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The future for youth in the Synod - a young person's view
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Hi, I’m Rachel Pickering from St Andrew’s Roundhay and I am the Yorkshire Synod Representative.
How many of you, sometime between the ages of 14-25 belonged to a church? You can see the importance of encouraging young people in faith. How many of you have got young people of Fury age involved in your church? How many of you would like there to be activities and support to encourage young people associated with your church?
I’d like to report back on a couple of events that I have attended in this last year. Firstly, I went to General Assembly where there is a special pre-Assembly event called WDYT. It gives young people the opportunity to explore key issues coming to Assembly with young people from across the country. This was followed by General Assembly itself. I found it an interesting experience and a good opportunity to meet young people across the UK and feel involved in the core decisions of the URC. I also learnt from this good practice of youth work within other Synods.
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In January I attended FURY Assembly which was great fun and a good social weekend involving exploratory workshops, worship and a biblical talent show evening.
Unfortunately amongst over 60 FURY-aged people at General Assembly, I was the only person from Yorkshire Synod. At a FURY Assembly of around 120 young people from the across the country only 2 attended from Yorkshire Synod; my brother and I.
This pattern of poor Yorkshire representation has formed a stagnant pattern over the years. I am your Youth Representative for Synod, but you need to know I am just a sixth-former and have a very limited capacity to deliver youth work across the Synod.
I would like to propose that we draw on some of the good practice that I have learnt from other Synods. These include a dedicated structure attached to the Synod such as a Youth Executive so that youth are actively involved in key decisions particularly those involving youth work and events.
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The Executive should include young people from across the Synod, supportive youth orientated adults, the CYDO, Synod Youth Rep and dedicated budget. Its tasks may include a proper communications network with at least one contact in every church, organising events dedicated for young people and have a mechanism for feeding to Synod ideas on key issues and influencing decisions.
After Christmas, I am travelling as part of my Gap Year and so will be standing down from my role as Synod Rep. I want to leave a role with guidelines, a support network and a positive future for a new person to fill.
I hope if we take the ministry of young people seriously, the Yorkshire Synod in 30 years time will be able to look back with gratitude that the church began to take us seriously again.
(This is the speech given by Rachel Pickering to the March 2009 meeting of the Yorkshire Synod of the United Reformed Church)
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