Creating sacred spaces for growing generations - Whitley Lecture 2023
 

This year's lecture is a relevant exploration about how we set up certain ‘spaces’ in our worship settings, writes Jodie Thorpe. How do we welcome people of all ages?

I recently had the privilege of hosting the Baptists Together Whitley Lecture 2023 which was livestreamed and recorded.  This isn’t usually a space I’d find myself, but the lecturer was Linda Hopkins whose research centred around young people and their experiences of communion in Baptist settings. This meant the Baptist Together Children, Youth and Families Round Table (of which I am the Yorkshire Baptist Association representative) were keen to get involved in the exploration.
 
I encourage you to listen to the recording because it is a really relevant exploration about how we set up certain ‘spaces’ in our worshipping settings. The focus of Linda’s research was communion, which forms the key aspect of her book and the lecture. However, I believe the wider questions transcend communion and have far-reaching implications for a whole variety of things we regularly do as part of worship together as Baptists; in a variety of spaces, as rituals or practices.
 
A key part of our DNA as CYF Round Table is seeking to hear the voice of the child and young person. Linda has been seeking to do just that through her fieldwork in different Baptist churches around the significant sacramental practice of Communion. 

Linda began her research with the premise she felt that often young voices go unheard within our Baptist denomination. So, she wanted to give voice to young people and hear their emerging theologies, their expressions of faith and how these might inform a critique of practice.

Her key question was: ‘Would young people’s expressions inform a fresh envisioning of communion as a place for nurturing discipleship within the community of faith?’ 

During the exploration of Linda’s research in the recording, Clare Hooper, Mike Lowe and myself (as members of the CYF Round Table) explore with Linda whether there is space for all at the communion table and what young people’s role might be. 
 
I really encourage you to set aside an hour to listen back to the loosely-termed lecture. Actually I think it's better expressed as an ‘exploration’ because there is much more to chew-over and consider for us all as we seek to be places that welcome all ages and people of all stages to journey together in faith.

I think it helps challenge us about how we set up our ‘spaces’; be they conceptual spaces, sacred spaces, physical spaces – the ‘space’ is important and I wonder if it could be helpful to reimagine the spaces we create?




 
A few questions to consider after you’ve listened:

• How do you encourage the voice of the child and the young person to be heard in your setting?
• How could communion be re-envisioned as a space for nurturing faith alongside one another as a community?
• What ‘spaces’ are you creating and how welcoming/ appropriate/ nurturing/ challenging/ explorative (and so on…) are they? 

Further steps – if you want to explore these topics further, Linda Hopkins’s book Learning from Young People’s Experiences of Baptist Communion: Re-envisioning the Meal as a Space or Nurturing Faith is available to buy. 

Gathering Around the Table: Children and Communion is available to buy from the Baptists Together shop. 

Jodie Thorpe is the Children, Youth and Families Enabler with the Yorkshire Baptist Association 

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