Act of Penitence by West Yorkshire’s Church leaders

Commitment to young people as clergy meet students on Ash Wednesday

Senior West Yorkshire Church Leaders took part in an unusual act of penitence for  Ash Wednesday. The leaders of the main Christian churches including two bishops, Methodist District chairs, a Synod moderator and a Salvation Army Major met in the Student’s Union of  Bradford College to pray for young people and ask forgiveness for failures by the church in the past to support and welcome young people.  They met students and were joined by regional church youth officers from the  Methodist, Roman Catholic, Anglican and the United Reformed Church.

Special postcards were produced for the service with twitter length prayers for young people, which have been tweeted by the West Yorkshire Ecumenical Council (@WYEC). Stones were used to represent barriers for young people, and a new poster ‘Faith in Young People’ published by youth leaders working in Yorkshire and the Humber was also introduced.

As well as taking place on Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, a period of reflection and penitence in the Christian church, it also took place during Bradford College’s  Confidence in Diversity week. A recent consultation of students has shown that  family life, commercial pressures and unemployment are among the main concerns for young people with the highest priority being stability, security and support in family life.

West Yorkshire Church Leaders of different Christian traditions have established a pattern of coming together on Ash Wednesday in a context of common concern, and with youth unemployment now standing at more than a million, the decision was taken by WYEC to focus in 2012 on young people.

 The Revd. Dr. Liz Smith, Chair of Leeds Methodist District and Chair of West Yorkshire Ecumenical Council, said: “For Christians with a message of the unique value of every person, young people are not a wasted generation but a wanted generation. Church Leaders are listening to young people, praying with them and speaking out alongside them.”

More about the work of the West Yorkshire Ecumenical Council can be found at www.wyec.co.uk