August 21 – 24, 2025, over 360 youth, home team leaders, volunteers, members of the planning team and bishops came together on Treaty 6 land and the home of the Métis, in Saskatoon, SK for the 2025 Canadian Lutheran Anglican Youth (CLAY) gathering.
Rooted and Rising, this year’s gathering theme, explored how we drawn strength from faith and community, and how that grounds us while we rise up to meet the challenges of today with courage, love and hope. Over the four days, youth ages 14-19, participated in Large Group Gatherings—worshipping and learning together. Durign their time together, youth also participated in a full day at Wanuskewin Heritage Park, located northeast of Saskatoon. Wanuskewin, the nēhiyawēwin (Plains Cree) word roughly translated as ‘seeking peace of mind’ has been a sacred site and gathering place for more than 6,400 years.
Deacon Gretchen Peterson, assistant to the national bishop for youth and leadership at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), shared that one of her highlights was during some time spent doing sidewalk art, and experiencing youth participants, “just chatting with each other and being very open about who they are.”
One of the hopes of CLAY is to provide space for youth to come and be their authentic self, explained Peterson, “seeing glimmers of this happen throughout the four days together reminded me of how important gatherings like this are for youth as they are becoming who God wants them to be and as they are figuring out this whole faith thing.”
CLAY is a national gathering of the ELCIC and Anglican Church of Canada that takes place every two years. At the conclusion of this year’s event, it was revealed that the next CLAY will take place in 2027 in Nanaimo, BC.
