Rock the Priory

For more information about the bands who will be playing at Rock the Priory this year, check out their websites

Sounds of Salvation
The Damage
Jacob Lloyd

More news later this year about the great pre-booking deals we have for groups coming from our churches! It'll be £5 on the door but we can offer you much better deals for groups booking ahead.

Grenbelt Youth

I just got this message through from the youth co-ordinator at Greenbelt.

If you're taking a youth group this year, why not get involved with this innovative project to get the young people excited in preparation for the trip

We are looking for groups of crafty people to help us make the Greenbelt 2013 festival site even more vibrant. Could your group help us by making some big flags? These will be 5m, eye catching flags. We hope this will be a great way for your young people to get involved and feel ownership over a part of the festival. We have also teamed up with vInspired to be able to offer nationally recognised certificates to our volunteers. 

If your groups are able to get involved (and your young people are aged 14-25) then they could count the hours given in this task towards their award. See our website for more information: 

If this sounds like something you, your friends, your church or youth group might be interested in then please get in touch with our designer Saga at vibing (at) greenbelt.org.uk. 

Some additional information: Greenbelt 2013 is our 40th festival and will take place 23 - 26 August at Cheltenham Racecourse. If you haven't bought your tickets yet you can still make a saving on the August price; Don't forget that if you buy ten tickets you will get an eleventh ticket free.

CandY at THE BIG Synod 2013 2/3/13

REMEMBER TO JOIN US FOR THE BIG SYNOD ON SATURDAY 2nd MARCH 

This will be an opportunity for the church to listen to the voices of children and young people. The synod will be looking at issues of youth unemployment as well as reflecting on our calling to be Kingdom People and the recent survey completed by all the churches in the diocese and what implications that has for the future.

Details of Venue and times coming soon.

We'd like young people from EVERY DEANERY to join us. 

Need Inspiration?

How about checking out this story from a group of young people in one of our parishes?

Hear all about their trip to Uganda and the work they did both in preparation to go and when they were there.

Fancy a new challenge? A trip abroad?

There are two challenge opportunities for you

How about three weeks hands on experience as a steward at the World Council of Churches’ meeting in Korea. 150 young people from round the world are to be recruited. Travel costs will need to be met, but all other expenses are covered. Closing date for applications is 7th February 2013.

or fancy something more challenging?

How about joining CMS on a sponsored trek to Machu Picchu in our link diocese of Peru? 27 April – 9 May 2013 Journey along the world-famous Andean mountain trails to see astounding views over Machu Picchu, while raising much-needed money for mission.

This amazing trek will be led by professional tour company Discover Adventure, who will provide full training advice.

Plus, travel to Lima to meet our Mission Partners Paul and Sarah Tester as well as the disabled children being invited into life in all its fullness, and the children of a play project in a deprived area of the city.

Paul and Sarah say: "We are looking forward to welcoming you to the Diocese of Peru and having the chance to show you the many ways CMS is involved in God’s mission here. You will get the chance to visit parishes and missions, meet Peruvian Christians and see some of the projects through which the diocese serves others and shares the gospel through word and deed."

Hope Academies

I hope some of you may have heard about the Hope Revolution initiative to get churches of all denominations together to form Mission Academies for young people.

You can read more about it all here and a pdf booklet of information is downloadable here

In Worcestershire and Dudley, we’d like to gather together youth workers and church leaders from all the churches and Christian organizations to work towards establishing some Mission Academies for the area. Currently there are pilot schemes in places like Leicester, York and Rugby.

We’d probably be aiming to work towards Mission Academies in our area as part of the main initiative in 2014.

To help inspire us, Roy Crowne, Executive Director of Hope since March 2010, has generously offered to come and speak to local leaders in Worcestershire and Dudley on Saturday 2nd February from 10am-2pm at St Peter’s Baptist Church in Worcester

Join our facebook event for the meeting here

Roy will talk to us about Mission Academies and then over lunch we will work out how we might get things started in our area. PLEASE BRING A PACKED LUNCH as we’d like to make as much funding available for young people’s mission not spend it on lunch for us!

If you would like to be part of this day, please let me know by emailing me via wdyou(at)cofe-worcester.org.uk as this will help us get an idea of numbers.

If you know someone in another church or Christian organisation nearby who might also be interested in working together on this ecumenical youth project, please do put them in touch with me

National Statistics

Following the Census of 2011, some of the data is now available.

If you are interested in finding out about the change in the religious make up of the country or issues for young people why not check out the statistics here.

Tryangle Awards

Worcestershire Council for Voluntary Youth Services (WCVYS) has launched the eighth annual Tryangle Awards.

The Tryangle Awards, supported in 2013 by Worcester Bosch, are a way of celebrating and recognising the efforts and achievements of young people from across Worcestershire. The Tryangle Awards are unique to Worcestershire as they put into the spotlight many young people who are so often unsung heroes and recognise the hard work and value that young people bring to their communities.

In launching the Awards WCVYS manager Phil Street said that ‘The Tryangle Awards are about recognising and celebrating effort; we are not only celebrating the high fliers, but we want to applaud the real triers too. Amongst the young people who received an award last year was someone that had cared for sick parents, a young person who had turned their life around after being in trouble with the police and a group of young people from a hospice who, despite some severe health issues, had been trained so they could ensure young people at the hospice had a voice about what is important to them’. Phil said that ‘Every young person nominated will receive a certificate to show that his or her efforts have been recognised’.

Nominations have to be for young people aged from 11 to 19 and up to 24 for young people with a disability. Nominations are welcomed from anybody who has an involvement with young people - teachers, youth workers, care workers, sports coaches, volunteers, family and friends are all welcome to acknowledge the efforts made by young people. Nominations must be made online by visiting.

Nominations close on Friday 15th February 2013.  Please see the attached leaflet for full details of the Tryangle Awards.

Pilgrim Paths

Pilgrim Paths provides some reflective resources such as FABRIC FINGER LABYRINTHS – Simple, Classical style finger labyrinths that are printed on 100% cotton – they are prayerful, light, soft, safe, washable and affordable at just £4.99 (+p&p) and come with a gentle guide to praying with labyrinths… So easy to pop into a bag and take with you anywhere

They also create LABYRINTH PRAYER WALKS – free downloadable labyrinth prayer walks – new ones each month - Lent and Holy Week now available for download. Each Labyrinth Prayer Walk contains suggested prayers and a passage from Scripture for reflection. It is in an A4 format that can be folded to make a leaflet and is suitable for using with full sized labyrinths and finger labyrinths, for individuals and groups. It also has a blank back page for your own reflections, messages or notices.

Click HERE to visit the website and download your free Labyrinth Prayer Walk.

The Learning Exchange

The Learning Exchange is a free online network for extra-curricular practitioners and other professionals working with children and young people (Ages 5 – 14)  working in and around schools.

A wide range of free training is available including: improving outcomes through extra-curricular activities; developing your mentoring skills; social media master class; internet safety workshop; and Sage Accounts workshop.

One in a Million

The Frontier Youth trust have a great new FREE RESOURCE called ONE IN A MILLION to help churches think about the burning issue of Youth Unemployment.

This issue was discussed at general Synod in November. If you would like the church to reflect on the situation many young people face in the current job market why don’t you download their useful resource pack here or their summary of the research

Spring into Action 2013

Our annual training day for ALL those working with children and young people in our parishes returns on 27th April - this is a fantastic day of workshops and networking.

Get the date in your diary and

Keep a look out for further information soon

Confirmation Training

I will be leading a Confirmation Training session for Birmingham Diocese on Thursday 31st January at their new Diocesan Office right next door to Snow Hill station at 1 Colmore Row, Birmingham B3 2BJ from 7pm-9pm.

I’ll be encouraging people to consider the relevance of Confirmation, particularly in the light of the diocesan children and communion policy, and equipping participants to prepare young people for this important stage in their faith journey. explaining the process and principles of confirmation as well as sharing potential resources for preparing candidates for confirmation.

If you would like to participate in the course there is a cost of £5.

To book a place please email Jelena Cammack on
jelena(at)birmingham.anglican.org
or Telephone: 0121 426 0437.

CandY at Synod 2nd March

REMEMBER TO JOIN US FOR THE BIG SYNOD ON SATURDAY 2nd MARCH

This will be an opportunity for the church to listen to the voices of children and young people. The synod will be looking at issues of youth unemployment as well as reflecting on our calling to be Kingdom People and the recent survey completed by all the churches in the diocese and what implications that has for the future.

We want to hear from as many children and young people from as many churches in the diocese as possible so put the date in your diary.

Various Funding Opportunities

If you're looking for some funding for activities it might be worth checking out the following:

http://www.awardsforall.org.uk/england/index.html
http://www.foylefoundation.org.uk/small-grants-scheme/
https://www.giveachildabreakfast.co.uk/apply_for_funding.aspx
http://www.garfieldweston.org/
http://www.henrysmithcharity.org.uk/
http://www.lankellychase.org.uk/

Some specifically church focussed charities:
http://www.ccfund.org.uk/home/home
http://www.allchurches.co.uk/
http://www.churchcare.co.uk/

All trusts have specific targets so be sure to read all of the restrictions and information for applicants. You may find you can't apply but your local school or another partner might be able to.

Worcester Spirit Mark

Over the last few years, Emma and I have been so pleased to see churches engaging with the Worcester Spirit Mark. This scheme helps parishes celebrate their good practice with children and youth. It seeks to help parishes identify ways in which they could improve how they reach out to children and young people and the ways they are welcomed into and included within worship and day to day activities of the church. Recently we have awarded Bronze Awards to Drakes Broughton.

 The Bronze Award itself represents a set of minimum standards in children's and youth work and ask questions such as ‘Are all those who work with children and young people possess a Criminal Records Bureau Enhanced Certificate?’  For parishes which are going further in the way they include and welcome children and young people and the diocese will be awarding Silver where, for example training has been completed and Gold awards where children and young people are routinely involved in the planning and delivery of services.

Now that the scheme has been running for three years we are pleased to be able to promote these churches which are demonstrably welcoming to children and young people through our forthcoming Children and Youth Friendly Churches page of the diocesan website. All those who have achieved any level of the award will be listed as a church recommended for families looking for a church to attend. We’d love to be able to add more churches to this page so do have a look at the details of the scheme or download the Bronze award booklet. Do get in touch if you would like advice about exploring the Worcester Spirit Mark in your church.

Christmas resource

You might be interested to follow the progress of this new Christmas resource from SGM which presents the Christmas story for teens in a Japanese graphic style.

Celebrating the Kingdom

We’re hoping children and young people will be a big part of our Celebrating the Kingdom day at the Cathedral on 22nd September 10am-4pm. As part of the event I’ll be offering an MP3 led pilgrimage around the cathedral which has been made in collaboration with students from the University of Worcester. There’s also a big picnic and an all-age celebration service at 3pm.

New term, New Resources

If you have young people changing schools or heading off to university there are some resources that might be worth checking out.

For those starting secondary school, Scripture Union have something they have perfected over the last few years called It’s your move. See their leaflet for churches or the website for more details

If your young people are older and heading off to university then Youth for Christ have produced a new Mettle  book designed for the first term at university.

The Fusion network also offer a School leaver Pack to help young Christians connect with others at their new university as well as find churches in their new home town. Fusion also offers a leaders’ pack of four sessions to run with your teens before they head off to university.

Other new resources in the diocesan WARes include Soularium from Agape International which offers a set of images for reflection which would work really well with teenagers. The pack includes fifty images and five simple exploring questions that allow the user to engage in one-on-one or group spiritual conversations with non-believers.

Lording it up!

Young people from churches in Worcester Diocese are being offered the opportunity to visit the House of Lords and meet members of the Lords as part of a group including two other diocese.

The EIGHT young people will join with others from Derby and Oxford Diocese as well as members of the Church of England Youth Council (CEYC).

We will be meeting on Tuesday 30th October (Half Term week) to plan our visit sometime in the new year.

On the day of the visit we will be leaving Worcester early and arriving at the House of Lords for lunch before viewing the afternoon session. We will then meet with some members of the Lords for a discussion and may go on to have a tour of Westminster Abbey.

Members of our Youth Council will be among the group but there are also spaces for others who would like to participate.

Please do get in touch with me as soon as possible if you have young people who would like to take part.