Young adult programs team up for regular meet ups and activities

One group comes from the blue collar suburb of Tonawanda, while the other comes from the rural resort town of Ellicottville. They come together due to a mutual desire to grow in their faith … and Father Charles Johnson.

Shortly after his 2021 ordination, Father Johnson began leading the Young Adult group at St. Amelia Parish in Tonawanda. He found himself in the same position at Holy Name of Mary Parish in Ellicottville when he became parochial vicar of Three Catholic Sisters of the Foothills family of parishes in February. Recently, he introduced the two groups to each other.  

“What I wanted to do at our first meeting (in Ellicottville) was to introduce the people here to where I was,” Father Johnson explained.

While at St. Amelia’s, Kathy Waite invited him to be a part of the Young Adult group. As they were studying the seven books of Wisdom, they dubbed their group “Wise Wednesdays.” Due to their enthusiasm, the group met once a week.

“So, we started meeting every Wednesday,” he said. “We almost made it for an entire year until I was reassigned to the Ellicottville, Franklinville, Salamanca community. There’s a young adult group out here that Father Moses (Ikuelogbon) started, also doing Bible study. This group meets monthly. What I wanted to do at our first meeting was to introduce the people here to where I was.”

He organized a Facetime meeting.

“One of the young adults at St. Amelia’s said kind of loud, ‘You guys stole our priest.’ And the young adult group out here said, ‘Well, we lost ours too.’ They realized they had something in common, along with Bible studies. They both had been affected by the priests who were shifting around,” Father Johnson explained.

The St. Amelia group was invited to Holy Name of Mary Parish in Ellicottville to study. The next month the Tonawanda team invited Holy Name to come north.

“The two groups have spent a lot of time together getting to know each other,” Father Johnson said. “Basically, we brought the young adult groups together because they wanted to. They wanted to start studying Scripture together. And it’s been a wonderful experience with the two groups. It’s kind of surprising the way it came together and it seems to be sticking.”

Kathy Waite recalled the young adult group at St. Amelia’s starting up “three or four parochial vicars ago,” or about 10 years.

“We saw there was a need,” she said. “We had programs for middle school and high school, but once you were out of high school, there was nothing to keep them connected. They wanted to be together. They wanted to be with us. They wanted to be near the Church. They wanted to do good things. There was a need and we did our best to fill it.”

The program has changed over the years. Currently, it’s a Bible study on Wednesday nights. The tight knit group gathers and catches up on their lives, has snacks and an hour of Bible study, then plays games. Hikes to Chestnut Ridge Park to see the Eternal Flame, cookouts, and bonfires also happen.

“Mostly, I think they want to stay connected to other people and share their faith together and grow in their faith together,” said Waite.

Father Johnson agrees.

“I think it’s community,” he said. “They’re all in the same age group – post college – they have that same desire to study Scripture, to learn, to grow and to share what it means to be a young adult in today’s society.”