My First Night as a UCC Youth Leader

Last night I hosted the first Youth Group meeting at my church, with the help of my wonderful co-coordinator. I can't speak for the others, but I had so much fun! There were 3 youth and 2 leaders and even with numbers that small it was very animated. 


I opened with a recording of a dramatic reading of this poem by William Blake:


 I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen;
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;
So I turned to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be;
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys & desires.

It got a fairly lukewarm response from the youth (they found it creepy) but we did briefly discuss the main idea of the poem before I gave them their assignment which was to re-write the ten commandments in positive terms. Here is what they came up with:

1. Thou shall love thy neighbour.

2. Thou shall worship only me [God]

3. Thou shall let others live

4. Thou shall be loyal 2 thy partner

5. Thou shall respect thy parents always

6.Thou shall be honest

7.Thou shall only want what you have

8. Thou shall relax on Sunday

9. Thou shall always take responsibility

10. Thou shall speak clearly

I particularly like the juxtaposition of "2" and "thy" in number 4. They wrote out "to" in the good copy, but there was something that really tickled me about the use of a sort of technological/texting/modern shorthand ("2") and the kind of archaic, historical use of the word "thy".

After the assignment we had snacks, chatted and played a bit of air hockey. We brainstormed some ideas for activities that we will do as a group, so we already have done most of the planning up to the end of November. Amazing. I am filled with wonder and gratitude for the gifts and uniqueness of everyone involved with this group.