Tweenage Witness: January 2009

In 1998 the English Church Attendance survey stated that Churches in England were losing 1000 under 15s per week, whilst the August 2000, Christian research on Ageing Population, predicted that by 2020 under 15s would make up 4% of England’s Church going population (compared to 19% in 1998 and 26% in 1979). Across the denominations young people between 10-13 years old (‘tweenagers’), are an under-resourced age group, a phenomenon that can often be felt in Parishes in the apparent gap between first Holy Communion and Confirmation. Meanwhile this age group’s use of the internet is steadily growing. In 2005 research by Panlogic showed that 88% of primary school children and 95% of eleven-to-eighteen year olds, use the internet at home.

These findings have all contributed to the creation of www.yfaith.co.uk. An initiative of the Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation (CASE), Yfaith is a response to the expressed needs of parents, catechists and teachers alike. Launched primarily as a resource to support faith development in the home, Yfaith also has something to offer to Catholic schools, by supplementing academic studies with an interactive tool that further enables students to relate what they are learning to their every-day life and their personal faith development. Offering a space in which young people can engage with, explore and express their faith, Yfaith is first and foremost a tool for the evangelisation of ‘tweenagers’. By answering questions and dealing with issues that directly affect or concern young people, such as bullying and the environment, the site aims to enable users to engage with their faith in a relevant manner. With pages on God, the Bible and the Church, Yfaith provides opportunities for young people to find out more, and to respond to God personally in prayer.

In addition, the site is a tool for enabling young people to become more confident evangelisers themselves. Pope Paul VI spoke of the initial stages of evangelising as involving ‘witness of life’. Yfaith aims to show young people that they can make an impact on the world as young Catholics, from being a good steward of their environment and being concerned with global justice, to being able to say sorry, and to forgive friends and family when mistakes are made. Pope Paul VI said that in these initial stages of evangelisation, it is witness of life that stirs up questions in the hearts of others, such as: ‘Why do they live in this way? What or who is it that inspires them?’ He went on to say: ‘Such a witness is already a silent proclamation of the Good News and a very powerful and effective one.’ (Evangelii Nuntiandi: 21).

It is unremarkable to expect young people to be changed by an encounter with Christ, or for them to discover a new hope that others will in time recognise in them. However, without proclaiming the Good News, young people’s role as Evangelisers would be incomplete – as would our own (Evangelii Nuntiandi: 22). In a multi-faith culture that is fiercely conscious of tolerance, afraid of fundamentalism, and permeated by a reluctance to ‘force’ beliefs on people, the Church’s evangelistic activities, let alone the idea of children being evangelists, is potentially controversial. However, Pope John Paul II described evangelism as the natural consequence of an encounter with Christ. What might it look like then, for young Catholics to be evangelising, not only in deed but also in word? It would mean these young people being confident in their Catholic identity and in the fact that they are loved by God. It would mean them being free to be more fully themselves and unafraid to talk about their faith should the opportunity arise.

It can be crippling to be a young person of faith in today’s culture, but Yfaith hopes to see 10-13 year olds realising that they are not alone, that they are part of a much bigger community that has Jesus as its focus. This sense of community will be generated through the published opinions, prayers and articles submitted by young people, and through the interviews with older teenagers and adult writers for the site. Through these features, users of Yfaith can discover a language for talking about faith, whilst having it modelled to them that being a Catholic and having faith in Jesus, is not only acceptable but something to be proud of and excited by.

Visit: www.yfaith.co.uk