One month into her new job as Canon for Thunderhead Episcopal Camp & Diocesan & Youth Ministries, Sierra Kacher knows this: “It is such a privilege to get to steward (camp). I’m so excited! God only knows what TEC is going to be like 10 years from now, 30 years from now, but this is a starting over. This is our ‘phoenix’ moment!”
Canon Sierra moved to South Dakota in late March, started her new job on April 1, and is already immersed in the Season of Renewal and Refreshment at TEC, as well as reaching out to church leaders to discuss ideas for diocesan youth programs.
“I get to help build the future of camp building and youth ministry building,” she exclaimed. “That’s why I’m going to be here for a while. There is so much possibility already that I have seen, and growth.”
And, she said, “there are so many people I get to learn from, and of course, it does not hurt that the Black Hills are so beautiful.”
Canon Sierra lives in Rapid City with her grandmother, Lynne Gore, and her rescue dog, Melli. “It’s been pretty welcoming, and people have given me space to learn,” she said. “I think the biggest challenge is building relationships … I welcome people introducing themselves to me. I might not have an answer to your question yet, but … I’m working to find (the answer), and I want to build relationships in the meantime.”
Working with diocesan camps and in youth ministry is not new to Canon Sierra. Growing up in southwestern Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, she sang in the choir — “I was the youngest ever choir member, starting at 9 years old,” she says — went to Sunday School, took part in the Youth Group program, and became involved in diocesan events in the seventh grade. “The Church was the first place that equipped me for leadership and believed in me doing ministry,” she says.
In her ministry over the years, she has participated in and led a lot of youth retreats, as well as weekend youth programs. She was “super involved” in programming by the Diocese of Springfield, including New Beginnings and Happening. “I also did annual work weeks, youth work weeks, where we traveled and did service projects around the churches in the area where I grew up.”
Canon Sierra also participated in national youth events, including YouthQuake. “At the time, that was great for me,” she said, “because I hadn’t realized how large the Episcopal Church was, or that there were folks who shared the same faith traditions as me. And it helped give me a different worship experience (from) what I was used to. My congregation was relatively high church, but YouthQuake had a worship band and different music. It was a new way of connecting with God and other people.”
That experience, she said, taught her that “camp is especially a place where young people can experience God in new and yet familiar ways. That is part of the beauty of our liturgy. It’s also an opportunity to pray in new ways, to hear different voices in worship, and to take ownership of the worship and take ownership of church,” she said. “Camp worship especially shows young people that it is the work of all of us together that makes worship, not just clergy.”
Canon Sierra had an internship in Hawai’i, at All Saints Episcopal Church in Kapa’a, on the island of Kaua’i, that impacted her approach to camp and youth ministries.
“Hawai’i was culturally so different than anywhere else where I had lived,” she said. “The congregation I served there started as a Japanese congregation, and Hawai’i has such a mixture of Pacific Islander and Asian and American diversities coming together in a way that makes it a blend. I went to Hawai’i from San Diego, where I worked as a nanny and an intern at Camp Stevens, the Diocese of San Diego’s camp.
“The church needed a youth minister, and they had a cottage and a car, and it was too small of a program to be an Episcopal Service Corps position, so the rector created this internship.”
She said that she “thought I was coming in to reform the youth ministry, but what really needed to happen — I was 22, 23 (years old) — was that I fell in love with congregational ministry. That church in particular is a pillar in the community, and it opened my eyes to what a congregation can do in community.”
She added that “the emphasis of family (in Hawai’i) was different from where I had grown up, that it was much more family-based, and as a culture that taking care of your family came before sports or youth group, in a way that I was unaccustomed to. The environment and the care for the environment was deeper and rooted to Kanaka, which are Native Hawaiian beliefs and culture.”
“The biggest thing it taught me,” Canon Sierra said, “was that the best way to learn is shutting up and listening. I don’t have any plans on overarching changes or new programs. I want to learn and hear what has happened. I want to celebrate what has happened, and move forward together.”
Canon Sierra said that her grandmother Lynne, who is 74, came to South Dakota with her because “we are close, and she is part of my family unit. She was a big part of my growing up. My mom was a single mom, so my grandparents were a huge part of my life. Family relationships are important me.”
“Family and kinship has always meant more to me than a diagram of a family tree; it is the relationship and village that helped raise me. And from what I have heard, my experiences with kin align with the Lakota/Dakota way of family, and knowing your place in a familial unit.”
In addition to playing with “Melli-Dog,” Canon Sierra said she loves “performing; I’m a big ham, and so I’m looking forward to getting involved in community theater or improv … I have already found a couple of groups in Rapid. I enjoy the outdoors — I’m not a backpacker, but I do like to camp. You can almost always find me with my nose in a book, or listening to an audiobook (which I believe counts as reading). I’m also a crafter, cross-stitch is my main craft, but also paper crafting, and I want to learn how to quilt,” she said. “‘Melli-Dog’ is a rescue, a terrier mix, and she will take some warming up to people, but even if she doesn’t always say ‘hi,' she’s excited to come to South Dakota, too. She will become a camp dog; this summer will be her trial run. We’ll see how things go with work weeks.”
Canon Sierra Kacher.