On Sunday, 8 June, in Redcar, nine churches from various traditions gathered together from across the town to celebrate Pentecost at Redcar United Reformed Church.
The celebration was centred on Pentecost and the culmination of Thy Kingdom Come, while also having a distinct youth focus, with local ecumenical youth charity Blank Canvas hosting the evening. Those attending were joined by a mission team from First Woodway Baptist Church, Texas.
The Rt Rev Barry Hill, Bishop of Whitby, who leads Growing Younger across the Diocese of York, alongside his role as Chair of the York Diocesan Board of Education, shared a wonderful encouragement to all those gathered, beautifully focusing our attention on the role each of us has to play in inviting the Holy Spirit into our lives, wherever we find ourselves in our daily lives.
The Churches Together in Redcar group had invited Blank Canvas to host the evening, keen to hear an update on their work from across Redcar, in turning around the situation of next to no young people in nearly every church in the town, and now with many young people attending church based youth clubs and drop-ins, weekends away and more recently, spaces to explore faith and be discipled. Over the last two years, Blank Canvas has seen a number of young people begin to follow Jesus and also become part of local worshipping communities.
The Blank Canvas team led the service and sung worship, readings, welcome, prayers and hospitality, with young people involved across each of those areas. With a room full of over 130 people, and after a shout out from every church present, the service heard of the lives changed: not only the disciples at Pentecost and the early church, but of local church and young people from the community, with a call for more partnership and support due to the numbers of young people exploring faith and needing support in Redcar.
Hear Hannah’s story of finding faith which was shown on the evening.