URC youth assembly 2017
On the 27th
January I attended the URC youth assembly at Whitemoor Lake again it was
another amazing event this year we followed the theme feasts and festivals.
The weekend
began with worship lead by Tim Lowe. Tim’s lively and engaging worship lead
wonderfully into the keynotes we had lead by Jenny Mills.
Our keynotes
focused on the music side of our worship and the festivals of Christmas and
Easter. To mirror Jenny’s talks we had a cross made of fir leaves for Easter
and a nativity scene for Christmas at the back of our main hall.
Friday night
ended with our late night program with broad games, karaoke or midnight fives
football.
Saturday as
always is the busiest day at Youth Assembly after breakfast we join together
back in worship and keynote talk. But Saturday we always have our workshops two
issue-based and one creative. Our issue-based workshops this year were:
§
Global
Festivals: we talked about how different festivals are celebrated around the
world and all the work that the new team URC Global is setting out to do.
§
Food
security: focused on the work the food banks do and how much they help those in
need.
§
Introducing
church into communities: this workshop aimed to inspire us to engage with
people beyond the church and share with others the way we experiences our faith
in an easy and natural way.
§
Evangelism
isn’t a dirty word: this workshop was a different way to look at evangelism in
a fun way and breaking the myth that evangelism is a dirty word.
§
Refugee
Crisis: this workshop focused on how refugees and asylum seekers are excluded
from society and how creatively we can use our feasts and festivals might be
used to challenge this system of oppression.
§
Bible
study “Jesus was a fat man”: in this workshop they talked about how Jesus met
with people over food an how most of the important things Jesus did involved
food so they talked about whether or not Jesus was a fat man and why he felt
food was so important.
§
Death,
remembering and James Bond: in this workshop we talked about the festival of
the day of the dead and how different cultures remember the dead we also
watched a bit of James Bond Spectre as it shows a clip of the day of the dead
festival in Mexico.
§
Explore,
Discover and Remember: this workshop was more of an outing those who attended
this workshop went on a walk round the National Memorial Arboretum that is next
Door to the centre we were staying at.
Our creative
workshops this year were:
§
Art:
canvas and cups were painted inspired by our theme and then placed along a
large table like in the last super painting.
§
Cafe
Philosophique: exploring the weekends theme with light hearted conversation and
cake.
§
Dance:
music is a big part of festivals and its a lot of fun.
§
Drama:
exploring the story’s of the bible as if we were really there.
§
Festival
masks/costume making: many festivals involve masks and dressing up so we had a
go at making some of our own.
§
Creative
writing: exploring our senses and how they help us imagine stories and also
help us write our own stories.
§
Non-cook
cooking: feasts involve food so we had a go at making some treats without
actually cooking
§
Wee
French sing: explored the different ways music is used in worship and praises and
who doesn’t love a good sing song.
Saturday also
included our business sessions where we work together to help discuss issues
that the youth of the URC either already face or we may face and how we as the
youth of the URC can help.
Our big
Saturday entertainment was Ceilidh, a Ceilidh band all the way from Scotland
called Sporrandipity came to join us for an hour and a half of fun filled
dancing and laughing even those of us who can’t dance enjoyed ourselves.
Saturday night
we had our communion lead jointly by Jenny and Tim we discussed what communion
means to us as Christians and why we celebrate it.
Our late night
programme on Saturday night for those of us who weren’t completely tried out by
the Ceilidh we had more board games or watching a film the fitted out theme
perfectly we had the chance to chill out and watch cloudy with a change of
meatballs.
Sunday after breakfast we joined for worship and
our last keynote. Sunday at youth assembly is more relaxed after the jam packed
day that Saturday always is, Sunday is the day we have our final business
session where we usually discussions any motions that we haven't voted on get
voted on. However this year our final business sessions got devoted to us
discussing where we think the church is going and what we can do to keep the
church alive. The feedback from these discussions will be worked on by the
youth executive and the wider URC to see what we can do to keep our church
alive and strong.
Sunday ended with another worship and the
induction of the youth executive some new members some still standing from last
year. I am proud to say I will be standing for another year as North Westerns
youth Rep and will be continuing my work with the youth executive and helping
to plan Youth Assembly 2018 which I already know will be just as amazing as
this year's was. I hope the work youth executive do this year will be as
challenging and as rewarding as this years has been and that we as a team
continue to bond in friendship and fellowship and do our part in shaping the
future for the youth of the URC.
God bless
Georgina Bowen
North Western
youth rep
http://urc-news.org.uk/2JB1-10COH-132VWOXHD9/cr.aspx
