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This Committee supports, encourages and promotes work among children and young people, including the policy for the YLTO and YCWT Programme, giving oversight to Pilots, the National Youth Resource Centre at Yardley Hastings, and relates to FURY Council. It also ensures that its concerns are fully taken into account in ‘Doctrine Prayer and Worship’, ‘Church & Society’, ‘Discipleship, Stewardship and Witness’ Committees, facilitating the involvement of young people in all the Councils of the Church.

Committee Members

Convener: The Revd Stephen Thornton Secretary: Mrs Jean Antcliffe, Revd Margaret Collins, Mrs Liz Crocker, Mr Gareth Curl, Mr Stuart Eteson, Revd Ron Forster, Mr Lewis Mackenzie, Mrs Georgette Margrett, Revd Phil Nevard,

Revd Barbara Plenderleith, Miss Kathryn Swift.

1.1 It is said that Montgomery, Sir Bernard Law, First Viscount of Alamein, required a full English breakfast before he could get down to a hard day’s work, and this breakfast became know as ‘The Full Monty’. It means, everything. Here, then is the full Monty about the work of the Youth & Children’s Work Committee, which seeks to support, resource, and give leadership to a very great number of people who work in this sphere in the churches.

2.1 A vast amount of our time this year has been spent on the struggles, challenges, and windows of opportunities which our staffing situation has presented to us. It has been hard, but with the support and help of many people we have not sunk, but are moving forward into an increasingly exciting future.

2.2 Last Assembly, we said farewell to Paul Franklin as National Secretary for Youth Work knowing that he would come to the end of his appointment at the close of the year. The procedures were in place to make a new appointment. Much work has been done to this end, but as I write we have not yet been able to fill the post, though toiling hard at it. We therefore asked Paul if he would serve us for an extra two months, which he generously did, and we are very grateful again to him for all that he has given to the church, and for this extra service.

2.3 The vacancy has meant extra strain on many people. We are grateful to the Revd Michael Davies, National Youth Secretary in the 70’s for helping in the office for part of each week since February; to Rosemary Johnston, the Children’s Advocate, and her personal assistants Vivienne Thorne and Sylvia Paine and Joy Sykes, personal assistant on the Youth Desk, for all that they have done to keep the work going.

2.4 The Children’s Advocate has continued to resource, support and inform the whole church concerning our ministry with children in just the way envisioned when the post was conceived. Paul and Rosemary together, developed the Youth & Children’s Work Office into an efficient centre which services the work whether they personally are in the office or not.

2.5 At Assembly also, we welcomed Revd Erica Beglin as half time Pilot Development Officer to spearhead the key work of Pilots, the children’s organisation of the United Reformed Church and the Congregational Federation which is so vital to our future work and mission. Sadly, for personal reasons, Erica stepped down in September, which again put more pressure on our office. After much consultation, plans to make a full-time appointment have been brought to Mission Council and we look forward to them being put in place as soon as possible. This is in response to one of our Church’s Mission priorities. Structures for Pilots have been tuned. We have a Management Group and Publications Group. Excellent material is resourcing our Companies and we look for significant growth in the future.

2.6 The Revd Martin Nicholls, Chaplain at Yardley Hastings resigned from his post in the autumn. The contribution which Martin has made to the establishment of the Centre and its early years has been immense, and young people all over the country have been greatly influenced by his work and the work of all the Centre. Deeply grateful for his work, we had then to proceed to make plans for the future. With two vacancies now in the youth scene, the Committee found an opportunity to explore afresh the best way to structure leadership at the Centre and its relationship with the National Youth and Children’s Work office. New job descriptions have been agreed and as I write we are actively seeking to fill the post at Yardley Hastings, the post holder to be know as The Centre Minister.

2.7 Since Martin left, Heather Whyte has been working as Acting Director, and, supported by the other staff, and the Centre Management Committee, they have done sterling work. The Centre continues to inspire, develop and challenge young people and we commend it to the churches as a major and unique resource.

3.1 Our sister church, The United Church of Christ in the USA has an Amistad day, when people are reminded that at a particular point in history, their Congregational ancestors came to the defence of a group of slaves who needed urgent support and solidarity. Among the vulnerable groups today are the children who come into our churches. We look for good practice in all our work, and last Assembly passed a resolution asking provinces and districts to monitor Good Practice - Safeguarding Children and Young People in the churches. We have written to the Synods to see how they fare in this matter, and many have responded. It is our intention to keep on monitoring what Synods and Districts are doing, to ensure that all are safe from harm in our congregations.

3.2 Another aid to improving our work with children and developing those who work with them is the Kaleidoscope ecumenical training material. We are glad to report that the 10,000th copy has been sold.

4.1 Not quite, but the Jamaica/Guyana exchange has enabled young people to explore life in other places and we are grateful to all who have worked to organise these expeditions through the years. They have now come to an end, but other opportunities emerge. Connected with Commitment for Life, three provinces are being given the opportunity for their young people to visit Bangladesh and then come back and speak to the churches about projects there.

5.1 The youth and children’s work network is serviced by some fine publications full of thoughtful articles and practical suggestions. The FURY Information Service and FURY National make good reading, and URCHIN, (United Reformed CHildren’s Information Network) available via Church House, is always stimulating. We commend these resources, to all those who do not know or use them.

6.1 FURY Council grapples with many issues and is evidence of many gifted young people playing their part in the life of our church. FURY Assembly is a delight to all who share in it and I for one would wish that all our people could be flies on the wall to see how young people wrestle with faith, national and world issues, and fun. This year we were delighted to have with us a contingent from the Scottish Congregational Church, who made their presence felt in a very positive way. The FURY Review, which seeks to advise on the development of FURY into the future, is almost ready to report and by next year we shall have suggestions to make for youth work into the next century.

6.2 In both children’s and youth work, we are very active ecumenically, playing our part in CGMC (Consultative Group on Ministry Among Children), JCYS (The Joint Churches Youth Service), and many other spheres. We are also represented on other assembly committees, and some of our concerns arise in their reports, e.g. Our relationship with Partners in Learning, the new Service Book, Children and Communion, and Church and Society matters.

6.3 We are very grateful for the service of the Youth and Children’s Work Training Team, and with their help we have been able to support the Assembly Resolution which requires that Ordinands get training in work with children and young people in the church.

7.1 As convener of the committee and previously in other ways, I have been closely involved with children’s work and youth work in the churches for decades, and have deemed it a great privilege. Statistics will tell us that the number of young people involved with the churches during this time has declined, but nevertheless I am aware of a great army of dedicated workers, who give themselves unstintingly to this service, to whom we owe a very great debt. This Committee will continue to seek to support and resource their work into the future.

7.2 Welcome and good wishes to my successor and I am sure the future holds great opportunities for all as we share together in this vital area of church life.

8.1 One of my dreams was that at the end of this particular sphere of service I would have helped the church to move away from calling work with children ‘Sunday School’ or ‘Junior Church’ and that everyone would just talk about The Church and see everyone having their own distinctive contribution to make. We have made great strides towards this end, but the dream is still to be fulfilled. Watch this space .....

1.1 For a number of years many people have agreed with the principle of involving young people in the councils and committees of the church. This resolution is intended to press this development and offer some encouragement about the method by which some much-needed progress can be achieved