Summer Madness exists to enthuse, engage and equip the youth and young adults of Ireland in the Christian faith so that they may be real change makers in their churches and communities across the island. Ireland’s largest Christian festival, it has been running annually for over 30 years with a strong Church of Ireland foundation & presence. CIYD has played a key role in the festival over the years, helping to develop the mainstage & seminars programmes. We also run a youth leaders’ venue on site during the festival, host seminars and provide evening entertainment.

YouthLink was established in 1991 by the main four church denominations – Roman Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian & Church of Ireland – with assistance by the Department of Education in Northern Ireland. Based on The Lund Principle – “Act together in all matters except those in which deep differences of conviction compel them to act separately”, Youth Link’s vision is of Churches working together to build excellence in youth work and ministry towards a just, peaceful and flourishing society based on the common good. YouthLink NI is a unique model of faith based collaborative youth work, including cross-sectional partnerships, developing training programmes in youth work, community relations, citizenship and peace and reconciliation.

The CIYD Day of Prayer for Young People and Youth Ministry has been running for several years now – the Sunday before Lent, as approved by the House of Bishops. In previous years, a number of dioceses across the island have organised events and services to pray for the needs of our young people and engagement has grown with the development of our Prayer resource booklet.

The booklet contains a selection of prayer ideas that can be used during a service or events or also at other times of the year as appropriate.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Act of Disestablishment in 2019 and to support Church of Ireland ministry in the future, CIYD, with support from the Priorities Fund and Fabric & Development Fund, has created a Young Leaders In Ministry Fund to significantly encourage the number of young people undertaking mission and training experiences that would benefit ministry in the Church of Ireland.

This fund would provide individual young people with small, but significant, bursaries to enable them to apply for teams, training and placements that might otherwise have been financially challenging. This is an Ireland wide project that we hope will support over 100 people per year over a potential period of 3 years and beyond.

Bishop Pat Storey commented: ‘As President of CIYD I am delighted with the new opportunities that this Young Leaders in Ministry Fund will provide. Young people will be enabled to seek new adventures and fresh challenges which they could not otherwise do. All applications will be assessed for their potential contribution to church life and the individual’s own faith journey. We are very grateful to the Priorities Fund and the Fabric and Development Fund for their support and vision for this new project.’

Context
Across Ireland there are many opportunities available to older teens and young adults to help develop their skills in leadership, engage in ministry and mission, grow in faith and serve the wider church. However, one of the significant barriers to their participation in these opportunities is the financial undertaking involved. This can be particularly the case where potential participants on these opportunities come from poorer backgrounds. We know from the recent Barna research across young people in the Republic of Ireland that attendance at Christian events and trips is significantly more likely to affect personal faith and church attendance. However, we also are aware, anecdotally, of young people who are discouraged from attendance because of financial barriers. Therefore, the possibility of financial help for prospective applicants has significant potential.

Potential
The potential for a bursary of this kind could be evident across a number of outcome areas:

1. Leadership and ministry development:
There are more and more opportunities for young people to develop their leadership and ministry through training & discipleship courses, ministry teams, year-outs and so on. A bursary that awards even a small proportion of the costs can make the difference between a young person applying or not, leading to more young people with leadership skills.

2. Direct support for training:
There are quite a few quality providers of training and other ministry development opportunities (including the C of I) for young people and young adults. Rather than trying to organise more of our own training provision to increase attendance it makes sense to provide financial support to encourage more individuals from the Church of Ireland to undertake these opportunities, both within and beyond the Church of Ireland.

3. Retention of young adults:
Those aged 15-25 are the most likely to leave our church and this is also an age range least evident in church attendance. For young adults considering a role in leadership or mission, having the financial support of their church behind them would be significant in strengthening their relationship with the Church of Ireland. In addition, young people applying for the fund would have to demonstrate their current involvement in ministry in the Church of Ireland.

4. The future involvement of young adults:
Any amount awarded would involve an application process that outlined the current involvement of the young person but also would have to demonstrate how this team, course or training would be of missional benefit to the church. In other words, it will encourage young adults to articulate how they will be involved in the Church of Ireland for the near future. At a time in and around the university years when many of our young adults will be considering leaving the church, this could be significant.

5. The development of church leaders:
Every young adult going through this process will be on a contact database for other opportunities. This will allow us to help young adults progress through other areas of training and mission with the hope that some would be encouraged consider lay ministry and ordination training.

For further information please email simon@ciyd.org