Youthlincs A crosslincs special supplement
www.lincoln.anglican.org/youth
The cutting edge:
Meet the team:
Youth projects in the Diocese of Lincoln Page 2
Learn more about the staff of the Diocese of Lincoln’s Children and Youth Service Page 2
The young at heart Tim Ellis Bishop of Grantham “The vision is for a Church that takes young people seriously. It is a Church where young people fully and actively participate at every level. It is a Church that is built on good relationships, where young people are concerned, not only with each other, but with those inside and outside the Church.” It’s not a bad vision, is it? And it’s one that’s been around for a long, long time. The report from which the excerpt comes, Youth a Part, was written in 1996 and set out a wide-ranging, visionary and hopeful way forward for the Church’s involvement with young people. How are we doing in Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire? Sadly, for some Church communities in the Diocese of Lincoln, the concerns of young people are just not very high on the agenda. The oft-heard cry of “we don’t have any young people in this village” gives us an easy let out, an excuse for not sitting down and working out what we could, and should, be doing for the young. Even more frequently heard is that “the children are the Church of the future” when we should be saying “they are the Church of today”: why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? All of this looks a bit lame when we consider the thousands of children who daily attend our church schools across the Diocese; the remarkably successful engagement with children and young people in so many parishes, including in some very small villages. It also ignores the work that is being done by the Diocesan Children and Young People’s team. There is excellent work going on out there, and it is often in some pretty tough situations.
The Diocese of Lincoln Children and Youth Service The Old Palace Minster Yard Lincoln LN2 1PU 01522 50 40 67
What hallmarks do these pieces of work carry? First: they are places where the young are taken seriously. Jesus said: “Let the children come to me... for of these is the Kingdom of God” and: “I came that they may have life, and have it all abundance.” Two basic truths flow from this: that children have a lot to teach us jaded adults; and that we, as Kingdom builders, should be concerned about enabling young people to flourish. Where these two factors are present, work with children and young people is creative and productive. Secondly: work with the young flourishes where adults allow change and innovation. Much of our worship and Church life can seem as dry as dust to the young. We need to listen to them, and we need to learn how these dry bones might live once again.
This might result in different ways of worshipping and a change in the sense of community. Are we up for it, prepared to pay the price and therefore ready to be surprised by joy? Thirdly: There isn’t just one way of working with the young. In some places, the tried and tested model of the youth club will still work, but, in other places with different young people, different adults and a different set of needs, then something different will need to be tried. There are many ways to engage with the young, remembering that what worked last year may not work now. One thing is certain, that where we try to help the young to make their own way in life − spiritually, lovingly and materially − we may be surprised to find that we ourselves are renewed. Is the Diocese of Lincoln ready to be surprised by the joy the young can bring?
“Enabling young people to be healthy, stay safe, enjoy, achieve and make a positive contribution.”
Autumn 2011
Happy band of Pilgrims: The original Christian get-away Page 3
Never mind the quality Once upon a time there was a television sitcom based in a small tailoring firm entitled Never mind the quality – feel the width. The running gag was that quantity was more important that quality; in terms of work with children and young people that would be like saying: “it doesn’t matter what you do with them – as long as they turn up.” There is a form of youth or children’s work that seem to use numbers as its sole measure of success; the Warehouse model of provision. Of course, numbers can be important, but more important is the quality of work which goes on. We have a duty to God, whom we represent and in whose name we work, to the children and young people who we work with, to their parents or carers and to the Church which sanctions our efforts to do the best which we can, to make a high standard of provision. To help with this we provide the Bishops’ Best Practice Awards, which are both a recognition of, and a guide to, what is needed for safe, effective work with children and young people. As well as an obvious concern with safeguarding and health and safety, proper records being kept and permissions gained, the best work with children and young people should also involve them in decisionmaking, in planning their programme, deciding how budgets should be spent and taking responsibility – at the level appropriate to their age and ability – for their own activities. The Diocesan Participation Policy gives some guidance on this, but for more help in its implementation, the Youth Animateur, or any other member of the DoLCYS central staff is there to help. For more information and policy documents, visit www.lincoln.anglican.org/youth
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Examples of very good work E1W: Run it or ruin it – the youth group dilemma David Rowett Barton upon Humber One of the young people should be writing this – but they’re all away, so it’s left to one of the adults to do the necessary. In a way, that just about sums up running a Church Youth Group – picking up enough of the pieces to hold things together without bunging it all up. Barton's E1W (Every One Welcome) has been running for three or four years as an open, Church-sponsored youth group. Numbers are small, between ten and twenty, and the degree of contact with the Church varies widely. The dynamics of the group change according to the dominant age group as well – the direction appropriate to the present group (average age about 15) isn’t the same as it was when they were 12. As far as we can manage it, the initiative lies with the young people. We leaders make suggestions (and, of course, have the essential role of safeguarding and the rest), but we try and
respond to their thoughts and ideas. It’s taken us to some unusual places – our viewing of Frankenstein might raise some Christian eyebrows, but the (unbidden) perceptive comments of the group were instructive: “The monster is the only moral character in the story,” said one 14-year old. Their spontaneous discussion of Just War theory was more insightful than I’ve heard from some clergy. The young people themselves put in a successful funding bid for an Internet café project. They seem to repay our trust. If we get the balance between direction and non-direction right on average, that’s probably because 50% of the time we err on one side and 50% of the time on the other. I’m sure we make mistakes. But so far, our young folk have been remarkably forgiving. Jenny and her team of workers at Barton have also enabled the young people to explore the use of labyrinths in worship, creating season-specific examples, which were then shared with the children in the local primary school.
BiZ: Youth-led activities The BiZ (Billinghay in Zone) opened in October 2008, but started long before that. Ray Smith (leader and motivating force) noticed that there were young people with nowhere to go on cold and dark evenings, hanging about on the streets of the village where he lives. Rather than decide what the young people were going to get, Ray consulted them, asked them what they wanted, and so the BiZ opened, a drop-in for young people aged between 13 and 19. “The BiZ starts from a point of giving the young people a place of warmth and safety by providing a free café for them to meet and be around with their friends,” said Ray. “Thereafter what happens in the drop-in is down to them.” The group started with just six but has
grown in size where 20 to 25 can be expected in an evening. “The young people are challenged to plan and organise their own activities, and it has been great to see their inventiveness and a can-do attitude among the group,” said Ray. “We started with a small planning group made up of four of the young people to begin the process of planning the weeks ahead. “Now they have an elected youth council. The young people have been guided in making a successful application for equipment. They chose the equipment for the activities they wanted to do. “We all look forward to exciting times ahead and to what the young people will bring to the life of our community, and maybe beyond.”
The Riddings Brigade: activities in Scunthorpe The Riddings Brigade is a one-night-a-week club for the eight to 12 age band. Based loosely on the Church Lads and Church Girls Brigade (CLCGB), it provides a mixed activity evening in the local Municipal Youth Centre, with the Revd Graham Lines acting as chaplain and encouraging links to celebrations in the local Church at Festival and other special occasions. After consultation with local children (a questionnaire in the local schools), a summer programme was organised, with extra sessions offering arts and crafts, drama, dance, music
and sports. The summer activities were funded with grants from North Lincolnshire Homes and The High Sheriffs’ and Humberside Police Tribune Trust. The Riddings Brigade is happening because of a partnership between parish, the CLCGB, the Diocese and North Lincolnshire Council; with the Church Community Fund, Lincolnshire Community Foundation and Lincolnshire Community Bank, the Tribune Trust and North Lincolnshire Homes acting as funding partners.
Expertise and experience It has been said before, and will be said again, that the important people when it comes to children’s and youth ministry in the Diocese of Lincoln are the hundreds (and probably over a thousand) of mostly volunteer workers who turn up, every week, to deliver the work on the ground. These people, and the work that they do, are the Children and Youth Service of the Diocese of Lincoln. The task of those of us who are based at the Diocesan offices is to support, enable, develop and add value to that work. Who we are:
Dave Rose CA Diocesan Children and Youth Officer Dave’s main responsibilities are training; award schemes (for parishes, projects and schools); supporting, assisting and advising parishes and projects as they consider or develop work with children and young people, promoting such processes as Godly Play; encouraging pilgrimage and explorations in Christian spirituality and developing new initiatives.
Suzanne Starbuck Diocesan Support and Projects Worker Suzanne’s main responsibilities are to provide support, assistance and advice to parishes and projects in their work with children and young people, which will include training and award schemes as appropriate; responsibility for local resource centres; Diocesan-wide projects, such as Green Reflections (see page 4) which parishes, projects and schools, can opt into.
Vacant Post Diocesan Youth Animateur This post is all to do with children and young people being involved in governance, in having a voice and making a difference. This is to implement the Diocesan participation policy, and includes enabling a network of youth synods, moderating the Get Connected young people’s website and supporting a team of Deanery Youth Enablers.
Jane Leighton Admin Support Jane works for a few hours each Friday, and most of her time is spent administering the registration process, the group insurance scheme, and keeping the records and sending out certificates acociated with the Bishops’ Best Practice Awards, Church Children’s Achievement Awards and Bishop’s Youth Achievement Awards.
Further details of the team members can be found on the Diocesan website: www.lincoln.anglican.org/youth
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Service at every level In the Diocese of Lincoln, most work with children and young people takes place at parish, deanery or some intermediate level. The work is mainly delivered by teams of dedicated volunteers, who give up their time to do this vital, but often-neglected work. The Diocese of Lincoln Children and Youth Service (DoLCYS) exists to enable this work to happen; to provide advice, training and support for all of those who are involved, or who wish to be involved in work with children and young people. Support is provided by a full time Diocesan Children and Youth Officer, a part-time Support and Projects Worker, a part-time Youth Animator, and a few hours of adminstrative support. Help from DoLCYS can come at any time in the life of a piece of work: Getting Started • Help with the visioning process of deciding what is the way forward where you are • Advice and assistance on the building blocks that need to be in place, including management training • Model constitutions, documents and proforma, just ready to adapt and adopt • A whole range of online help and information sheets Keeping Going • Training for workers and managers • A quality assurance process via the Bishop’s Best Practice Awards recommendations and • Reviews, resources, online and in Resource Centres • Issue-based handouts • An insurance scheme • Added value to what parishes and projects can offer, by way of the Bishop’s Youth and Church Children’s Achievement Awards; special Diocesan projects such as the Green Reflections Project or the DofE Gold residential camp; subsidised pilgrimages to Walsingham or Taize; something that we have not thought of, but you have • An audit or health check – an outside pair of eyes to help you see the next step • Someone at the end of the phone or an email, who will listen and help you to find the solution to your issues
To be a pilgrim? David Rowett Barton upon Humber For some, pilgrimage lies somewhere between the eccentric and the downright antique (cue Chaucer). But the experience of being away from the usual environment, in company with
other fellow-travellers in the faith, ‘mucking in together’ in a place where, as T S Eliot puts it, “prayer has been valid for centuries” — it’s something which you can only understand by taking the plunge and experiencing it. There are plenty of pilgrimages on offer, ancient and not-so-ancient: St Hugh’s
Lincoln (of course), Iona, Lindisfarne, Walsingham, Taizé; Santiago and Assisi for the adventurous. Common to them all is this sense of being in a ‘thin’ place, away from the usual landmarks, gathered in fellowship with others to be open to God — and returning just slightly different.
Walsingham 2011 As a thunderstorm raged over Walsingham, I wondered how I’d landed the job of cooking Bolognese in our alfresco kitchen (twoburners-and-a-barbeque) while the other twelve of the Barton and Brigg contingent from the E1W youth group at the Youth Pilgrimage lounged cosily in our dining tent. But the previous evening’s barefoot walking of the Holy Mile and the outdoor worship with which it ended had been on a perfect summer evening; the air incense-heavy, the scene lit by our candles, as 800 (mostly) young people grew into intense, absolute silence in an atmosphere electric with prayer. And after the storm, in the small hours, our group kept vigil (almost) alone in the darkened, cavernous worship space, aware that for a half-hour the awesome calling of holding the world up to God had been entrusted to us. This was our second time at the Walsingham Youth Pilgrimage: it would be good to double the diocesan numbers for 2012. Next time, please may I cook out of the rain? Pilgrimage at Home There are ways of going on a pilgrimage while staying at home. Medieval people attempted to replicate the experience of the Jerusalem Pilgrimage while staying in one place by using Labyrinths, and many Cathedrals built at the time have a Labyrinth marked on the floor. Today the use of prayer and movement has been re-discovered, and the young people at Barton upon Humber have experimented with seasonal constructions. If you wish to find out more, contact Fr David on 01652 632202 or at davidrowett@aol.com
Members of the E1W youth group relax at Walsingham Taizé 2011 Taizé is an international and ecumenical monastic community based a small village of the same name in Burgundy, France. Throughout the year it welcomes young people from around the world to come and spend time living in community, prayer, silence and sharing. During the summer there are usually between 2,000 and 5,000 young people there each week. A group of 13 young people aged 16 to 29 and two adults from Lincoln and Leicester spent a week on pilgrimage in Taizé this summer. For some it was a first visit and others a return to a much loved place of retreat. The week has a structure to it consisting of prayer three times a day, meeting with a Brother of the community and meeting in
international small groups for sharing and fun. Taizé is a place where people can take a break from the busyness of life and spend time thinking, sharing and reflecting on their life, as well as meet lots of new people. This was true for some of the group this year. The time away gave them a perspective on life that they would not have been able to get at home. Some returned excited about the future, and some with a new determination and sense of peace in tackling those difficult things that lay ahead. There will be a trip going from Lincoln Diocese again next summer. If you are interested and would like to know more, please contact the Revd Jonnie Parkin for more details on 01522 794275 or at jonnie.parkin@tiscali.co.uk
Resourcing work with young people Dave Rose Diocesan Children and Youth Officer There are many resources to help us in our work with children and young people. Of course the most important resource available to any worker is themselves, their skills, their confidence and their knowledge. There is help and advice from all over the place. Anyone with a computer and a search engine can soon find more experts than they will know what to do with, though with many of them a policy of ignoring would probably be best. There is, of course, the team at the Diocesan offices, and a plethora of books and magazines. There is a selection at the Diocesan offices,
a growing choice at the regional resource centres, and of course resources can be purchased from your local Christian book seller. As well as that in the Diocesan offices, there are presently five resource centres located throughout the Diocese: in Grantham, Spalding, Lincoln, Scunthorpe, and we are seeking a volunteer to run the Cleethorpes centre. There is, of course, a whole selection of processes, techniques and methodologies to be learned and deployed. Godly Play and Reflective Story Telling offers a process which can enable the listeners to engage afresh with Biblical truths, setting the story free to take root and grow, acquiring new meaning for the listeners.
Training is offered once a year, and it is hoped that the material will become available at the resource centres. Messy Church provides a method of engaging all ages with worship, and the Revd Ian Walters, the Diocesan co-ordinator, wrote: “Messy Church is a now increasingly popular method of inviting young people together with parents into a Christian environment. “It works for toddlers to teens, and as the rules are that young people must be accompanied by an adult, we find that often mums and dads will come too. It can be advertised it through local primary schools, and it is best held either immediately after school hours or at the weekend. “Easy-to-follow course books give exam-
ples of how to operate themed craft and activity tables which are the first hour or more of each session, followed by a 20 minute worship session based on the theme. The final 30 to 40 minutes are the eating session, with simple meals suggested in the book. The idea works as the sessions are great fun but you do need a team of at least ten adults. “It’s a great way to do some basic Christian teaching but also to build relationships between your church and local young families. It certainly works – try it!” Passing on information on what works is a vital service that we offer our fellow toilers in the harvest field. So if it works, write it up for us. Contacts us at youth@lincoln.anglican.org
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Environmental focus
Woodworking at Hill Holt Wood Suzanne Starbuck Diocesan Support and Projects Worker A Diocesan project to inspire young people towards higher self-esteem and confidence through environmental activities has already been a great success. The Green Reflections project was inspired by the Bishop of Grantham and his friend Colin Izod, who took an educational lead in the Cape Farewell project − which brings artists, scientists and communicators together to stimulate the production of art founded in scientific research. Bishop Tim’s vision was to launch a similar project within the Diocese of Lincoln which gave opportunities to young people who may not otherwise encounter them. Green Reflections is available for young people in parishes, schools, youth groups or other organisations and links with the Bishop’s Youth Awards which recognise and celebrate children and young people’s achievements. The Green Reflections project has important working partnerships with Hill Holt Wood − a 34-acre woodland near Newark operating as an environmental social enterprise, the Lincolnshire Butterfly Conservation Group, Freiston Education Centre and Lincolnshire Heritage at Risk. Green Reflections welcomes the voices and choices of young people about their
environment, ecology, conservation, heritage and preservation of the natural elements and balance in the natural world. We wish to know how young people want to be involved with this project and then discuss with partners how and where events could take place. Green Reflections has worked together with Hill Holt Wood to provide a Duke of Edinburgh residential event in April with a focus on green woodworking skills. A group of young people spent a week camping at Hill Holt Wood and developed skills to create a love seat (a bench with two seats in opposite directions) from a tree trunk using heritage skills. The seat is currently being used to good effect at Hill Holt Wood as a seat for the bride and groom at wedding events. Young people camping for the week were able to claim their Duke of Edinburgh Awards and Bishop’s Award Certificates. The Diocese of Lincoln youth team is working closely with rangers at Hill Holt Wood to plan further events to support young people to achieve new skills, certification, self-esteem, confidence and to become involved with community projects. Events being planned will develop heritage skills in green woodworking, stone masonry, lime-plastering and other building skills. Camping facilities are available and a variety of activities are being planned.
A group of young people from a rurallyisolated area attended Hill Holt Wood for one day and created a half lap joint with a peg − quite an achievement in such a short time. Two of the young people may apply to go on the NEETS (Not in Education, Employment or Training) programme as a result of their experience. Lincolnshire Heritage at Risk is running many events through out the year and would like to encourage more young people to participate. Diocese of Lincoln’s youth team is working in partnership to enable young people to access heritage and archaeological experiences. Ideas from young people are welcomed to plan future events. Skills development through voluntary work surveying and monitoring buildings at
“A group of young people from a rurally-isolated area attended Hill Holt Wood for one day and created a half lap joint with a peg − quite an achievement in such a short time”
risk is available to both adults and young people. This is beneficial for those wishing to update a CV or decide on a career. Intergenerational working has a positive effect on all age groups. The Lincolnshire Butterfly Conservation is working in partnership with the Diocese’s youth team to support young people to appreciate and preserve habitat for butterflies. There are events throughout the year held at different venues led by experts in their field. Monitoring forms are available should groups wish to identify and record butterflies in their area. Freiston Education Centre is awarding the Bishop’s Award certificates for special residential weeks and family days which allow parents of children with disabilities some respite while the young people enjoy ponddipping, art, music led by the Lincolnshire Music Improvement Service, and other activities on a Saturday. A total of 53 Bishop’s Award Certificates for Green Reflection modules have been awarded so far this year to children and young people. There will be many more when young people take part in the exciting activities being planned. For further information about Green Reflections modules, events and awards contact Suzanne Starbuck on 01522 504068, 07850 303281 or by e-mail at suzanne.starbuck@lincoln.anglican.org