Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the ways in which we gather as a church community and our mission and ministry with children and young people (CYP) have changed dramatically. We now have an opportunity to reimagine the waythat we welcome CYP, walk alongside them and encourage them to grow in their faith.
To help you on this journey, the Diocese of Southwark offers the Welcoming Children and Young People toolkit:
The First Steps booklet provides a framework to enable churches to begin, re-start or reimagine their welcome and inclusion of children, young people and their families. Once you have completed all sections, you will have decided your vision, values and action plan.
If you are looking to explore the opportunities your church has to enable children and young people to encounter and deepen their relationship with God, then take a look at the Spirituality and Relationship with God booklet.
Spirituality and Relationship with God (pdf)
Perhaps your church is considering how to reach new families or looking for ways to involve your existing young people in mission?
The Mission and Outreach booklet will help you map out opportunities and work out your next steps.
The latest part of this toolkit, the Decision-Making and Inclusion, is now available to download. This has been developed to enable parishes to take a fresh look at how decisions are made regarding their work with children and young people and how to include them within this process.
Decision-Making and Inclusion toolkit (pdf)
We encourage you to create a group to look through this self-evaluation course, ideally including your CYP parish rep, Incumbent or Churchwarden. We also encourage you to include children and young people in the group, to enable you to see things through their eyes.
The CYP team, are on hand should your church require additional support with the process. To find out more about the help and resources we offer please visit us on the Children & Youth Ministry section of our website.
