Over the past two years of being a fellow at Life Together, I have gained a lot of experience here, at the house, and at my site placement. I had my highs and lows, in my moments, but I learned a lot, especially at my site placement, which is Grace Episcopal Church in Medford. In my site placement at Grace, I have been given the opportunity to help with the livestream, website, and eNews, and lead a monthly film discussion series. I also will be given the opportunity, in a few weeks, to preach for the first time there. The opportunities that I have been given at Grace Church have truly given me the experience of working at a church.
I have grown a lot as a person during my time at Life Together. I gained new insights into myself, especially regarding my interests and activities, as well as those of my fellow housemates. My spirituality has also shifted thanks to the spaces that Life Together provided, such as Prayer Partners, a mentor, and a spiritual director. As someone who is autistic, I really appreciate the support that I have gained, especially with my mentor and in group therapy. As for what is next for me after Life Together, I plan on embarking on a career in tech. I hope that Life Together will grow stronger during its year of sabbath. Thank you, Life Together, for all the memories and experiences I have gained.
Alum Profile: Will Harron
Name and pronouns: Will Harron (he/him/his)
Cohort year: 2014-15 Micah; 2015-16 Emmaus, 2020-21 Prayer Partner; trainer in 2019, 2021, and 2022.
Where are you living now? Greenfield, MA, in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts
What are you doing now? Wearing too many hats - I'm the Province 1 Coordinator and the Network Organizer for the Young Adult Ministry Network in Western Massachusetts, plus I serve in all sorts of volunteer gigs on the topic of formation and young adult and campus ministry. My paid work is basically in planning and running Zoom meetings between people engaged in ministry who want to connect, collaborate, and support each other in that work, and excitingly, I can direct them towards various grants to support that work. I coordinate a provincial (New-England wide) Young Adult and Campus Ministry network, serve on churchwide councils for Young Adult/Campus ministry and Christian formation, and am doing volunteer campus ministry in Amherst MA. Plus, I've gotten involved in the Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp shape-note singing community, which has been a dream.
How has Life Together impacted your life?
In so many ways. LT was a place from which I could spend two years serving in a parish (Saint Mary's in Dorchester) building relationships, being formed by a community, learning how the church functions, and experimenting with how to do ministry as a lay leader and as a young adult in and alongside the church. LT was an incubator that trained me in community organizing and helped give me superpowers like "facilitate a 1 hour zoom call that people leave energized and want to come back to" or "put on a short worship service with no notice and no sweat" or "give a public narrative for something I love" or "run a training that doesn't turn into a grumble-thon." LT was a community where I made dear friends who continue to shape my life. LT is a source of hope and inspiration to me: that these old bones of the church still have life, that an Episcopal organization can thread the needle between being something that's part of a church and something that can serve and resource people who have no desire to be a part of the church, that young adults can be given power and resources and turned loose to experiment and collaborate and make the somethings-new that the world needs. And LT gave me concrete connections that have led me to the career and vocational place I am - from my first job out of LT in the DioMA offices to my M.Div program at the Boston University School of Theology, to my work now in Western Massachusetts and across the Episcopal Province of New England.