Connecting with and Celebrating our Youth

The purpose of the annual International Youth Day is to bring youth issues to the attention of the international community and celebrate the potential of youth as partners in today’s global society.

In July we were blessed to meet with youth leaders across our Connexion to discuss the work they do as young leaders and the work of Te Hāpai o ki muri. Youth leaders from every Synod both from Tauiwi and Te Hāhi districts, gathered for the weekend at the Whakatuora Centre in Auckland and participated in an insightful korero of all things youth ministry.

The weekend focused on sessions for our leaders to understand the current context of our church, country and the context of why this work of Te Hāpai o ki muri is important.

We began by first checking in with each other and touching base on how we all are as leaders. Part of the weekend was acknowledging the mana our youth ministry leaders have and engaging with each other first as people before we engage with each other as workers.

Michael Lemanu led a wonderful session that took us back to understanding our bi-cultural journey and our historical context. Michael played an inspiring short documentary, voiced-over by some of the initial members responsible for establishing the bi-cultural journey within our church.

I then facilitated a session considering the current landscape of our young people within Aotearoa -the issues seen and led by young people in our country, through various of ways such as politics with Te Tiriti and youth justice. We discussed environment raising issues such as climate change, and other issues affecting our church including The Royal Commission of Inquiry of Abuse in State Care and Faith-Based Institutions.

We discussed the model of Te Hāpai and the understandings of what has been so far. This helped shaped the feedback of what these youth leaders hoped for not only in this work but also in breathing life into our wider church. We discussed what spiritual leaders need in order to work with young people, and what youth participation looks like in enabling youth voice across all decisions for our church.

We concluded our weekend with a Tauiwi Youth ministry first; communion conducted and led by one of our own youth leaders. Previously we have always needed to ask a minister to come and conduct this for us. This was a hopeful sign about what lies ahead for our church and our young people.

Throughout the weekend, we were inspired and confronted - leaders expressed that not much has changed for young people and the opportunities for youth voice. There are clear sentiments and challenges which lie ahead for our church in ensuring it is a safe space for all our young people. On the other hand, this weekend was seen to have the same hope as the time that the bi-cultural journey began. This change for our church is pivotal, hopeful, and inspiring. Our young people believe this aspect of our church will awaken faith and become a wider benefit to addressing issues faced in the country. Getting together in the same room is the first and most important step towards taking us in the right direction.

A significant part of International Youth Day is that the day becomes an opportunity to celebrate and mainstream young peoples’ voices, actions, and initiatives, as well as their meaningful, universal, and equitable engagement.

We acknowledge that more is needed to celebrate youth voice amongst our Connexion and that we need to look at the opportunities we are providing for young people to raise issues that matter to them.

I encourage you to take a young person out for the day and celebrate who they are!