Value base

This call causes us to place value on the following:

In love God created the whole universe in all its diversity and multiplicity. We value the unity in diversity of all creation and the role of all people in this created order.

We value God's love, which moves the whole of creation. In Jesus God's love becomes visible. We value God's love for all. We also value our share in loving and being loved and the strength and support this love gives us.

We have a vision of society based on the values of freedom, justice and equality. We accept the challenge of the Gospel to root ourselves more deeply in these values and play our part in creating a more just society. This leads us to challenge oppression in all its forms and promote equality of opportunity especially in the lives of young people. We also challenge the prejudices and powers which lead us and others to be oppressors.

We value the Christian faith as the means by which we have come to know and understand something of God's purpose for people. Although at varying stages of our faith journey, we value the interaction between different people in the Christian community and the vision of God's kingdom we share.

We look to Christ's example of service to those he met on his journey and we aim to follow this by offering the service we can to those we meet on our journey. We value service as a tangible expression of our love and our faith. We see our involvement in youth work as part of this service.

We value young people in their own right as part of God's creativity. We reaffirm the essential value of being young (as opposed to simply understanding youth as being a transitional state).

Recognising that young people are often undervalued and marginalised, we value their right to share equally and fully in the life of society and the Church.
We reject any value or structure in society, which serves to undermine this right for any young person.

We rejoice that each young person is unique: that he or she has never existed before and never will again. We value the actual and potential contribution of each young person to human life. We seek to assist in the realization of this potential through our work.

As in other stages of life, young people are constantly growing and developing. We place great value on their growth and the wonder of human development. We seek to enable this process to happen in a secure and holistic environment. We reject all that hinders this process, or which encourages young people to develop in ways which are harmful to themselves or others.

Arising from our belief in the potential, creativity and essential worth of young people, we place high value on the need to encourage them to take on responsibility for their own lives, and to participate in both Church and society. We, therefore, actively encourage power-sharing between young people and adults as an essential feature of our work.

By partnership we mean that interdependence which exists among those working with young people. This relationship makes possible a sharing of experience, resources and types of provision which enrich greatly the opportunities open to young people.

We value youth work as part of the whole educational process. We attach particular value to what makes it distinctive, namely that it is informal, voluntary, participatory and is holistic in its approach.

^ top