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About Miriam McKenney

Miriam Willard McKenney is a child of God who finds extreme joy parenting her three girls: Nia, 25; Kaia, 20; and Jaiya, 17. She and her husband, David, met at the Union of Black Episcopalians conference in 1981. Miriam works as Forward Movement’s Development Director and at Calvary Episcopal Church in Cincinnati as Youth Director. She was a children’s librarian and school media specialist for 20 years before joining Forward Movement’s staff. She loves outdoor fitness in extreme temperatures, as there is no bad weather, just incorrect clothing choices.

Advent Care Package for Youth: What’s in the box?

November 13, 2020 By Miriam McKenney Leave a Comment

A post from the Forma Facebook page a few days ago reminded me: what am I doing for Advent with my youth group? Of course, I should have been thinking about this weeks ago. But here I am, scrolling through the list of ideas and putting together my Advent care package. But it’s not too late, especially in God’s time.  

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Filed Under: Liturgical Year, Spiritual Practices, Way of Love Tagged With: Advent, birth, coloring, craft, Jesus, nativity

Pandemic Parenting: Letting Our Children Form Us

September 23, 2020 By Miriam McKenney 1 Comment

The choices our adult children make might surprise us. Be ready for anything and open to the Spirit.

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Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: African-Americans, college, COVID-19, daughters, Family, raising daughters, Spirit, teenagers, together, university, young adults

Keeping our community: spiritual connection and physical distance

April 15, 2020 By Miriam McKenney 2 Comments

What do we do when we can’t be together in person? Miriam shares how her youth group stays socially and spiritually connected while physically distant from one another.

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Filed Under: Easter, Health, Prayer Tagged With: connectoin, COVID-19, distance, Easter, God, Jesus, Prayer, social distancing, youth group, Zoom meeting

Rooted in Jesus gives me hope

February 20, 2020 By Miriam McKenney Leave a Comment

Did you hear about the Rooted in Jesus conference held in Atlanta in January? Were you there? Miriam shares some thoughts and observations as a member of the planning team and a follower of Jesus.

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Filed Under: Discipleship Tagged With: 2020, Atlanta, conference, Jesus, Rooted in Jesus, worship

Chaos and the Book of John: The Good Book Club and My Beloved Youth Group

February 5, 2020 By Miriam McKenney Leave a Comment

What happens when a youth group reads the Book of John for The Good Book Club? It’s hectic, chaotic, and perfect.

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Filed Under: Good Book Club, Spiritual Practices, Way of Love Tagged With: Bible, Jesus, John, Lazarus, Mary and Martha, Scripture, teenagers, teens, The Good Book Club, youth group

Let your children fly

October 2, 2019 By Miriam McKenney Leave a Comment

Letting go of your children is tough. Miriam shares what happened when she let her daughter make her own way.

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Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: adult child, adult children, church, Music, singing

Picture Books, The Way of Love, & Becoming Beloved Community

July 31, 2019 By Miriam McKenney 2 Comments

Picture books offer a way to explore The Way of Love and Becoming Beloved Community. Here’s a list that you can sort by practice to use for formation at home and in your faith communities.

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Filed Under: Spiritual Practices, Way of Love Tagged With: Becoming Beloved Community, bless, book list, children's books, children's literature, Go, Learn, picture books, pray, rest, Turn, Way of Love, worship

Labyrinths as formation: Making finger sand labyrinths

July 17, 2019 By Miriam McKenney 2 Comments

Labyrinths are wonderful tools for practicing prayer and mindfulness. Labyrinths aren’t just for adults – learn how to incorporate labyrinths into your formation ministry at church and at home.

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Filed Under: Prayer, Spiritual Practices, Way of Love Tagged With: busy bag, children, craft, labyrinth, mindfulness, Prayer, quiet bag, teens, VBS, worship, youth

Seeing ourselves in picture books

July 3, 2019 By Miriam McKenney 2 Comments

Picture books can help you explore diversity with your kids. How do we know that we belong in the world? Seeing ourselves in books is a vital way to learn that we’re all beautiful in the eyes of our creator.

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Filed Under: Discipleship, Parenting, Spiritual Practices Tagged With: books, bookstores, diversity, kids, librarians, libraries, library, parents, picture books, reading

Summer Goals

June 5, 2019 By Miriam McKenney Leave a Comment

Last Sunday, my youth group blessed themselves and each other when they set summer goals.

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Filed Under: Spiritual Practices, Way of Love Tagged With: goals, Jesus, Spirit, Way of Love, youth group

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