Sea of Faith Christchurch Group

At our next meeting, on Friday 12 September, Yvonne Smith will talk with us about her work with young people. Yvonne is an ordained Presbyterian minister and has been chaplain at Rangi Ruru Girls’ School for the past ten years or so.

I’m really looking forward to this meeting, not just because I know Yvonne from many years back, but also because I think she will have interesting things to say about matters that are of interest to us all.

• We often hear calls that schools should be teaching values. How do you go about doing this? Isn’t it a bit hypocritical of us to expect the school to teach values, when our society lives largely by the assumption that the value of something is defined by its monetary value?
• The Education Act declared that education was to be free, compulsory, and secular. What are the effects of this act and how does a Church school fit into this scene?
• We older folk mostly grew up experiencing Sunday School, Bible Class, and Church. Many young people today grow up with almost no experience of this, while others are involved with evangelical or charismatic congregations that have little understanding of modern biblical scholarship and liberal theology. How can a chaplain deal with this divide?

We in the Sea of Faith are mostly older generation, and we pursue the questions that interest us. I’m hoping that Yvonne will be able to widen our horizons a little and help to increase our awareness of what is happening to religion and spirituality among those who are growing up.