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Newsletters - IAYN Newsletter No.1 Easter 2006

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Our Mission Statement

We are a network of persons involved in ministry among young people at the provincial level uniting young people within the Anglican Communion.

Our Aims:

Ministry among Young People

To raise the profile of youth ministry in the Anglican Communion.
To increase the resourcing of youth ministry.

Ministry of Young People

To create a communion in which young people are strengthened.
To develop and support young people in their ministry.
To advocate on behalf of young people to ensure participation within the Church.
To encourage the inclusion of young
people at all levels in the decision-making of the Church.

A Short History

The IAYN has been a key partner in the life of Anglican Church for many years, seeking to act as a link between provincial youth officers and young people from across the Anglican Communion. On a number of occasions, notably in 1988 and 1997 with the support of other partners, it was possible for us to gather young people together to learn from each
others experiences. A further opportunity for this mutual sharing to take place is being planned for 2007 when we hope to welcome Provincial youth officers and young people for another Gathering.

Our Report From ACC

At meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in June 2005, the two co-opted youth members, Candace Payne (Province of the Church of the West Indies) and Michael Tamihere (Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia) reported on the IAYNs work, vision and goals and posed several challenges to the members of the ACC.

Areas of concern were a lack of funding for youth work; sustaining the commitment of youth and youth leaders; inadequate youth representation on decision making bodies; and, youth work not being seen as a priority by the leaders of the Church. It was recognised that young people need to be empowered to represent and provide advocacy for young people. As we face the challenges ahead, we need the voice of young people present and future leaders to be strong in determining the shape of our church and understanding where God wants to lead us.

In response, the ACC thanked the IAYN for its ongoing work in support of the witness of young people across the communion and recommended that dioceses and Provinces review their provision for ministry amongst young people and ensure appropriate budgetary provision. The two co-opted youth members are appointed by the IAYN. Candace will be replaced by Sarah Tomlinson (the Scottish Episcopal Church) at the next meeting of the ACC scheduled for 2009.

News From The Regions

Young People evangelise their peers in England The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England has now agreed to rollout its Youth Evangelism Fund (YEF)tomore dioceses. This follows a successful Pilot Scheme where young people inboth rural and urban locations were invited to apply for funding to enable them to reach out to other young people with the Gospel message. This forms an integral part of the church’s National Youth Strategy (http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/education/youth/)

Archbishop meets with young people from Dioceses in his Province In May the Archbishop of Canterbury will be meeting with more young people from Dioceses in England when they respond to an invitation to spend a day with him at Lambeth Palace. This will bea time of prayer, reflection, and worship and our prayer is that the young people who gather on this occasion will be enriched by the experience, grow in their faith, and come to a stronger understanding of their importanceas members of the ChurchofEngland andworldwide anglican communion

Youth Response on the Earthquake in Pakistan

A horrible Earthquake hit the area of Pakistan and other surrounding countries of South Asia, like India and Afghanistan on the 8th of October 2005. The magnitude of the Earthquake was 7.6 at the Richter scale. Mostly the area of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan and the area of Kashmir weredeeply affectedbytheEarthquake 2005. Since the affected area of NWFP comes under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Peshawar Church of Pakistan, the different departments of the Diocese of Peshawar got involved with the Relief work in the affected areas.

The Youth Department of the diocese also encouraged its youth to participate in the rescue and relief work.

Youth Department:
The Youth Department of Peshawar Diocese is mainly working for the spiritual and social development of the Christian youth of NWFP. It is also a programme of this department to provide volunteer services to the community,when ever it's needed.

Youth Participation:

Two youth teams went to Balakot and Gari Habibullah on 12th & 28th October 2005, to participate in the rescue work there. They helped the people who were in need of help, whose houses were damaged and were seeking for help to come out from the damaged houses.
Rest of the youth was actively busy in collection of food items, drinking water, warm cloths in their parishes, they visited door to door of Christian families and collected a lot of things to send to the affected people.
Some of the youth was busy in packing and loading, unloading of the material.
Diocesan Mission Hospital Peshawar is playing the leading role in all the diocesan Relief Work, the diocesan youth is supporting and helping mission hospital team, the youth visit with them to affected places, help in collection & packing, loading & unloading and in distribution.
Our diocese adopted a village called Pattika Chak, where we are providing our services.

Youth Earthquake Relief Project:

In the face of this catastrophe, the youth of the Diocese of Peshawar launched a programme named Youth Earthquake Relief Project.
When our youth visited Shawal Tent City, which was set-up by Pakistani Army, they saw there were about 400 to 500 children, and the children wasn't have any activity to involve with and they have no school, as schools were damaged, nothing to do. The children were living therein fear.
Our youth started a project to provide the sports good to the children and involved them into different sports activities.
The youth collected donations for this purpose and bought many sports goods sand gave them to the children in Shawal Tent City.
The youth is visiting the places like Shawal Tent City and Pattika Chak and providing the items, which are the necessities of the affected people.

The youths of the Church of North and South India and the youth of the Church of Ceylon actively participated in the Relief work after the Tsunami in 2004.

The First WCC Assembly in South America- 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches

For the first time in the WCC history an Assembly took place in South America. Last February the city of Porto Alegre became a harbor for hope and a bridge for dialogue between different believers. “An Assembly with young face” said the coordinators of the event.

Youth activitites at the World Council of Churches meeting in Porto Alegre

Photo Credit: IAYN

The youth generation was invited to participate in several levels and different groups like: at the Stewards' Programme, the Pre-Assembly Youth Event, as Youth delegates, as a massive participation in Ecumenical Conversations, at the Mutirão (is a Brazilian word and concept that roughly translates as "coming together to make a difference") and at the “Youth overcoming Violence” Project.

The Youth Pre-Assembly started three days before the beginning of the Official Assembly, gathering into the Chapel around 450 young people from many churches in the world. The preacher was a young Anglican priest from Brazil.

During the Assembly, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, invited the Anglicans presents at the Assembly to dialogue and share the Anglican vision during this time. The young people enjoyed the time. They also had time to meet the General Secretary of the Anglican Communion, Revd. Canon Kenneth Kearon, and some members of the IAYN International Anglican Youth Network.

In the last meeting of the young Anglicans the participants created a Blog on the Internet to have information about the issues of the Anglican Youth and to keep in touch with one another.
http://anglicanyouth.wordpress.com/

Steering Committee Report 2006

The Steering Committee of the International Anglican Youth Network met in Porto Alegre in February. Among the topics discussed were:

Communication

The need for a regular newsletter. We plan to have two a year.
Designing a logo
Getting work underway both on a sectionon the ACC website and developing our own website up

Events:
We are planning to run a gathering for Provincial Youth Staff and at least one young person from each Anglican Province in September 2007 in England. The purpose is to provide a place where all can hear what is happening among young people and young adults around the world and where we can continue to develop the IAYN. It is also hoped this gathering will prepare a workshop to be run with the bishops at the Lambeth Conference to be held in 2008. We have no money, but it is an exciting thing to aim at!! Any ideas on where we can find 100,000pounds???

NewYork and the UN

We are also needing to choose two reps (aged 18-30) from each region (Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe & Middle East and Oceania) to attend an Anglican young adults gathering at the UN in New York in June this year.

WCC

Christina Presents in Porto Alegre Cathedral

Photo Credit: IAYN

Peter Presents in Porto Alegre Cathedral

Photo Credit: IAYN

One of the joys was for some of us to attend the two meetings of Anglican young people at the WCC. There was a strong group of Latin American youth and leaders, who were invited to our meeting. Aelid from Cuba was able to attended and also joined us for several of our outings. Although we all speak English to some degree, all this has highlighted the language issue. So we will need to at least translate some of all we do into Spanish, and if possible Portuguese, French and Chinese. Whew! So much for the Church of England!
The generosity of the Brazilian church has been absolutely outstanding. Our deepest thanks to all those who hosted us.

John Hebenton will continue as convenor until the next meeting of the Steering Group.. Sam Dessórdi from Brazil has been elected the next convenor.