Luke Carson Parish Youth Worker at St Marys’ Putney, reflects on the first YMIC event of the year.
On Sunday the 25th February, St. Mary’s Putney hosted our first Youth Ministry in Communion (YMIC) event of the year, which saw strong numbers across all the Churches involved, with around 80 young people attending and participating in Taizé style service presided by Rev’d George demonstrating not only the joining of young people but Churches and Dioceses as well.
The event aptly named ‘could you be tempted’ referencing lent, involved a chill out space, bank robbery puzzle room experience and the previously mentioned Taizé style service. The event began with everyone gathering in the main church to catch up, try our Virtual reality machines and have pancakes among many other things. Then teams of young people joined together and moved upstairs to compete and see who could crack the code first and win a prize. The room was rather chaotic with panicked youths desperately trying to work with one another under time constraints, strobe lights and a clouded atmosphere (from the smoke machine). Despite the carnage, everyone of all ages seemed to have a great time including the leaders witnessing this all. This was explained by one of the young people who said to me, “I really enjoyed the event because you get to know loads of people and experience different activities with them”.
After such a high stakes activity it was time for a restful reflexion in the candlelit church. Having so many young people gathered alongside longstanding members of the congregation was a truly beautiful service to witness, with those gathered stating the same with one saying, “I really like the worship because it feels like we are all together doing things and the silent reflection feels very respectful”
We all can often feel isolated in our faith, to have events like these diminish this feeling for everybody those involved. I think the young people shared this sentiment and demonstrated why prioritising a space for them to be faithful in a world that can seem against them at every turn is so important. One youth attending stated “We enjoy being in a space to worship together and on our own” and other highlighted “You get to meet lots of younger people your age and from different churches as well”. YMIC provides this opportunity, facilitating this too often forgotten community of young Christians.
It was a pleasure to meet all that attended, and I look forward to the other events this year. I would like to leave you with a few verses from Ecclesiastes 4, 9-11 that I believe encompass the purpose of our youth work quite well. ‘Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labour: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?’
