National Church Youth Council Marks First Anniversary

The national representative body for young adults within the Church of England has marked its first anniversary with a full-scale council meeting in Buckinghamshire.

|TOP|More than 30 members from across 17 dioceses met together to form the Church of England Youth Council (CEYC).

The council has the commission to enable young people to have a united and coordinated voice within the decision-making structure of the Church. It offers two representatives to sit at the council from each diocese.

From these youth diocese representatives, three CEYC representatives are then invited to attend the Church’s General Synod, which acts as the Church’s national ‘decision and policy-making body’. However, they are only invited to sit as non-voting members.

The most recent meeting of the CEYC in Buckinghamshire was organised by a dedicated core group of 11 young people, who used the time to address the government’s Green Paper on young people, and the overall situation in the Middle-East.

|AD|The CEYC also debated the Church of England’s ‘Mission Shaped Church’ report, reflecting upon the impact and influence it is having on local parishes. In addition, the council looked into how it could help to resource young people to take an active part in the process.

General youth matters were also discussed, with a motion being passed regarding the government’s Green Paper, ‘Youth Matters’, which was issued for consultation in September 2005.

The motion agreed, gave an outline to how the proposed legislation might apply to Britain’s Church youth, and gave suggestions as to the possible areas in which the government might want to re-think its approach.

Specifically, the council did not agree that the government’s Green Paper contained no mention of the word ‘spirituality’. The CEYC expressed that it believed the government should address the importance of this dimension in the consideration of the holistic development of youth in today’s society.

The conflict ongoing in Israel/Palestine was also given attention by the council, which said that it had the desire to readdress the topic at a later date for deeper research and prayer.

The council is next set to meet in April 2006, and topics already placed on the agenda are ‘Anti-Social Behaviour Orders’, drug and alcohol abuse, and the causes and symptoms of poverty in England today.