When youth from across the Diocese of Virginia converge on Shrine Mont for Halloween weekend, they will be starting a new chapter in diocesan youth leadership.
Their mission is in the title of the retreat: “A Time to Build.” They are expected to connect youth programs existing in parishes and districts, and choose the name for their work together. They have the chance to create ways to connect youth from each parish to the bigger circle of youth from across the diocese.
“The goal is to have this all youth led,” said The Rev. Canon Ricardo Sheppard, the Diocese of Virginia’s Canon for Discipleship. “Our goal from this retreat is to begin to see twos and threes from each region or each area, to build a youth leadership council so they’re the ones who actually do the planning for youth events.”
Youth who are interested in leading diocesan events should contact youthministries@episcopalvirginia.org. Scholarships for the retreat are available through the same contact.
“All are welcome, and that’s the piece I really want to push,” said Sheppard, who wants to support diocesan youth to grow organically as leaders. “We want to be learning from them, giving them direction so they can take the lead and run with it.”
The retreat is designed for current ninth graders to 12th graders and their parish youth leaders. The weekend will include a program, small groups, games, and time set aside to enjoy activities on the mountain.
“Halloween weekend is going to be awesome and a lot of fun, with a nice hint of some spookiness as well as some of the deep reflections around All Saints, and being able to reflect on loss as well as celebration,” said The Rev. Emma A. W. Brice, Assistant Rector and School Chaplain at Grace Alexandria, who came up as a youth leader in the Diocese of Virginia.
“I hope the youth will jump straight into some of the work of leadership development and particularly peer leadership,” she said. The retreat is a time to build interest in the question, “How do you lead a weekend like this for your peers and for the middle schoolers as well?”
Because so many people across the diocese have wisdom and energy from vibrant youth ministries, the Diocese’s goal is to connect, support, and amplify what’s already happening.
“This is not about one area of the diocese or one person,” Sheppard added. “It’s about building something that represents the diocese. That’s the heart of it. No one individual runs it. I may be Canon for Discipleship, and this is under my umbrella, but it’s not my show. There are hundreds of churches in the diocese, and I want to know how we can collaborate. We are only here to bring together and support the work already being done.”
Youth not currently connected to Episcopal parishes are warmly invited. “We will make sure that everybody has the opportunity to attend,” Sheppard said. “All are welcome!”
A middle school retreat is planned for April 17-19, 2026, at Shrine Mont. Fellowship Days, designed for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, are being planned. Dates are forthcoming.
Bravely Attending a Youth Retreat
In March 2025, Shrine Mont held the first diocesan youth retreat in quite a while because of the pandemic, with 21 middle school youth and adult leaders from St. Paul’s Charlottesville, St Peter’s Arlington, Grace Alexandria, and St. Andrew’s Burke.
They baked communion bread, held the first worship in the Cathedral Shrine of the Transfiguration in its centennial year, and created a video encouraging others to join diocesan middle school retreats. They made and signed their own logoed T-shirts with the retreat theme, “Love One Another.”
“This theme really helped build them up and reinforce that we’re all in this together,” said Sue Cromer, Director of Children, Youth, and Family Ministry at St. Peter’s Arlington, a retreat organizer. “We love each other, we’re living into our baptismal covenant, and it takes a brave person to step into that.”
The pandemic hiatus meant that many youth don’t know about gatherings like this, much less anyone who has gone to one. Before the interruption, this knowledge was typically passed down and hyped up among youth.
“They’ve been so brave signing up to do something that they have no context for, with other youth they’ve never met,” said Brice, who organized the spring 2025 middle school retreat. “The youth get a lot of credit for being willing to try on something that was totally a new thing. There was a real sense that they had a say in shaping what the weekend was like and being trailblazers. By being brave and coming on this trip and being leaders in that way, they can have a say in what it looks like for years going forward.”
The participants were asked in a debriefing, “When did you know that you belonged here?”
Their answer was, “When everyone scooted over at the center of the labyrinth to make space for me to have a seat, and then we all did that for the next person that made it to the center,” Brice said.
Past Youth Leadership in the Diocese
A youth retreat weekend, Brice said, “really is like magic. It’s so cool to watch a group of 13 awkward, kind of shy strangers from middle schools form a little family and really just get to know each other on a much deeper level than you would ever get at a week or a year of school. It’s such a deep level of connection and sharing, and there’s not that many spaces where you can talk about faith and not have it seem weird, right?”
“I came away from the weekend just filled with a renewed hope and energy,” she added.
The Halloween retreat represents the next step forward in the Diocese’s deeply rooted history of youth leadership. Diocesan sponsored youth events, formerly known as Parish Youth Ministry, or PYM, were led by a committee of 25 to 30 high school students from around the diocese. Before the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed social gatherings, they planned and led retreat weekends for middle and high school youth from any Episcopal Church in the diocese. They also organized one-day Youth Day of Service events. About 70 to 100 attended high school and middle school PYM weekends.
Each PYM retreat had a spiritual theme integrated into retreat activities and included a signature evening program like a dance or carnival. Youth were assigned to a small group that met and did activities together throughout the weekend. They sang “camp songs,” played games, worked on projects, and explored Shrine Mont.
“When youth jump into leadership, they have an impact on the generation of youth who follow,” Cromer said. “Their leadership impacts the diocese in the future and their home congregation.”
“Bringing young people together helps build a sense of community across our diocese—something that’s not as easily achieved by individual congregations alone,” Sheppard said. “As with any reboot, this transition brings both opportunities and challenges.”
In April, Sheppard was called as Canon for Discipleship. Before joining The Episcopal Church, he served as Youth and Outreach Minister at Hebron Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY—a church founded by his father, the Rev. Valentine Sheppard, in 1983.
Ordained to the priesthood in 2016, he served as Priest-in-Charge at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in New Brunswick, NJ, until 2019. In September 2019, Rev. Sheppard was called to serve as Rector of the Episcopal Church of the Atonement in Washington, D.C.
Since arriving in Washington, he has served as Chaplain at the Bishop Walker School for Boys, a member of the Diocesan Council, and Chair of the Diocesan Committee on Black Ministries. Sheppard is passionate about proclaiming the love and hope of God to both the greatest and the least in the Kingdom.
“I want to plan a formation summit where we all come together and spend some time sharing what’s going on at our churches, sharing programming, sharing literature,” he said. “I want to bring in a speaker who can share their wisdom with us.”