From 3Generate to Easington Colliery and then a retreat

Last week-end I travelled to the Pioneer Centre in Cleobury Mortimer at the invitation of the Youth President, to spend time at 3generate. What a brilliant time I had there! On Friday evening Tamara (Youth President) welcomed us all and we shared in worship together, enriched by the musicians from Cliff College. For the whole week-end children and young people aged from 8 to 23 were participating fully in the life of the Methodist church. I was very impressed by the variety of ways in which they were able to learn, share and feed back their opinions and ideas. I had to leave before any resolutions to the Methodist Council and Conference were prepared but I look forward to being challenged by them.
On Saturday the Vice-President and I were among those who listened to the opinions of the 8-11 year old group. They were enthusiastic and eager to share, they were also very well worth listening to - I expected that but I wonder how often they are really heard in their local churches, I hope they are.
In the afternoon I was one of four people who were on a panel for a Question Time event. Paul Morrison (from JPIT), Tamara and Sam Taylor were the other three who responded to questions from the 11-23 year old groups. The questions ranged from those about belief to those about ethical issues - I really enjoyed that session. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I was late for the next session where I was with an 18-23 year old group who were thinking about spiritual gits. My tardiness did not matter as the session was being led by Megan who didn't need me there, it was good to sit at her feet.
I had to leave on Saturday night but fitted in a quick visit to the bonfire before I left.
I love the fact that we really expect young people to participate fully in the life of our church, and we expect to learn from them.
Thank you 3generate for a fantastic couple of days.

On Sunday I was at Easington Collliery Methodist Church in County Durham. The people there were celebrating the centenary of the church and we had a good time of worship and thanksgiving. They are really looking for ways to work with their community and to work ecumenically.
They are also generous with their hospitality - we had 2 cakes!

From Monday until Wednesday I was leading a retreat for a group from the WestYorkshire District. We were at Ampleforth Abbey - a beautiful setting especially when the weather was so good for us. It is always good to take some time apart to focus on God, in fact I believe it is essential.