Increasingly, many of our congregations in Ipswich are intergenerational with old and young learning from each other and worshipping together. That said, children, young people and their families are still under-represented so we’re constantly looking at ways of reaching out to include them more in everything we do. These are some of the ways:
Under 5s
- Working with Emma Allinson, the Diocesan Early Year's Adviser, support is offered to all churches wishing to set up or develop a toddler group.
- We already have almost a dozen church-run toddler groups and nurseries that our churches are in contact with for example, Hungry Hippos at St Augustine’s Church, Bubbles at St Peter’s Church and Small Hallows at All Hallows Church.
- Recently we launched a project called ‘Perfect Peace’. This is the brainchild of Priest-in-Charge of St Mary Stoke, the Revd Sophie Cowan, and now has a full-time Director, the Revd Joy French. The goal of 'Perfect Peace' is to support the mental and spiritual health of children under 5s and their families especially in Ipswich estate areas. The idea is to pilot this project in Ipswich, then roll it out in wider Suffolk before operating nationally.
Ages 5-11
- So far we have over 11 Messy Churches, often meeting monthly, supporting local families. This is supporetd by a deanery team who offer resource materials and prayer
- We also have churches offering Messy Meet-Ups and we even had a Messtival once!
- We have a growing network of Children’s and Families’ Workers
- In conjunction with the wider diocese, the CONNECT course exists to help train and develop our leaders and helpers
- A number of our clergy regularly take acts of collective worship in our schools and a few offer ‘Open the Book’ teams to help bring the Bible alive in school assemblies
- We have four Church of England primary schools in Ipswich
- Some of our churches make use of the ‘Experience Christmas’ and ‘Experience Easter’ resources (initially from Gloucester Diocese)
- The 'Inspire Prayer Space' resource is available for schools and churches to borrow.
Ages 11 and above
- We work with the charity Christian Youth Ministries (CYM) based in Ipswich, to support young people in our schools through a network of chaplains
- There is a termly town-wide Youth Worship evening called, ‘The Gathering’
- There is a Youth congregation, ‘the Haven’, at St Thomas' Church
- A large choir including many young people meets at St Mary le Tower, which is soon to become Ipswich Minster
- There are an increasing number of youth groups springing up across our churches
- Kintsugi Hope wellbeing courses have been offered in some secondary schools
- Our Lead Pioneer Developer is trained to offer ‘Take Time Meditations’ in schools
- ‘Growing Leaders for young people’ is offered when there is demand
- As a diocese we are partnering with Youthscape to run Youth Essentials a training programme to support youth volunteers and Youth Essentials Launchpad training to support incumbents to reach out to young people.
Students
- River Church Ipswich has a strong student ministry with a student pastor
- The Revd Linda Pepper is the Anglican chaplain at the University of Suffolk
- We have a part-time Anglican chaplain at Suffolk New (Ipswich's Further Education college).
To support all of the above, deanery churches (as well as Ipswich schools) can apply to the ‘Elizabeth Walter Charity’ for up to £2,000 per year for support in Christian learning.
