Diocese of Portsmouth

Spiritual Formatio

n and Young People

Saturday 12th May 2007

Spiritual Development in Young People

•Are they that different?

•Still with souls, that yearn, the capacity to wonder, and a search for identity and purpose in the world

What is spirituality?

It is our heartbeat! It is our understanding and experience of how encounter with God takes place and hoe such an encounter is sustained. It is an affair of the heart!

What is spirituality?

•Through encounter, we discover more of who we are in the world and under God.

•How can this be ignited in the first place?

•How can this be sustained?

Spiritual Development Theory

•Fowler and Westerhoff

•Fowler - faith as a human universal and not specifically Christian

•Westerhoff defines spiritual development within a specific Christian context

What is spirituality?

•Through encounter, we discover more of who we are in the world and under God.

•How can this be ignited in the first place?

•How can this be sustained?

Spirituality

•So spirituality is inextricably tied up with experience

•Hay and Hunt and religious experiences

•59% rise since the mid-80s in experience and yet people only had the "vaguest remnants" of religious language with which to express the experience

Spirituality

•An additional pillar to the church of today:

•Scripture

•Reason

•Tradition

•Experience

Billy Connolly

"There's no such thing as bad weather…

only the wrong clothes"

Our task is not to provide the next clothing, but a rack of options, based on listening to the market, in a different range of styles

A Spirituality in which young people can encounter God where they experience Him in:

•Relationship

•Resonance

•Participation

How have these worked in worship and spirituality with young people in the Peterborough Diocese?

The Story of

Critical Mass

RELATIONSHIP

•Young people together, not too many adults

•From "Belonging before Believing" to "Being there, belonging, believing"

•Listening, openness, journeying

•Worship creates relationship

RESONANCE

•With God

•With Self

•With the World

•Through issues

•Through discussion

•Through environment

•Multi-sensory approach

The Eucharist contains key ingredients which makes connections with young people•Story•Journey•Participation•Visual: Imagery and Symbol•Multi-sensual•Food!

THIS IS A LANGUAGE FOR EXPRESSION AND

EXPERIENCE

Defining our Terms

• What is a sacrament?• What does this word

mean to us?– An “outward and visible

sign”– “When God shows up”– A way God communicates

with us and vice versa

Defining our Terms• What is a sacrament

– With young people we need a wider definition• William Temple “A

sacramental universe”• George Herbert “Teach

me my God and King, in all things thee to see”

• Making something different, making a statement/a stand

Participation• From passive observers to active

participants• Experiential participation• Shared Story

• Discussion and engagement

• The numinous of symbol• Mystery and Encounter

SummaryHow do we help the spiritual formation in young people?By helping them find a language for their expression and experienceBy being there in the searching, encouraging belonging and then belief