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September 27, 2006
Spirituality of generation Y
The Spirituality of Generation Y day at LICC was great. The unpacking of the research has come quite a way since the preliminary findings were presented at the CTE day last year and we got into more reflection on implications today! The intervening 18 months have also seen a better understanding of the way that Phil Rankin's research and that of Sylvie and Bob Mayo's, complement each other.
The two different types of spirituality that Bob flagged up last April (2005) were still the main foundations that the exploration was built on, those of
1.Formative Spirituality (a private, often unarticulated approach to life, prayer etc)
2. Transformative Spirituality (A spirituality that affects public areas of life)
Today the concept of a "Happy Midi-narrative" was a key theme. That Young People look for and believe in the possibility of happiness, that this is their prevelant worldview. This may possibly bury the formative spirituality beneath this world view and leave it unexamined. What was clear however is that there was very little evidence that young people thought they had a need for a transformative spirituality and therefore, that the "God shaped hole" that needed filling was a myth (at least in the experience and quest of young people), Bob referred to this gap between these two spiritualities as a 'black hole' to emphasise the vast gulf. The "Happy midi-narrative" posed some interesting speculations as to what happens when a young person fails to achieve happiness? Is the gap between the worldview and what a young person is experiencing when hurting a cause of self harm etc?
Phil Rankin was usefully able to show how willing young people are to talk about their spirituality providing it's on their space and that us REALLY listening is the goal. Bob was also very interested in both the right space and place to move toards the transformative, but further than this believed that the 'when' and the 'with whom' were vital pieces and it was at the place where these met the 'where' that the move towards transformative might happen.
The over-riding question of the day though (that was both examined and left with us) was
How do we enable a bridge to be made between Formative Spirituality towards that of Transformative Spirituality?
I'll write more as I get the day clearer in my head! Great to see so many youth minister friends there.
Other reports and reflections:
Deep Thought
Ben Bell
Tim Abbott
And finally: Mark Berry was asking related questions to passers by in Telford today.
Posted by ian at September 27, 2006 3:48 PM