Young people from URC congregations all over the country came together for FURY [that's Fellowship of United Reformed Youth] Assembly over a January weekend at the Pioneer Centre near Kidderminster.
According to the four young people who made it as our own synod representatives, it was once again a good occasion. Seasoned Assembly-goers Heather Laing and Felicity Tunnard and first-timer Matthew Appleyard share their impressions.....
This was the 4th time I'd been to FURY Assembly, and was very different to any that I'd been to previously. Usually there are loads of motions to discuss, and the whole weekend seems filled with in depth debates on really important issues. This year however, we only had two motions to discuss. One asking for us to support a campaign related to reducing the effects of climate change, and another based around the work of FURY within the community both at Synod level and nationally, and discussing the FURY forum (a national FURY event).
Instead, the focus at this year's Assembly
was on meeting people and sharing ideas and experiences. Personally, I found
that I came away with more from this year's assembly than I did from
previous ones. As I had more time to socialise, I was able to catch up with
old friends, make new ones, and discuss a number of different issues with
them all. I had a chance to talk to people about the events that I'm
planning locally. I was also able to talk to people from other areas about
the situation with FURY here at the moment.
Many people agreed that a youth worker is an invaluable resource for young people, and also that we need to find a way to communicate with other FURY people especially those within our own Synods. The areas where there aren't many young people seem to have resources available plentifully, but those areas like ours where there are tons of young people of FURY age, are lacking any provision for them in terms of FURY events.
The main problem for our area is that although there are young people, they aren't aware of what FURY is or does. Across the whole Synod we have only a handful of people who are aware of FURY, and when I was discussing this with one of my friends, we agreed that part of the problem is that the promotional material that went out last is now well out of date, and that FURY has a name for debates, discussions and being serious. Most people are unaware of how much fun FURY events are. We spend a lot of time having fun, playing games, socialising, chatting, laughing, and enjoying the company of other young Christians.
I am planning an event for the Newcastle area, which hopefully will inform people of what FURY is, how it works and what we do, and hopefully they'll discover how much fun we have too.
As well as debates and socialising, we attended two workshops each, and had worship at the beginning and end of each day. The workshops I attended were about gathering ideas of how youth and children's work nationally could be improved, and singing. The first workshop involved doing acting out a parable (our group chose the parable of the talents, with a twist), playing twister (discovering how our lives can seem a mess, but God is there to help us), playing charades (the words were ones we had thought of when we thought of young people in the church today), and chatting about how we thought youth and children's work nationally could be improved.
The second workshop
I chose was spent learning new songs and praising God through song. We also
sang a couple f the songs we had learnt in the worship on Saturday night and
on Sunday morning. It was lovely to be able to hear and try out up to date
songs in a variety of styles. From traditional to gospel to folk songs. As
for the worship, for me as a young Christian, to be able to stand in the
middle of a load of other passionate young Christians praising God, has to
be one of the most moving experiences ever. There's something about the way
that they just open up and praise God with every last scrap of their being.
They're not worrying about what those around them think, they're just
concentrating completely on worshipping the Lord.
In my church, I am one of the few young members that attends and so I find FURY assembly a welcome opportunity to meet with other young Christians, particularly from the united reformed church so I can share my experiences with others.
After having a thoroughly enjoyable experience last year, and making several new friends, I was looking forward to returning to FURY again this year. This year, I found my experience of FURY to be slightly different from last year. It was much more focused on Worship I found, an aspect that I did enjoy.
One of the workshops that I attended was a ‘singing to the lord’ workshop, which focused on different styles of singing including a Taize chant. As well as this, I also attended both the early morning prayers and late night communion. I found it really encouraging to see so many young people join in and enjoy worship, which is something that I don’t see a lot of in my home church, although it is a very friendly congregation.
However, I was disappointed with the fact that there were no motions or issues raised during this assembly. I’m aware that this may be because FURY is going through restructuring and due to the fact that we need to be raising issues ourselves! I was keen to take some ideas back to my home church, however, I didn’t really feel that there was a chance to for me to do this.
I feel that FURY is an important part of the United Reformed Church, the evening entertainment was excellent, and it was nice to have a weekend away with other Christians, and catch up with friends, and more importantly feel like you’re not alone with your religion. Next year, I hope to have a chance to contribute more ideas and to possibly gain more information to taker back home with me and develop my church further.
The weekend began at around 6. 00 pm. When we arrived we where given some time to have a meal and prepare our rooms before we were introduced to FURY Assembly. We where all gathered together in the main hall and welcomed by the FURY Chair who introduced herself and the rest of FURY Council, which is now know as FURY Advisory Board.
We then split into regional groups so we could be told what we would be doing during the weekend. When we all met back in the hall the first service began. The theme for the whole weekend was 'Will you come and follow me?' Asking the question of whether we would go out into the world after the weekend and follow the teachings of Christ and what he did in his time.
After the service there was entertainment which was provided on Friday and Saturday night. This allowed us to go to what was provided or entertain ourselves.
The Saturday was rather busy. It began with a morning prayer at 8.00 am, which was also done on Sunday. Then after breakfast we where introduced to different Christian groups within the URC which showed us how far the church expands. Then we went to workshops which where selected on the Friday for us to do Saturday.
I chose 'When will learn?' which looked at the story of Joseph and his Technicoloured Dream Coat and how much of that story still happens today. The second workshop I went to was on Peace. This gave us the chance to look at how much peace we find in our world and how we could possibly change that.
The end of the day finished with a service and later a late communion service. On Sunday we where given some motions to look at which were firstly about community work and the second was about what we can do to slow down the effects of climate change. The weekend finished with a service and a late lunch.
On the whole I found it to be a wonderful weekend and would enjoy going again.