A NEW network, launched on Tuesday, goals to encourage partnerships between churches and schools by offering training to 1000 people — nearly all of them young leaders in schools and colleges.
Starting as a pilot scheme of 40 worshipping communities, the network, named Flourish, is co-ordinated by the National Society — the C of E’s education office — and builds on the work of the Church’s Growing Faith Foundation.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Revd Jonathan Frost, who’s the lead bishop on education, said that the network consisted of partnerships that were already in place. “This is about churches and schools that have already got a flourishing relationship, and constructing on that,” he said. The scheme seeks to pool learning about such partnerships.
Key to the scheme is the central part played by young people in worship. “Many of the youngsters and young people who find themselves engaged in collective worship are leading the way in which,” Bishop Frost said, and the support provided to the network would give them further opportunities to develop this leadership position.
Reaching young people requires the Church to be “imaginative”, he said, and “meeting children and young people where they’re, giving them leadership responsibility, and recognising [that] their voices really matter”.
He referred to the story of the feeding of the five thousand, and the part played by the kid in it. “The child who’s got the packed lunch from home isn’t taking a look at the issue; the kid is trying to Jesus . . . for me, that’s an image of how we want the voice of youngsters and young people within the Church today. They are the Church of today, not of tomorrow.”
Developing worshipping communities outside church settings was a part of “becoming a Church that’s younger and more diverse”, the C of E’s co-director of vision and strategy, Debbie Clinton, suggested.
“Flourish offers a highly creative and revolutionary way of connecting with large numbers of youngsters, young people, and their families by locating these worshipping communities in educational settings, while grounding them in strategic partnerships with local churches,” she said.
The executive director of education for the C of E, Andy Wolfe, said: “The Church of England has an important opportunity to assume recent ways for kids, young people, and their families to grow in faith through deepened strategic partnerships between schools, colleges, and their local churches.
“The Flourish pilot will help us learn more about this chance, and open up the prospect for churches, schools, colleges, and their dioceses to explore this on a bigger scale in the long run.”
The pilot scheme will run for 2 years, after which it’s hoped that the network will expand to include many more partnerships. Asked what advice he would give to churches trying to do this type of work now, Bishop Frost said that step one was to ask “How can we serve?”, and never to fixate on making a worshipping community.
“The answers to the query ‘How can we serve?’ will likely be as many as there are churches and contexts. . . If a parish church is keen to develop its relations with a college, the place to begin is by asking the query, after which listening.”
The process, he said, involves “engaging and listening”, and being “open to the journey that unfolds”.
Bishop Frost was asked concerning the criteria by which the scheme can be assessed, in an issue submitted prematurely of the July meeting of the General Synod.
His answer, published on Wednesday afternoon, says: “The pilot will involve measuring engagement of youngsters, young people and their families, a few of which will likely be quantitative — for instance evaluating attendance and participation patterns — and a few of which will likely be qualitative — for instance evaluating journeys of religion, discipleship, and transition into next phase (for instance from primary to secondary).”
As to what sustainability planning was in place, Bishop Frost said: “Detailed planning has already been undertaken to be certain that the pilot locations align strategically with other development activities (each recent and existing), ensuring that children and young persons are central to the dioceses’ vision and strategy.”
