The Children’s
Assembly of the United Reformed Church brought general assembly
adult members leaping to their feet - singing, dancing, whooping
and applauding with joy.
The 50 Children and Leaders at the
2008
General Assembly
at Edinburgh University
They presented a
comprehensive manifesto of how churches need to modernise to
grow for the future: crucially by working harder to bring down
barriers, and for example by varying their music styles to suit
young and old, including gospel music, street drama, more fun
activities, chill time and a host of other approaches.
The DVD they
showed Assembly demonstrated through the way they had spent the
weekend, some of the things they had in mind. Drama, physical
fun games, music making and an activity where they used
cardboard boxes to build a wall representing barriers to church.
Each box showed on one side a potential barrier, such as age –
where one’s age is not catered for, boring music, homophobia and
bullying. On the other side the boxes showed solutions – which
amounted to ways of generating inclusiveness and welcome for
all.
One of the
children explained how they had all been given boredom buster
books to help them through the “duller moments” of the adults
assembly. He added “We gave one to the moderator. We hope he
found it useful.”
They ended by
introducing a new version of The Lord of the Dance –
“traditional music, the way we like it.”
The funny thing
was, judging by the way the adults danced, sang and clapped
themselves into a state of euphoria – it was clearly the way
they liked it too.
The
children trooped out to a standing ovation.
