A growing number of congregations have joined Children and Youth Work’s Children and Youth Friendly Scheme.
The Children and Youth Friendly Church Scheme (CYFC) helps churches improve their welcome to children, young people, and families. Participating churches work with a trained accompanier who helps them identify current practice and develop ways to build on it.
East Midlands Synod
Richard Knott, CYDO+ for East Midlands Synod, accompanied Newport Pagnell through the scheme. He said: “Throughout the process the group has worked prayerfully and diligently to wrestle with some of the challenges and opportunities in their context and I am pleased with the level of engagement and participation I witnessed.”
Activities run by the church include baby massage courses, run at its independent Mead Centre, regular and longstanding children and young people feel welcomed and are an important part of the church community, including children and young people in services, and providing a designated space for children in the foyer at the front of the church.
Victoria Blunt, Newport Pagnell’s church contact, said: “It’s good to hear that the church incorporates intergenerational activities into worship and is showing a commitment to embedding that further.”
Southern Synod
Tom Hackett, CYDO+ for Southern Synod, accompanied St John’s, Marsh Green. Activities there include: ecumenical holiday clubs for children of primary school age, led with the assistance of some of the young people; an eco group which run a forest junior church at intervals throughout the year; children and young people included in devising a service of worship which focused on inequalities and the horrors of war (their choice); and engaging with a local pre-school that meets on the premises. For example, permitting them to create a sensory garden on church property.
Tom said: “I have been accompanying St John’s Marsh Green through the CYFC Scheme process over the past 18 months. During my visits I have experienced and witnessed a welcoming church, which seeks to be inclusive to all ages including children, families and young people.”