Okay so a long title but I have long been trying to outwork some of Friere’s philosophy around liberation since the early 1990s, and was thinking about this after last nights detached session. Particularly I was reflecting on this as the primary issues concerned a small group of young women we engaged as two male detached youthworkers. My twitter feed then came up with a great set of notes on Pedagogy of the Oppressed by God Loves Women. If you have never read Friere or read it and got stuck go read her notes HERE

For most of the session last night liberation was running through my mind as we encountered the group. Two young women started chatting with us about some of the issues they were facing, and you could tell from the off it would be one of those conversations that deepened quickly. We move from hello, to engaging issues of relationships and drug use within five minutes (we previously had worked with the group). They raised issues of isolation, hope, and powerlessness, as we talked around these issues. Desperate for a lighter, one girl, let’s call her Charlie shouted across to her friend, “got a lighter?” The negative response proved a response of “slag” from Charlie and although jokey in manner, I challenged this with “where’s the sisterhood? just cos she doesn’t have a lighter, you call her names” We explored this for a while, before being invited by the now larger group to sit with them.

My first reflection is ‘Can I as a man dialogue with these young women towards sisterhood?’ and this is a critical question because of how the conversation later develops. I am aware of my Conscientization role, but as the evening moves we have clearly created a good dialogue space and begin to hit about 50% of the points for the correct method of addressing oppression that lies in dialogue that God Loves Woman identifies from Friere.

The conversation continues around being made to go places by parents, threats, and a long conversation around stop and search, both in school and out of school. I do some problem posing with them, and move between concrete to abstract ideas, building in some organising and empowerment stuff. For example we discussed the issue of their feelings of victimization by a teacher as they were being regularly searched. We discussed their rights, responsibilities, and conditions under which searching may be appropriate and strategies by which the process could be challenged. My second reflection is all about the power, the positional power of the teacher, the powerless of the student and the lack of sisterhood that makes consolidating the power the young women have as a group problematic, as well as my own power in the conversation and process.

One of the solutions hypothesised was to identify the ten most regularly searched women and agree to challenge the system through direct action. The young women stated they often refused searches by teachers but are met with the response that the police will be called to do the search. We discussed community organising, principles of deliberately ensuring they had no contraband, warning teachers that if they called the police they would be wasting police time. We problematised this as a possible solution, and came full circle to the lack of sisterhood, and the question ‘why call her a slag?’ and what is your role in liberating yourself from this. I am pretty aware of the ethical and legal issues of this discussion, but the feeling of oppression, powerlessness and lack of hope in these young women was palpable. So my final reflection is a mixture of the first two, what is my role as a male in this context, my rights to speak, the value of anything I say? and what can be done towards liberation with these young women, as we are way beyond the make over pampering sessions to build esteem?

If interested in more conversation check out www.fyt.org.uk who are hosting a day with Worth Unlimited on work with young women on May 8th in Manchester.

My role involves speaking to a myriad of youth workers, church leaders and young people and a consistent theme of the conversations I have recently (at least 15 that spring to mind) are of young people being committed to faith, exploration but struggling with the church of England’s response to sexuality and in particular their treatment of people in loving, committed same sex relationships. So I was hopeful when I saw the arch bishop noting a rejection of same sex blessings will be seen by many as akin to racism
I was then disappointed to see the church of England’s pastoral announcement from the house of bishops on Valentines day
“The House is not, therefore, willing for those who are in a same sex marriage to be ordained to any of the three orders of ministry. In addition it considers that it would not be appropriate conduct for someone in holy orders to enter into a same sex marriage, given the need for clergy to model the Church’s teaching in their lives.”

When I read the AbC I thought at last a leader with his ear to the ground, maybe he had heard the stories I had, like three young people refusing at the last minute to be confirmed as they would not aline themselves with an oppressive regime of the church, or the whole youth group who rejoiced over the women bishops but mourned over the coming death of the church that they saw coming due to its treatment of LGBT people.

Then there’s the committed core of a young outreach project wanting to get political at a major Christian youth festivals that they feel give one sided teaching on LGBT issues that excludes and hurts their friends, Christ and the church. These are some of the stories from within the Church of England regime, and that’s without the tens of thousands of young people for whom this simply continues to reinforce that the church is judgemental, unloving, critical and irrelevant. That is why I have used the word regime with all the negative connotations this word brings, because that is what issued the supposed pastoral statement a regime devoid of grace not the church, the bride of Christ full of love entering into relationship with the world and one another.

I have been trying to take time to do a simple advent reflection each day. So far I have
1 To prepare for the beginning of the new in advent we must also recognise the new to come is an end &reshaping of ALL we have known before.
2 At advent we prepare to be caught up in the dance towards the redemption & renewal of all things, on earth, in heaven & under the earth.
3 In advent we can choose to see, like the wise men the creators signs, and continue our journey towards redemption.
4 In advent we remember whilst Joseph may have been floored by confusion and angst at Mary’s news he accepted the journey ahead.
5 Those on the edge were open to the change coming, like the shepherds let us travel light this advent.
6 In advent Marys journey recalls our need to experience the restless discomfort of a journey that seeks to give birth to the new.

7 Zac the religious man, performing duties in the temple doubted, will we let our religion blur our vision of the kingdom coming this advent?

8 In advent a new equality was birthed at the stable, heaven joined earth, different strata of society, animals?&angels gathered in solidarity

9 The advent story is enriched by the diversity of culture through the Magi, this advent may we open to the voice of the other

10 The census was an exertion of control, and power, In advent we remember the subtle ways Jesus’ birth demonstrated resistance, and change.

11 The wise men approached Herod first to find the newborn king, this advent let us prepare for the upside down kingdom the baby introduced.

12 The angels announcement to Zachariah connected the past, present and future, this advent we remember we are caught up in the ongoing story.

I have to admit I am struggling. I have been ill now for a couple weeks, there isn’t that much wrong in the big scheme of things, bronchitis knocked me out first week and I have a weird cough and sickness that I haven’t been able to shift and I am frankly knackered and frustrated. I have tests that I am awaiting results for and high blood pressure but it isn’t anything major.

Work wise things could not have been going much better, yes I am ridiculously busy as always, but we have taken great steps forward locally and nationally. The doctor says rest, and stress but I am not the resting type and being away from work thinking about all the stuff I need to do, could do and want to do it pretty stressful. Relaxing is not a strongpoint, but I after two weeks illness then returning to work for a week, I have been signed off for a week, to recover, so trying to behave, and rest.

I love the practice of silence, prayer, listening, but ultimately this begins to spark ideas, and heads me towards work mode particularly after a couple of weeks. My usual way to relax is a walk, beech or kite flying, but I can’t do this stuff so am feeling a little sorry for myself and pretty pathetic. My mind has gone into overdrive, and the things I like, such as blogs, reading generally get me thinking mission, so I thought of a blog post in a bid to try and park this stuff, the anxiety, patheticness, restlessness, work thoughts.

I seem to go around in circles and the activist in me will not switch off so I start to reevaluate stuff, and I find myself thinking again about different options, most recently selling everything and checking out RVs on eBay yes I know this is not conducive to relaxing. It is not like I don’t reevaluate my life as I go, and the illness is giving me time to take stock, most the things floating around is stuff I have complimented before, but it is like on hyperdrive.

So here is my bid to park my brain for little while, a moaning blogpost, that is selfish, western, and individualistic in a world where I know there are people with issues far greater than mine.

I think you are both right and both miss the point!

I agree that when we reduce ‘relational youth work’ to the status of technique we do an injustice to both the philosophical and theological basis of ministry that seeks to occupy this space. The reliance on technique in youth work and ministry is concerning – you name some specific examples. It is concerning because as Taff suggests it implies that we approach ministry with a set of goals that we wish to achieve – and for which we have a series of techniques. In doing this we run the risk of leaving God out of the picture or bless what we want.

As such, relying on philosophy Taff to counter this isn’t enough, nor is it enough to locate our rationale for practice in a set of principles behind an approach to working with young people – however noble.

What we are talking about is a call to engage in what you Richard P once called ‘street theology’. Where is God with, coming to, and taking the young people we connect with. This requires practical wisdom and skill. Theology is an art! I’d like you to tell us what wisdom and skills you think are required…

Nick shepherd Is chief exec of CYM follow him on twitter @theonogrpaher

I don’t want to disagree that there are better and worse ways of doing relational youth work, but with the way it is being conceptualised. Youth work or youth ministry are always concerned with the achievement of outcomes (goods) beyond themselves. They are technologies in that they are particular value-laden (ideological) mechanisms for bringing about a range of potential goods for young people. These goods could be church attendance, the development of a particular type of relationship with the worker, a commitment of Christ, etc. The use of the term ‘relational’ with youth work is either redundant (youth work is ideologically relational) or indicates a ‘technique’ a particular way of doing youth work.
I would prefer an articulation in terms of Aristotelian praxis, a concern with a moral pursuit in which the outcomes cannot be spelt out in detail ahead of time and our concern is developing youth people’s ability to pursue the good life (see my DPhil thesis). In this account we do not need the term ‘youth work’ relational or otherwise.

So following on from the last post the next point Csikszentmihalyi makes is:

There is a balance between challenges and skills. If the challenge is too difficult we get frustrated; if it is too easy, we get bored. Flow occurs when we reach an optimum balance between our abilities and the task in hand, keeping us alert, focused and effective.

I love the adventure of following the Missio Dei, so although Csikszentmihalyi is relating to sports, the connections are not so hard to make. God works at the right pace for us and knows what She is doing with the young people or community we serve. Working on the edge with young people can be frustrating but usually this stems from me pushing too hard, or not being alert to what the Holy Spirit is doing. I may have some abilities in story telling but t is my alertness to the Holy Spirit that means I focus on the right stories with the creative edge that make them effective.