PARISH SUPPORT – The Youth Council Youth Group initiative assisted in the formation of three new church youth groups during 2006. These included the formation of a new Churches Together youth group that involved every church in March, Cambridgeshire. The support for this new group included the leading of ten youth group sessions and provided training sessions for new youth leaders. The Youth Officer continued to visit youth groups set up by this initiative since 2000 and five churches that held holding special worship events involving young people. The officer also led two church youth weekends, nine invitations to preach and three summer parish youth events.
DIOCESAN YOUTH AUDIT – A youth ministry audit was carried out by youth council in early 2006. This invited all churches in the diocese to share the extent of their contact with young people aged 11-25. 94 churches submitted data for this survey and, overall, the Youth Council and the Board of Education & Training were encouraged by many of the findings of the subsequent report. This report formed the basis for a Youth Council Reflection Day led by the youth officer and Frontier Youth Ministries.
DIOCESAN EVENTS. – The Rave in the Nave continued to draw huge numbers of young people to our Cathedral. 1400 young people and their leaders attended the event in 2006. In the spring of 2006, eight church youth groups took part in a diocesan ‘It’s A Knockout’ fun afternoon held at St Andrew’s School in Soham. The day consisted of an afternoon of games and competitions followed by worship and presentation of prizes for the winners. The diocese also partnered and resourced several ecumenical youth events during 2006.
TRAINING – The Youth Officer led the Authorized (Youth) Lay Minister course during 2006. This included the planning, compiling and leading training sessions for four people who later went on to be commissioned as Authorised Lay Youth Ministers. The youth officer also led a day training session for over one hundred people involved in the entire ALM course in March 2006. In the autumn of 2006, we held another very popular Toolkit Training Day for youth leaders at St Peter’s School in Huntingdon. 120 youth leaders attended. It included twenty workshops for clergy, lay ministers and youth leaders offering them advice, resources and fresh ideas for their youth ministry. Youth Leader Training and Resources were also available at Rave in the Nave 2006.
SECONDARY SCHOOLS – The youth officer led assemblies in secondary schools throughout the diocese and distributed copies of ‘Collected Together’ resources. The Youth Officer also had great pleasure in presenting the prizes to students at St Bede’s School at the close of the summer term.
WEBSITE - The diocesan website continues to be a major source of information distribution and Christian event listings. Ticket information and downloadable booking forms for youth council events have also been available for the first time in 2006.
NEW RESOURCES – The Youth Council leaflet, ‘The Youth-friendly Parish Church – Sixty Fresh Ideas’ formed the basis of visits to nine PCC’s and two deanery synods during 2006. It was met quite favourably at most meetings and every church discovered that it does something already, or could easily achieve with little or no cost. The youth officer continues to post new resources on the website and via the youth leader database.
David Waters
DIOCESAN YOUTH AUDIT – A youth ministry audit was carried out by youth council in early 2006. This invited all churches in the diocese to share the extent of their contact with young people aged 11-25. 94 churches submitted data for this survey and, overall, the Youth Council and the Board of Education & Training were encouraged by many of the findings of the subsequent report. This report formed the basis for a Youth Council Reflection Day led by the youth officer and Frontier Youth Ministries.
.
.
.
.
.