Revd Simon Cook, Area Dean of Bolton Deanery, and members of the Children Changing Places team have been working on an exciting new project with Canon Slade Church of England Secondary School. Members of staff initially approached Revd Simon and the Children Changing Places team to propose a project aimed at growing links between Bolton churches and Year 8 pupils. Through much prayer and discussion, ‘Love your Neighbour’ was born!
The aim of ‘Love your Neighbour’ is to partner each Year 8 form group with a local church or Christian organisation to work together to explore what it means to ‘love your neighbour’ in practice.
The project officially launched on 21st January with a welcome session for churches and an opportunity for the church and Year 8 form representatives to get to know each other and generate ideas. The morning concluded with a commissioning service for the 300 pupils and their link churches, led by Revd Simon. The Canon Slade staff were delighted by the support that they received from clergy, lay leaders and volunteers and the young people threw themselves into the morning’s activities with great energy and enthusiasm.
The project will grow over the coming months as the form groups work with their link churches to plan exciting and creative activities. The hope is that intergenerational relationships will flourish, that the young people will gain valuable volunteering opportunities with their link churches and that churches will make the most of this valuable opportunity to reach out to young people and actively involve them in the life of the Church. We are pleased that seven parishes from our diocese are among the ten churches involved, taking the opportunity to build on the growing connections with their local schools. Although the project will lead up to a celebration event in July, the hope is that the relationships established between form groups and churches will continue into the next academic year and beyond.