LYNNFIELD — A group of young adult divers from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lynnfield will be making a “Creation Care” pilgrimage to the island of Bonaire, off the coast of Venezuela, to study the current state of oceans, in February.
The young adults are embarking on the pilgrimage to Bonaire in order to engage in long-term service work to keep the oceans healthy for generations to come.
St. Paul’s Rev. Rob Bacon, a former U.S. Navy diver who logged over 1,000 hours under water during his time in the Navy, will be leading the young adult divers. Rev. Bacon has remained an avid recreational, technical and wreck diver since leaving the Navy to enter the ministry.
A Rocha’s International Marine Conservation Program Lead Scientist Dr. Bob Sluka and Creation Justice Ministries Executive Director Avery Davis Lamb will be joining Rev. Bacon and the young adult divers. Rev. Bacon said the team of three leaders and the young adult divers will be able to “witness God’s majestic and awe-inspiring handiwork beneath the surface of our oceans as they simultaneously discern their specific call to become stewards of our oceans.”
During his recent sabbatical, Rev. Bacon studied the present state of the oceans with experts from a variety of agencies and organizations around the country. Upon his return to St. Paul’s, he invited the Young Adult Ministry group to become certified in scuba so that he could take them diving and show them what he had learned.
The young adult divers’ team’s three-stage open water diving training took place during the fall of 2024 and comprised an online learning component, dive sessions in a local pool and then instructed ocean dives. Their first post-certification dive trip was to Key Largo, Florida this past November. The young adult divers’ trip to Bonaire will be their second.
“The goal is for these young adults to become the new wave of leadership in the Church’s Creation Care ministries as they take on specific tasks with clear goals,” said Rev. Bacon. “This project has been made possible by the generous gifts of an anonymous donor who is not a member of their church.
The parish of St. Paul’s, founded in Lynnfield in 1918, is a growing parish of the Episcopal Church that works to connect with God and each other through worship, prayer, service, and study. For more information about St. Paul’s, visit www.stpaulslynnfield.org or call the church office at 781-334-4594.