Well, as you will have seen – on Monday the Bishop of Oxford (who is the Chair of the Board of Education) had to answer 13 questions raised by those concerned across the Church – my previous post to this one details the response to the questions.

I remain deeply concerned and was not reassured by the answers. However, a couple of plus points:

1. The title ‘Going for Growth Advisor’ looks like it will be dispensed with after a strong call that we do not lose ‘children’ and ‘youth’ from the title of national posts.

2. The establishment of a ‘reflection group’, whilst not a stop – is a pause.

3. Decision in March gives breathing space for us to continue to ask questions and engage as much as we can (by we, I mean myself and other diocesan youth officers and children’s work advisers who are concerned).

What next then.

Well, thank you again if you signed the petition – it did its job in raising the profile of what is happening, got mentioned in the questions at General Synod, and communicated that the concern extends far beyond a few disgruntled DYOs!

A number of DYOs and CWAs are going to try and meet with the Chief Education Officer and possibly the Reflection Group mentioned by the Bishop in his answers at Synod.

The place to take this forward, is through face to face communication (as it is communication that has been lacking).

I will link to this page in a message to all who signed the petition, and keep anyone interested up to speed as we seek to engage and have conversations with those who are making these decisions.

The blog has had more activity in the last week than I think it has in rest of the time it has been ‘up’ put together. I have got the bit between my teeth with some of the challenges we face as the church and will aim to blog more often on those things – I don’t, however, want to generate heat with no light (dimly ranting in a corner), so please keep me on track with what I write and how I write it.