Church to seek out youth

The Anglican Church is seeking to get down to brass tacks with the young people of the nation in a major way.

Bishop Michael Maxwell said the church was currently working towards actively engaging the youth to see exactly where their minds are at and what are their future goals and plans.

Bishop Maxwell told reporters today that the church would be embarking on a pilot programme, facilitated by the Social Justice Commission, in conjunction with the Youth and Family Commissions, entitled Empowering Our Young People for Positive Living.

He said the programme was geared towards seeking out those young people from within the primary and secondary schools who were struggling for one reason or another, and offering them meaningful support, guidance and motivation to assist them with life skills.

This, he added, is a positive move towards being that ‘rising church’ that seeks to nurture the nation’s youth to equip them for life.

“Our church must be such that it can enable not only the spiritual development of our youth, but also enable them to discover and design a response to other needs that they are faced with.

“The Anglican church needs to develop and design programmes by way of consultation with the young people. That is one thing that came out of our Synod. We need to develop a consultation with our youth, to hear their needs and see what they are struggling with and then of course make a concerted effort to respond to them,” he said.

Bishop Maxwell was speaking about plans to work with the youth, during a press conference held at the Christ the King Centre, Rock Dundo Park, St Michael this morning.

The head of the Anglican Diocese also said he believes the church has an integral part to play in nation building, as it relates to raising the nation.

“But for that to happen and for the church to be able to accomplish that I believe that the church also has to raise itself from where it is in order to be able to shine forth and have a positive impact upon the nation and its situation as it stands,” he said.