NYA2009: The Final Deliverance

Hi everyone. Sorry it’s taken a while but you will now be able to find the final deliverance for each debate below. Both your General Assembly reps and I will try and make sure these are taken to the General Assembly and to its Councils and Committees but when you read through the statements you will find that a lot of them apply to local churches or to individuals and your involvement in these didn’t end on the Monday afternoon in Stirling. Remember that it’s up to everyone who was at the Youth Assembly to try and raise awareness of the deliverance and make changes happen, whether it’s just things you do yourself, your local church or your Presbytery. You could print them out and put them on your church notice board, or ask your minister to talk about a couple of points that your local church will take action on during a service. And if you have a blog you can copy them there and raise awareness of them.   Well done again on producing an excellent result to the long weekend of debates and if you have stories of your success in promoting the results during the year then come back and tell people here.

Inter-Faith

The National Youth Assembly…

1. Believes that the church should do more to combat stereo-typical views of what Christians are like and understand that all faiths have extremists, including Christianity. There is a need to extend education about all faiths to avoid stereo-typing based on biased media reporting.

2. Thinks that there should be more Inter-Faith gatherings and conferences at local, national and international levels, with better advertising to increase awareness of this work and its importance.

3. Consider consulting with local police forces and outside agencies to ascertain priority areas where Inter-Faith dialogue is required.

4. Encourages the use of Inter-Faith meals as a means of sharing faith and belief to build meaningful relationships while being sensitive to other customs.

5. Encourages the Church of Scotland to promote Inter-Faith Dialogue overseas in areas such as Israel/Palestine and Africa.

6. Challenges local churches to extend loving friendship and conversation to people of other denominations and faiths and to love their neighbours regardless of faith or absence of faith. We should accept people for who they are, treat them with respect, and never pity.  When talking with anyone we should have no agenda for converting them.

7. Encourages the Church of Scotland to offer more practical support to congregations engaging in Inter-Faith relationships. This could include an expansion of the role of Inter-Faith workers and the development of a volunteer network.

8. Encourages the Church of Scotland to recognise the values which we share with other faiths and which should inform and encourage practical work on issues such as poverty, conflict resolution and justice. Faith groups should work together for increased dialogue with all levels of government.

9. Are aware that ignorance breeds prejudice whereas knowledge breeds understanding.  It’s crucial to build lasting relationships before tackling religious issues. We need to be educated about other faiths and try to educate other faiths in what we believe and why we believe it, promoting mutual understanding.

10. Encourages the Church of Scotland to reach out to those who feel threatened and fearful of new cultures and religions in their area in the hope that such feelings won’t escalate.

11. Would like the church to consider ways in which communities can have dialogue with people of other faiths while being careful to avoid tokenism and condescension.

12. Encourage ongoing Religious Education programmes in schools with the involvement of churches and other faith groups, as part of commitment to promoting understanding about different faiths among wider society.

13. Encourage Inter-Faith dialogue at all levels of the church, including opportunities for people from other faith communities to speak to churches about their beliefs.

14. Want to encourage ecumenical discussions so that Christians of all denominations can work to improve inter-faith relationships.

Spirituality

The National Youth Assembly…

1. Urges the Church of Scotland to take the lead in opening discussions on personal finance and to provide support in helping with issues of stewardship.

2. Recognise that while Western society encourages materialism, which is unacceptable, the Church should not condemn individuals but should work with them to combat materialism.

3. Would like the Church of Scotland to prioritise spending on people. Local churches should be encouraged to invite disadvantaged groups into their churches to use their resources in whatever way is appropriate.

4. Suggests greater discussion of collective tithing. There should be increased accountability and transparency from the Church as to where financial contributions go. Individual churches should have more of a voice in where their contributions go.

5. Urges the Church of Scotland to continue to work with people of other denominations and faiths in trying to eradicate poverty.

6. Believes that the Church of Scotland should continue to support the work of Christian Aid in its tax justice campaign and should build stronger links with projects tackling poverty.

7. Feels that the church should be at the forefront of tackling the structures that keep people poor and encourage people to see poverty as not being restricted to financial issues, with other factors including spirituality, health and education. Local issues should not be neglected in favour of international ones.

8. Would like to see the church make tackling poverty a priority and to see it as an act of worship. The use of biblical texts as a means of communicating the necessity and impetus for working to eradicate poverty should be encouraged.

9. Recognises that churches do a lot of good work in tackling poverty and encourage this to be fed back through stories about this.

10. Believes that the church should play a key part in tackling poverty through educating people and being active in the community. The local church should be key to identifying local needs in order to prioritise eradicating poverty in Scotland.

11. Would like churches to ensure that people in congregations who are struggling financially can be honest and receive help without having to feel they have to keep up a ‘respectable’ façade.

12. Encourage the Church of Scotland to be more involved in practical work both at home and abroad (e.g. building projects) in charities and projects, other than just providing financial support.

13. Commend and encourage the continuation of ethical investment practices by the Church of Scotland.

14. Urge individual church members to review their giving with a view to giving more sacrificially in order that the good work of the Church may continue.

Wealth

The National Youth Assembly…

1. Urges the Church of Scotland to take the lead in opening discussions on personal finance and to provide support in helping with issues of stewardship.

2. Recognise that while Western society encourages materialism, which is unacceptable, the Church should not condemn individuals but should work with them to combat materialism.

3. Would like the Church of Scotland to prioritise spending on people. Local churches should be encouraged to invite disadvantaged groups into their churches to use their resources in whatever way is appropriate.

4. Suggests greater discussion of collective tithing. There should be increased accountability and transparency from the Church as to where financial contributions go. Individual churches should have more of a voice in where their contributions go.

5. Urges the Church of Scotland to continue to work with people of other denominations and faiths in trying to eradicate poverty.

6. Believes that the Church of Scotland should continue to support the work of Christian Aid in its tax justice campaign and should build stronger links with projects tackling poverty.

7. Feels that the church should be at the forefront of tackling the structures that keep people poor and encourage people to see poverty as not being restricted to financial issues, with other factors including spirituality, health and education. Local issues should not be neglected in favour of international ones.

8. Would like to see the church make tackling poverty a priority and to see it as an act of worship. The use of biblical texts as a means of communicating the necessity and impetus for working to eradicate poverty should be encouraged.

9. Recognises that churches do a lot of good work in tackling poverty and encourage this to be fed back through stories about this.

10. Believes that the church should play a key part in tackling poverty through educating people and being active in the community. The local church should be key to identifying local needs in order to prioritise eradicating poverty in Scotland.

11. Would like churches to ensure that people in congregations who are struggling financially can be honest and receive help without having to feel they have to keep up a ‘respectable’ façade.

12. Encourage the Church of Scotland to be more involved in practical work both at home and abroad (e.g. building projects) in charities and projects, other than just providing financial support.

13. Commend and encourage the continuation of ethical investment practices by the Church of Scotland.

14. Urge individual church members to review their giving with a view to giving more sacrificially in order that the good work of the Church may continue.

Identity

The National Youth Assembly…

1. Believes that we as a Church should seek to recognise and celebrate people as individuals with individual gifts and talents, and not to generalise.
We should:
(a) Seek to develop these gifts and talents
(b) Value building relationships over organising evangelistic events
(c) View people as works in progress and not the finished article

2. Would like the Church of Scotland to explore the emerging aspects of Positive Psychology as a way of forming relationships with people, particularly those on the edges of the church. We would encourage the church to develop resources and make these available to all groups and leaders working in the Church.

3. Believes that inappropriate responses by the Church of Scotland to the identity of individuals and groups has been a very real barrier to them feeling part of the church.

4. Urges the Church to explore ways of supporting growth in Christian identity for all ages, recognising the current work of COSY in this area.

5. Urges the Church of Scotland to continue supporting the young people of the church as they move through education and into the world of work.  We encourage the church to help with pastoral support, offering guidance both spiritually and generally, as young people develop their identity through these difficult challenges.

6. Believes that the Church of Scotland should respond positively to identity issues by providing opportunities for social interaction:
(a) Between young and old by creating ways for them to work together;
(b) By encouraging social and community events within churches to build relationships;
(c) By encouraging all local churches to engage with a partner church somewhere else in the world;
(d) By developing small group networks for folk to meet together, share their stories and build relationships.

7. Believes that the Church of Scotland should acknowledge that people within the church, despite the fact that they are Christians, experience identity problems.

8. Encourages churches to make spiritual support groups available for everyone in the parish regardless of whether or not they are a member.

9. Believes that the Church of Scotland should not make people conform to one identity. Instead it should embrace diversity, with its own identity being ‘Everyone is welcome’

We want to hear from you!

Hello everyone, hope you’ve all managed to sleep lots and recover from the weekend. This is just a quick note to remind all the delegates who are reading the blog that this space isn’t just for staff to post but for you too. You should all have been sent log in details before the weekend started (if you haven’t then you can get them from Jane) and if you have anything to say about the weekend, whether it’s just a few sentences, a longer reflection or something artistic like a poem or a special photo, then this is your place to share this with the rest of the delegates and the wider world. We’ve already had a few delegates posting before and during the weekend and we hope more people will feel they can join in, whether it’s today or in a months time when some thoughts finally form in your head, I know that it often takes me a while to get my head round a weekend like that. Hope to hear from you soon.

Sunday evening and worship thanks

Here’s a wee note from Graham Allison who was in charge of organising the worship this weekend, and was one of the stars of the Sunday evening dramas. Huge thanks have to go to him too for co-ordinating all of this and allowing all these people to make their own parts happen.

I wanted to say thanks to the following folks for making the worship and the sunday evening happen.

Sunday evening

Mark Johnstone for our introduction and our communion

Jamie Schmeling for leading our worship

Bryan Burnside, Michael Mayer and Yin Lee for the huge amount of setting up and stewarding us around with their funky torches.

Fidge for building a cross and defacing Stirling Uni’s oddest art piece.

Petra’s lanterns – without them we’d have lost the choir who may have all fell in the pond.

The Choir. ‘Nuff said.

The Mighty Squirrel King, who granted us safe passage through his magical wood (though we had to sacrifice two delegates as an offering).

However the biggest thanks has to go to Ishbel McFarlane for the huge amount of work she put into the Sunday evening. Ishbel turned a bunch of disconnected concepts into a wonderful script that helped us reflect on all the stories as we wandered about the campus.  You’re a complete star Ishbel, thanks for everything you did to make the sunday night so special.

Graham, Ishbel and the choir

Worship

Also, thanks to all the folks who played in the band, were main speakers, led fringe worship events, helped set up the main stage tech gear or played late night worship slots.

Thanks for all your hard work before and during the weekend!

The band

Peoples thoughts about NYA2009

At the end of the final session on Monday, we asked some people to write us a wee comment about how they’d found the event, here are those thoughts, straight from the young people whom the event is for:

Had a great time, met some great people, will def be back next year    -  After 8 youth club

Never been before, enjoyed it soo much, it was awesome!   – Shelby Lynch

Truely revolutionary. Never before have I been surrounded by so many young people who are all on the same wavelength.  -  Paul Cordukes

NYA09 was fab!!! My small group rocked and the gospel choir were amazing!    -   Catherine McIntosh
A spiritully uplifitng weekend and a great chance to meet old and new friends and to be able to share our God’s love as one  -  Emma Cowan

Another great youth assembly! Really enjoyed my first time as a small group leader. Immanuel gospel choir were amazing!!!  -  Jamie McIntosh

Was amazing as always! Met lots of new people and learned some things too. Can’t wait til next year!  -  Lindsey
Uplifting, poignant and the best NYA since I started coming 3 years ago.   -  Chris Lynch

I’ve never felt a more profound feeling of God’s spirit moving through so many people than I did on Sunday night. I will never forget this weekend and ho it has uplifted, challenged and brought together so many.  -  Kenny Maddock

This weekend has helped intensify my faith. I have enjoyed sharing fellowship and praising God in a youthful, uplifting way.   -   Jonathan White

A whole new experience. Amazing. NYA has been amazing in so many ways: prasing God, fellowship and walking in the pilgrimage. Thank you everyone for a great time.  -  Andrew Longwe

A big thanks to all the delegates for their desire to make a difference in their own lives, the life and work of the Church and our world. Being with you has been a privilege.  -   Jamie Schmeling

Youth Assembly is like being force fed a really spicy curry: spicy, painful, takes a bit of undignified passing, but after all you are fed full with richness. A weekend of beautiful moments and beautiful people.   -   Margaret McLarty

Debates cont.

NYA 2009 is now over! What a weekend! Also an incredibly busy weekend, so busy that there was very little opportunity to give any sort of overview of the other two debate topics that took place on the Saturday/Sunday.

Spirituality:

In this session we were given the opportunity to explore what spirituality meant to us, to Christians and to discuss what was relevant in our 21st century world and how we can engage with spirituality. We talked about what aspects of our lives were spiritual or had spiritual dimensions: the use of money, relationships etc. We, as ever, had varying opinions amongst the delegates and it was really interesting to hear people’s reasoning behind why they thought aspects were, or were not, spiritual.

We talked about how sometimes people are not good at being still, and being in the silence. Some of the people in the debate session got to experience different ways of engaging with spirituality which involved, for some, sitting in the silence, being still and really listening.

A lot of discussion was had about relating spirituality to the world today so as to make it more accessible to more, and more people. We spent some time looking through newspapers and picking out stories from today and trying to relate those to the Bible and work out where they fitted in with our spiritual lives.

The phrase “more open” kept cropping up in discussion. There seemed to be a real desire amongst delegates for people to be more open within the church; to talk about spirituality with each other (and from a young age).

This session very much encouraged us to explore spirituality and encouraged us to really think about what it meant to us in our present time and how we can seek to have these ideas developed.

Wealth:

Our final debate session within our small groups was on the topic of “Wealth”. We focussed on three different areas surrounding wealth: International poverty, Local poverty and personal spending.

Our small group seemed to particularly passionate about the issues surrounding local poverty. It seemed to be a common thought that often we are made very much aware of issues surrounding International Poverty and such issues tend to get more of our attention and more media attention. How often we forget about the poverty that is on our own door step!

Discussions on our own personal spending proved to be somewhat challenging for some people. We talked about whether or not we could justify buying a takeaway coffee when we could give that money to a charity. This made some of us feel incredibly guilty about how much we do spend on coffee, and indeed other “whim buys” and materialistic items in favour of charity. Our attitudes to giving were really challenged through our discussions!

Our group had some good discussion surrounding individuals within a church struggling financially and it was a common desire to see church become a more open place where these people could be more honest and seek to rely on their church, their family, for support.

Our attitudes were continually challenged through this debate sesssion and it was really encouraging to see so many of the delegates getting so passionate about the subject.

Today the main debate, with all the delegates, took place on the four separate subjects and I’m sure news of that debate shall appear soon along with reflections of the weekend as a whole!

NYA Lifetime Achievment award

For the first time ever, the National Youth Assembly awarded a lifetime Achievment award. The man to whom this award was given is an incredible man, someone to whom the NYA owes its existence and success. Dr Steve Mallon is a man respected and admired by many, many people. Everyone who has ever been to NYA ultimatly has Steve to thank for the incredible amount of work, passion and time he has invested in this event. Dr Steve is without doubt one of the cornerstones of the Church of Scotland, a man of integrity and drive who seeks to help young people engage with the Church and the Church to engage with young people.
Dr Steve has just started in a new position within the Church of Scotland, a move that will mean his involvement in future NYA’s will be limited. Although the man will be missed, his legacy will without doubt live on through NYA.
As a tribute to everything Dr Steve has given to NYA and youth ministry in the Church of Scotland generally, we awarded him the lifetime achievment award and prepared a couple of special presentations for him, both of which can be viewed below.

Dr Steve with his Golden duck lifetime achievment award