Youth Ministry in Communion continues to build momentum with the latest event in collaboration with churches from across Southwark, as the Archbishop of Canterbury joined to lead Holy Communion for young people.
Youth Ministry in Communion (YMIC) is a movement pioneering sacramental and collaborative youth ministry which has been growing steadily since 2021, thanks to a faithful group of founding churches with an injection of funding to form a team of organisers and multi-parish youth workers.
On 6th October, YMIC welcomed the Archbishop of Canterbury to a milestone event at St Mary’s Putney, with young people from churches in both the Dioceses of London and Southwark. Another thing to celebrate is new funding for more events, key workers and youth ministry roles in multiple parishes across the river in the Diocese of Southwark, as they seek to start a similar movement in collaboration with the current YMIC team.
What happens at YMIC
A YMIC event follows a simple structure: several activities all happening simultaneously in rotation (participants are assigned into colour-coded groups), followed by Holy Communion with an open invitation to receive and a final blessing, with a short message at some point in the gathering.
At this event, young people were able to participate in pizzas and discussion, laser tag, a gaming/social zone, and graffiti or art banners.
Each young person had the chance to create their own piece of graffiti art on a tote bag, led by a team from three different churches.
“Graffiti is seldom celebrated as an art form. It was inspiring to see the young people excited to get involved and enjoying it, incorporating themes from their faith into their creations.”
– Banny N’Gola, Community Youth Worker, St Andrews Fulham
The Archbishop was keen to explore these activities and quickly found himself decorating a tote bag with a spray can, adding his own flair to it after seeing what young people had been coming up with!
Moments to treasure
Throughout the evening there were the obvious organised-chaos elements of a large youth event, but also moments to behold.
The “discussion and pizza” activity involved young people responding to various prompts by moving around the room before having the opportunity to explain (it was a “stand there for X, or there for Y” type of activity). At one point during my time in the room, one person offered a particularly poignant answer about their faith and hope for peace in a dark world, met with applause from the room as others recognised that they can find collective hope and peace through discussion and prayer.
I asked a couple of teenagers who had been coming to YMIC events for a couple of years, what they enjoyed most about it. One of them pointed at the dais and said “this” (referring to the time of worship that was going to begin soon). The young people attending these events are not just coming to have fun with all the activities on offer; they come to worship and receive, too.
The person assisting with setting up the altar was a Licensed Lay Minister. This was the first visit from an Archbishop in their time serving there for 57 years, which just so happened to be a service for young people.
And then there was the Archbishop of Canterbury, on his knees breaking bread and surrounded by young people after a long day of visitations and conversations, as a small choir led us in song before taking communion together.
Moments of profound connection amidst the chaos and joy of a large youth event, created an evening to treasure as this movement continues to build momentum. It is still about young Londoners meeting Christ together within the sacramental tradition – which YMIC is doing brilliantly.
Find out more about YMIC
YMIC’s next large event will be at the start of Lent 2025. Learn more about YMIC and the event on their website.