Greenbelt bus

Message from the Chair of the District to youth group leaders

Many of you will know that last year a number of young people from the District (in different youth groups) combined to travel to Greenbelt together.  Subsequently many of them led our worship at Synod in September.

It was clear to me that these young people got a great deal from the experience and from being linked together so that there could be further links and supportive relationships between youth groups in the District.

It is our intention this year to pay for a coach to take similar groups who would like to attend Greenbelt for the first time or for the “nth” time.  The purpose would be to provide easy transport (we would pick up at various points in the District on the Friday to travel to Greenbelt and return people to the same points on the Monday).

The bus would be provided free of charge to all those who wish to go.  The District is not proposing however to pay for Greenbelt tickets nor is it intending to provide oversight for youth groups.  This will remain with the group leaders and volunteers in the normal way.  Likewise tents and other material resources would need to be provided by the groups themselves.

We would like to gather a register of interest in this idea and for this purpose Louise Makin is the contact point. 

A number of groups have already expressed interest and the kind of questions that have arisen from the groups are around what ages we are intending to take.  This is difficult to answer as youth groups are slightly different from each other but we are assuming that all in the category youth will be at secondary school and most likely in the 13+ area.  There may be possible exceptions to this that could be negotiated with Louise but the general  intention is for teenage and early twenties young people being the norm.

Please register your interest with Louise before the end of May and if you are intending to take a group to Greenbelt clearly you need to follow the information on their website, via Facebook and Twitter also to keep up to date with what is happening and about costs.