Page 3 - Moravian Messenger April 2019

Review of Youth Work in the British Province
Many of you may know, but I'm sure some of you don't, that there was a panel set up at Synod 2016 to review the youth and children's work in the province. This panel had members from all the provincial committees and were tasked with producing a report for Synod 2018. Although this report is available to anyone, Provincial Youth and Children's Committee (PYCC) felt it would be of interest to the wider church so I hope to present to you here some of the information and the observations they made as well as the task they have set PYCC.
The review panel produced and circulated two questionnaires, one for congregations and one for young people. I, as Provincial Youth and Children's Officer, was also asked what I thought.
One of the primary questions the panel asked was 'What is youth and children's work for?' Perhaps this is a question you can consider as there is no 'right answer'. A range of responses revealed that although the work may not be a priority for all congregations it is considered important. Many congregations were lacking people in the 25-50 age group and the panel wondered if this was because of lack of provision for children and young people. The work that is happening is valued and there are people in the province with the skills and experience to do this work but there is no way of sharing them with the wider church. Although most congregations have a desire to
'do something' they often don't know how. The transition from children's provision to being in church is another area where more work needs to be done. What is it that encourages young people to engage with the church after children's groups? The panel felt that providing opportunities for young people to use their gifts in the congregation would be helpful.
The report was presented, with some statistics, to Synod 2018. Two members of the Review Panel put a proposal to Synod which tasked PYCC to provide materials for congregations to do an audit of their current work, their human and physical resources and opportunities for working in the community, identify areas for development and to resource new work. This was passed at Synod and so is a resolution which now must be implemented by PYCC.
Members of the Provincial Youth and Children's Committee are now working on this. Every meeting will have time allocated to discuss progress and how to move forward on this. The committee soon realised this was not something to be done overnight but will take time to be done well. So please be patient, this issue isn't being shelved but is being worked on systematically.
Sr Joy Raynor
Provincial Youth and Children's Officer
‘Tis mystery all
A covenant is a binding agreement within a relationship, both the sign and the means of intimacy. The fruit of the tree of the knowledge in the Garden of Eden, and the Golden Calf at Mount Sinai both symbolise how easily we turn our attention away from God and onto things that we can possess and consume instead. This is idolatry, desiring and worshipping things, instead of God. Taking one's attention away from God leads to turning away from God and that is sin. It involves selfishness and greed leading to injustice and violence, bigotry and hatred. All of this tears God's heart in two, because we were created to love one another and use things. Instead we use one another and love things, so turning our backs on God completely.
What then can God do to restore our relationship with him, with one another and with the whole of creation? God takes the initiative and does six impossible things before breakfast. The creator becomes part of creation; the
one who is Everything becomes small enough to fit inside Mary's womb. God experiences what it's like to be human from the inside. In St Paul's words, God empties himself taking the form of a slave and being found in human form he humbles himself and becomes obedient to the point of death. In this way Love challenges and subverts all the structures of human power and domination.
Even more mysteriously, at the point of death God experiences separation from God, when Jesus cries out, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' God penetrates the depths and darkness of the human lot - separation from God - and brings there the presence of the fullness of love. From then on every human experience of absence becomes a Presence, and every human experience of emptiness becomes a Fullness. Just as a grain of wheat, falling into the ground and dying, bears much fruit so in rising from the tomb, Jesus begins God's new creation. The prophets long before had
begun to speak of new heavens and a new earth and this becomes a reality in the midst of human history at Jesus's resurrection.
Amazingly God entrusts and engages us in the process of transformation. As Paul says, 'if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the Ministry of reconciliation .' This is because the church, in the power of the spirit, continues to embody the loving serving presence of the Creator within creation, in the midst of his gathered disciples, through his Word and through the Eucharist. What
a challenge! What a privilege!
Br Martin Smith
Minister at Royton and Salem Congregations
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