaging early in the morning and especially not on a weekend when the thought of sleeping in sounds enticing.  To keep the meetings interesting and teens involved, the goal is to allow them to drive the meetings, setting agendas and allow them to have autonomy in maintaining their covenant.  It remains very interesting to see how a group of teens can police themselves to allow everyone to have a voice.  This year we have investigated various faiths with the questions “YRUU” and “YRweUU”?  (Do you get it?)

Assisting with the youth-lead service is an exciting experience.  To see the germination of an idea, usually started at a sleepover, into full implementation on that Sunday is to witness the maturation of these teens and how they work together to achieve this goal.   It can be a white knuckle ride to the end, but the plan is to let them work thru the details and problems on their own.

Throughout my years with YRU2 there were also times of experiences outside the church;  meetings thru ski trips, assisting people in need, movie nights and sleep overs, a joint venture to New York with the Holden Street church and the Memorial Day weekend at Craigsville.  For some, the bonds that are forged may carry over years from now.  At times the YRU2 lounge can seem like a hide-away.  At other times it is an incubator for teens still learning to express themselves as young adults with a Unitarian Universalist foundation.  I am proud to think I may have played a small part in their growth.