Leadership of Anglican Youth Worship within Tikanga Pakeha

I am about to send the following proposal to Otago Universtiy to do some research on Anglican Youth Worship. If you have any comments I would appreciate hearing them.

Research Topic
To explore both how the Anglican liturgical tradition is being used in worship for young people within the Anglican Church (Tikanga Pakeha in New Zealand) and the influences upon those who run youth worship, be they clergy or youth worker?

Whilst the literature is clear about the power of the liturgical tradition both for shaping worship as a communal encounter with God, and as a tool for long-term faith and life formation, my experience in a variety of settings is that this tradition is rarely used in worship for young people in the Tikanga Pakeha Anglican setting. My observation is that the youth leaders who organise and run worship are either unaware of, or choose to ignore the power of, the liturgical tradition. I wonder about the role of their upbringing and experience of worship in leading them to organise worship in this way. As many of the youth workers are not Anglican I wonder what their experience of Anglican liturgy is, and how this influences whether they have even considered what liturgy might have to offer. And I wonder, what ever their experience of worship with young people might be, what other models have they ever considered or tried? Do they even know about the literature that establishes the formational value of liturgy. Do they care? Is it that they do not feel they have permission to be creative with liturgy, and so do not even try to be creative? The questions go on.

My hypothesis is that those who are given responsibility for organising and running worship have little experience of Anglican liturgy, and have only experienced worship with young people in a non-liturgical setting. As such they have never considered the formational value of liturgy for young people and instead either ignore the liturgical tradition or see it as offering nothing for young people. They therefore choose to use little if any of the Anglican liturgical tradition, even when the community of faith they work in is more conventional in its use of liturgy.

Existing literature and research
The literature around church worship praxis establishes the case for the liturgical tradition both in shaping worship as a communal encounter with God, and as a tool for long term faith and life formation. It notes the important place of music and ritual within this.

There is, however, a lack of research and writing on the theory and practice of liturgy among young people, and how that is shaped and who shapes it. This is significant. Either it has been assumed that liturgy can continue to be structured and offered as it has been, with minor changes for use with young people, or it has been assumed that liturgy has no place in this ministry. The National Study of Youth and Religion (REF) offers a warning about the consequences of those assumptions. It leaves me asking if the rich Anglican worship heritage can be made available to young people in a way that offers life-shaping faith-formation.

Research Method
It is proposed to do three in-depth case studies. These would include both the attendance of at least one service in each case study, and interviews both with those who organised the services with other leaders within that church, and some of the young people who attend.

I will be using a naturalist approach so that those involved in the study may also learn. This research is not just about information that I can get from them. While I am not trying to convince those being interviewed of anything, the very act of research does change the situation being researched. That can be done accidentally, or intentionally. By asking questions, possibilities are opened up that may never have been opened before. This research becomes a process that all are part of, and with the research information, we can shape what happens in Anglican youth worship.