Links from the world of children’s and youth ministry:
- Scripture Union produces simplified Nativity story to avoid confusing children who don’t go to church: A spokeswoman said the change had been prompted by figures in recent years showing the scale of the lack of knowledge about the Christmas story among many children.
- New Healthy Media Habits For Young Kids: Now that screen time recommendations are more flexible, it’s time for new rules.
- “Lift Up Your Hearts” not “Your Phones To Take Pictures”: ‘It makes me very sad’: Pope Francis urges priests and bishops to not use their cellphones during Mass and to focus on God instead.
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Why we‘re afraid to let young people lead- and how to overcome it: In multigenerational church settings, it’s uncommon to see a young person in a prominent position of leadership.
- Making up the Numbers – the elephant in the room: Tania de St Croix continues our ongoing and necessary debate about the ramifications of the impact/outcomes/ measurement agenda upon a process-led open youth work.
- Brave vicar who was left infertile when she was raped TWICE at age 17 forgives attackers: Interview with with Revd Sonya Doragh, a team vicar in Liverpool Diocese, speaking of her experiences as a survivor of rape. Articles note that she says she has forgiven her attackers.
We came up with a set of simple rules which all came under the heading of RESPECT! After three weeks, we gave the young people a chance to review and change them. They liked them and told us to enforce them more strictly! I don’t seem to have a copy of them anywhere, but if I remember they were – listen to each other and leaders, do as you are asked by a leader, violence and agressive behaviour is not acceptable. Something like that anyway! As for who is responsible for them when, I regularly remind the parents of this in letters and when I see them if there’s an issue.