Our Team.
Our Story.
Youth Ministry in Communion (YMIC) is a response to the need for sacramental youth ministry across the Church of England. We want to share with young people the love of God through word and sacrament.
Back in 2020, the world was changing... Covid is causing isolation and suffering... George Floyd's death sparks worldwide outrage... The climate crisis worsens and continues to be neglected... and along with all of that and many other things, the poor mental health of thousands of young people continues to be undersupported...
In the midst of all of this, youth work is seen to be now more than ever in crisis!
At the risk of sounding like the opening to a joke: two parish priests and a youth worker sit down to dream about a thriving youth ministry where young people throughout communities are welcomed, loved and empowered. But, there's one problem: we don't think that it can be achieved alone - the youth worker is Jacob Holme; Revd Lesley Bilinda and Revd Anne Cowley are the two priests and the three of us know too well the reality of church youth work, especially in the liturgical and catholic traditions. Youth work is never easy, but that statement is so far from hitting the mark when referring to what can seem like an impossible task: effective youth ministry in the sacramental tradition.
We gathered (on Zoom!) a group of local clergy from a similar tradition to our own and shared this vision for collaborative youth work with them. Admittedly, we didn't really know what we were offering to them at the time - we just knew that something was needed and the rest could be worked out later by the grace of God.
A few meetings later, Lesley, Anne and Jacob had dreamed up a simple proposal that in reality would at first be hard to pull off: joint youth events every term. We're not talking pizza and a film (although, we do love that too!) - we're talking something big and attractive, yet rooted missionally in the sacramental tradition. Our plan was to provide something which would gather small clusters of young people from the 8 or so parishes and provide a critical mass. These events would be a central point around which parishes could base their own youth ministry, be that a small group gathering fortnightly for pizza and games etc or a weekly gathering for a discipleship study group.