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

ALM Children and Youth

Emma and I will again be training a group of Children and Youth Leader’s as part of the specialism for the Authorized Lay Ministry course on two full Saturdays on 13th October and 1st December from 9.30-4.30.

It would be really good if you could hold the people on this course in your prayers as they reflect on their work with children and young people.

We will also be gathering together all our previous ALM Children and Youth Specialists on Saturday 8th December from 11am-3pm (including lunch) If you have been part of one of our courses before please do put the date in your diary.

Youthwork Summit

The Youthwork Summit is moving to a new annual slot in MAY for 2012 so look out for more publicity about that in our next mailing and on the blog.

I’ve had the joy of being part of the summit both at Manchester this year and in London last year. I will be going again to The Youthwork Summit 2012 in London on SATURDAY 17th May.

It’s an essential day for youth workers at every level from every part of the UK so I am happy to be able to offer FIVE FREE TICKETS to the first FIVE people from the Worcester Diocese churches getting in touch about this event (limit of one free ticket per parish/church).

Revive

On Saturday 4th June, Emma and I will be running a day retreat at the wonderful Holland House for all those working with children and young people across the diocese.

This day retreat at the wonderful Holland House is an opportunity for all those working with children or young people across the diocese to spend some time for yourselves, reflecting on your faith and your role in working with children/young people.

This is a chance for you to recharge those spiritual batteries, remind yourselves why it is you do what you do for the children and young people in your church and take a fresh look at your vision for our disciples in training.

The day will run from 10am until 4pm with guided reflective activities and time to yourself.
There will be opportunities to explore some creative prayers and reflective crafts as well as enjoy the beautiful peaceful gardens of Holland House
Lunch is included. The Holland House team always serve us beautiful food, much of it grown on site. Please do advise us of any special dietary requirements you may have.

We have subsidised this day to value the volunteers in our diocese but would encourage parishes to share some of the cost (£15) with those wishing to attend. If the cost is an issue, please do get in touch with us to discuss possibilities of further subsidy.

Mark Yaconelli in the Midlands