what has been happening - a quick run down
So, what has been happening? I have been a wee bit busy, Last week I was away most of the week at a PADYS meeting. PADYS are the Professional Anglican Diocesan Youth Staff from each of our 7 dioceses. This group has come together well over the last three years, and although I still get really frustrated at times I look forward to and enjoy our times together. We met at a beach house in the Keneperu Sounds at the top of the south island. Very relaxed and enjoyable.
Around that I have been working on collecting up collects (pardon the pun) for our Youth Year. These are supposed to have been written by young people from across our church. Sadly this has not happened as well as it was hoped, and even more sadly nothing was done on this project while I was away. I hadn’t realised that, so was a little too relaxed about it all. Now it is just rush rush rush! And all too late to meet the deadline of being used this weekend which is the beginning of advent (the four weeks before Christmas, and the beginning of the church year, and our Youth Yeah!) What I have enjoyed about it though is seeing young people work at writing these prayers, and reading what they have come up with. I struggle with some of the theology, but hey! That is what it is all about. I hope that churches will use the collects even thought the theology might be difficult at times, and thereby enter into the world of young people across the five countries they have come from.
Today I have attended a meeting of CYMA, the Churches Youth Ministry Association. This had been the vehicle for the Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Catholic churches to work together on providing youth ministry training and resourcing across the four churches. However two of those churches have been declaring for some time their belief that it no longer served any purpose for them. So today was a sad day and we have begun the process of winding down.
It sums up where things seem to be at at the moment – heaps of potential for things and yet somehow we just keep missing the mark, and things end up being so much less than they could be.
Around that I have been working on collecting up collects (pardon the pun) for our Youth Year. These are supposed to have been written by young people from across our church. Sadly this has not happened as well as it was hoped, and even more sadly nothing was done on this project while I was away. I hadn’t realised that, so was a little too relaxed about it all. Now it is just rush rush rush! And all too late to meet the deadline of being used this weekend which is the beginning of advent (the four weeks before Christmas, and the beginning of the church year, and our Youth Yeah!) What I have enjoyed about it though is seeing young people work at writing these prayers, and reading what they have come up with. I struggle with some of the theology, but hey! That is what it is all about. I hope that churches will use the collects even thought the theology might be difficult at times, and thereby enter into the world of young people across the five countries they have come from.
Today I have attended a meeting of CYMA, the Churches Youth Ministry Association. This had been the vehicle for the Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Catholic churches to work together on providing youth ministry training and resourcing across the four churches. However two of those churches have been declaring for some time their belief that it no longer served any purpose for them. So today was a sad day and we have begun the process of winding down.
It sums up where things seem to be at at the moment – heaps of potential for things and yet somehow we just keep missing the mark, and things end up being so much less than they could be.
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