Rave in the Nave first pictures

   

First pictures from the year’s Rave in the Nave at Ely Cathedral which was held last night. About 1000 people present, nearly all (hooray!) a lot younger than me. Well done Dave the Rave, aka Capt David Waters, our Diocesan Youth Officer, who masterminded it yet again.

Filed under: Church of England, Events, youth

Youth and Children’s Leaders’ Lunch

I’m just back from a super day at St Mary’s School, Ely with about 60 youth and children’s leaders from across the diocese. Jan Payne led us in some uplifting worship, and then Julia Chamberlain, David Waters and I introduced the company to the national Going for Growth report on work with young people.

My bit was to introduce the central sections on mission and theology. Look below the fold for the powerpoint slides about Sharing in God’s Mission and the Five Marks of Mission.

Filed under: Church of England, Resources, Sermons and Talks, youth

Hope Revolution for Cambridge

It looks like the back of a biker’s jacket, but it’s actually the banner from the top of the website for Youth for Christ’s Hope Revolution Cambridge. Click through and have a look. There’s a facebook group too.

Filed under: Christianity, youth

Ely Diocese Youth Win National Grants

All the young people in our diocese who bid for grants from the national Youth Evangelism Fund have been successful! I’m hoping to posts pictures and stories here in due course but here are the bare bones:

• Burwell are holding a youth-led Youth Alpha course
• Chatteris have a Fresh Expressions youth project
• Histon have an youth outreach project
• Stilton held a summer ‘Street Invasion’ mission week.
• Brampton have a youth orchestra
• Holy Cross, Cambridge have a Youth cafe project
• Wisbech have a youth choir
• Ramsey have youth-led parish mission work
• Lordsbridge have a rural youth project in the villages
• The Cambridge churches were all involved in a summer youth mission week ‘Go East’

Capn’ Dave is now working with brand-new youth group projects in Isleham, Doddington, Hartford, Houghton and Southery – with the possibility of a new group in Great Gransden.

Filed under: Church of England, youth

Young People Fly High

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The YOPEY Awards for Cambridgeshire 09 have just been announced at a sparkling ceremony at Duxford Air Museum. Well done to Sarah Bannister, the main prizewinner, and all the finalists, winners every one.

Judging between them was one of the more impossible things I’ve had to do recently. Thankfully a whole crowd of us from the High Sherriff and Chief Constable to former winners shared the task.

I’d like to encourage our churches and their organisations to nominate young people for YOPEY 2010, and join in what is an excellent venture in getting good news about them into the press and building up some good role models too.

For a moment I also fancied the idea of setting up a Parishioner of the Year scheme – every parish can sponsor someone, big service in the Cathedral, special medals… – but then thought that POTY might not work quite as well as YOPEY; and the parishioners who didn’t sponsored might not be too amused either. Oh well. How good, though, to find the right way of valuing long and faithful service, or indeed sparkling innovation. Ideas on the back of a postcard please to the usual address.

Filed under: Events, youth

Youth Exchange at Burwell

I was at St Mary’s Burwell on Sunday and enjoyed a huge display of photos from the latest summer Youth Exchange, that has been running there for some years now, with young people from Germany, Hungary and here joining up – in Burwell this year – for a lot of fun and some serious learning too. They have EU money  because their fellowship and study supports many key European objectives of social understanding and cohesion. Here’s what the vicar Stephen Earl wrote – and thanks to him and his wife Abigail for the words and pictures – it’s all very impressive.

Filed under: Church of England, youth