Youth Ministry [UM]

Easter Harp Workshop

Kenneth Read — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:37:40 +0000

Greetings to everyone from the Youth Ministry,

We would like to announce our annual Easter HARP Workshop with the motto of: ‘My brother’s keeper, My sister’s keeper’

We will be holding a 4 day workshop (3 full, 2 half) aimed at the HARP age group to provide an environment to learn, grow and have fun together as youth of the Unification Movement. There will be a wide range of activities taking place over the days to encourage friendship, teamwork and the teachings of our True Parents, and we want to invite you all to be part of them!

The motto for this workshop is, ‘My brother’s keeper, My sister’s keeper’. Following on from the winter workshop motto of ‘I am..’ we want to encourage Harp members to develop their faith, find strength and support for each other and their families and to be able to care about their lives of their brothers and sisters and people around them. We feel that in these current times the family connection is so important and we must come together to support and help each other as families and communities. We hope that through the content and activities provided on this workshop, the participants can be challenged to realise their potential in how they can make a difference in their own and others’ lives, families and communities.

Please feel free to contact us at with any questions at: youthministry@um-uk.org
Places are limited so please apply soon to avoid disappointment!
Dates: 9th – 13th April (6PM arrival, 1PM departure)
Venue: Livingstone House
Price: £90
Age: School years 7 -13

Apply through the form linked below:

Application Form

We look forward to seeing you there!

Youth Ministry

HARP workshop Reflection

Kenneth Read — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:06:24 +0000

This was my first-ever HARP workshop, and I found it to be such a memorable and wonderful experience. My decision to attend the workshop andbecome team leader was a very last minute one. Although I really enjoy contributing and helping out, I tend to avoid leadership responsibilities, because I can be quite shy. I decided, however, that this could be good opportunity to challenge myself. And I am so glad that I made that choice.

During the workshop, I started to remember what it was like to be around the participants’ age (around 12-14). Although I never thought I would forget what it was like to be that age, there were so many things I had forgotten. It had been a long time for me since I had been around kids that age, but I found myself getting really inspired by them. They were so young and bright. Their faith in God and True Parents was such a pure and innocent one.

For me, one of the hardest challenges was to get myself excited by sports. When I was around the Harp participants’ age, I loved the lectures, learning, and creative aspect of church workshops and activities. However, I tended to try and avoid doing sports if I didn’t have to. But because I was a team leader, not only did I have to participate in it, I also had to try and get everyone else excited about it. Luckily, my co-leader, Melvin, was really good at that! His positive energy was really contagious, and I felt myself enjoying it more and more as well.

In our team, the members did not really know each other in the beginning. I was surprised to see how well we bonded by the end of the week. Discussions started becoming more and more interactive as the week went on, and I felt our team uniting more in the activities and sports that we did together. By the end of the week, I could feel that our team could feel very honest and comfortable with each other. I don’t think there are many places in the world where relationships can progress in such a short amount of time!

Unfortunately, I had to leave half a day early from the workshop. When my team gathered to say good bye to me, I felt so touched. Just hearing them say “thank you” made it absolutely clear to me that the decision to team lead at this workshop was a great choice. I had grown to love my team members so much, and I am so grateful to have had such a wonderful opportunity to meet them in my life

Haruna Asanuma

Thoughts and Reflection on the CARP Workshop

Kenneth Read — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:52:36 +0000

The CARP workshop over the winter holidays of 2011 was a rewarding experience, and in a number of ways fitting to my personal circumstances. To have the workshop set right at the start of the holiday period and lasting only for 2 nights and 3 days, combined with the somewhat intense schedule of back-and-forth motion between the dining hall and lecture room, ensured that the two key aspects of any workshop – that of lecture content and socialising – could be fulfilled. Perhaps one may qualm the lack of variety in terms of activity, but it is indeed most important for the fundamentals to be done properly and this workshop did so in a limited timeframe. This allowed for the subsequent days of the holiday to be spent with the family and indeed for oneself to have some much-required rest, after which a period of revision for upcoming exams in January took precedence. In this way therefore, the workshop as a whole was ideally scheduled.

I believe it is important to attend workshops such as the CARP, especially for university students like myself. By their very nature universities are places of knowledge and the site where one interacts with countless different ideas, philosophies and world-views, and to not be influenced by them is impossible. Attendance at a workshop such as the CARP, on this basis allows one to stay in touch with the ideas of the Unification Church – not necessarily with the result of ridding oneself of everything else that one has come to know, and perhaps ultimately not even to agree with what the lecturers present; but at least to be exposed to Unificationist ways of thought and thereby challenge or balance one’s own views. For me personally, I can confidently say that the CARP workshop achieved this important aspect, and indeed with an added bonus of the general contentment to do so in the company of a few friendly others.

Richard Graham

Report from Women of Tomorrow Workshop

Kenneth Read — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 08:22:45 +0000

Women of Tomorrow: Mothers and Daughters Report

5-6th November 2011

On the 5^th and 6^th of November we had our third ‘Women of Tomorrow’ event in Livingstone House. The theme of this event was ‘Mothers and Daughters’ which was to enable us all to reflect about the relationship between mother and daughter as well as the roles we take and will take as women.

It was a lovely event with an array of testimonies, talks and lectures. Simon Cooper kicked off the event with a talk about the importance of God’s Word. Tim Read gave the third of a series of lectures on the role of women, talking more in detail about True Mother’s life.

We had beautiful and inspiring testimonies from our Aunties; Cecilia Fortune and Linda Brann and our older sister Yoshiko.

Natasha Huish came to give a talk about the value of ‘Small Groups’ which she has had a lot of experience in running with her husband Matthew. She expressed that the gathering together with a higher purpose and God centred discussion creates a strong bond of fellowship.

On the schedule we took some time to take part in different symposiums. Such as; ‘Women of Yesterday’ led by Christabel Haines was about key women in history, Journalism and Media was led by Parmy Olsen who is a mum and journalist, Women of Faith was led by Dolores Read talking about women of different faiths meeting together to share and talk about peace. Finally Miriam Zaccarelli came all the way from the West Country to talk about the charitable work she is doing in her community of Melksham.

Personally, I found the content of this workshop so rich and refreshing. I found the lecture given by Uncle Tim about True Mother’s course something sad but beautiful. It’s easy for me to complain, so to hear about the life of a women that has determinedly chosen to walk the most difficult root for the sake of the world, is something that can give power and strength to anyone.

The testimonies were also really so inspiring. I could gain so much from the lessons that my aunties and older sisters have learnt from their own lives. As much as women can talk and talk about nothing, I realise more and more the deep hearts of women and especially mothers. I am realising more and more how important it is for us to make a conscious effort to be the kind of women that can truly love and nurture the people around us.
Keishin Barrett

CARP Winter Workshop

Kenneth Read — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:26:24 +0000

Greetings to everyone from the Youth Ministry,

We are happy to announce the Winter CARP Workshop with this year’s motto of “This is Our Faith, Now is Our Time”. You are welcome to join us this winter for the opportunity to share your faith, your life and your time with other brothers and sisters. There will be testimonies, talks and a chance to take part in discussions in order to broaden our thinking and understanding of God’s word, together as the elder youth of the Unification Movement.

Now is a providential point in history and it has become so crucial to reevaluate our faith, reassess ourselves, and refresh the way we look at the changing and turbulent world around us. With the clock ticking and our lives moving forward are we prepared for the time to come? As we each walk our own busy paths daily, now is the time where we can congregate and find the answers together.

We believe that when we work together and build ‘Our Faith’, it will be ‘Our Time’ in God’s Providence.

Dates: 20th-22nd December (starting at 10am on the 20th, ending after dinner, 8pm, on the 22nd)
Venue: Livingston House (13 Beechcroft, Chislehurst BR7 5DB, London)
Price: £60
Please apply here: Application Form

We hope to see you there. Your participation will be a valuable addition and should not be underestimated. Although please apply early as places are limited.

All the best,

Youth Ministry

HARP Winter Workshop

Kenneth Read — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:46:44 +0000

Greetings to everyone from the Youth Ministry,

We would like to announce our annual Winter HARP Workshop with the motto of: ‘I am…’

We will be holding a 6 day workshop aimed at the HARP age group to provide an environment to learn, grow and have fun together as youth of the Unification Movement. There will be a wide range of activities taking place over the week to encourage friendship, teamwork and the teachings of our True Parents, and we want to invite you all to be part of them!

The motto for this year’s workshop is simply, ‘I am…’. We want to encourage Harp members to define themselves in their own unique way as children of God. We hope that through the content and activities provided on this workshop, the participants can be challenged to discover their purpose, value and ultimately who they are and through this gain the confidence they need to live a principled lifestyle. By the end of the workshop each participant should be able to say ‘I am…’ and confidently fill in the blanks, in preparation for a positive new year.

Please feel free to contact us at with any questions at: youthministry@um-uk.org

Places are limited so please apply soon to avoid disappointment!

Dates: 28th December – 2nd January (6PM arrival, 1PM departure)

Venue: Cleeve House

Price: £85 (or £80 per participant if from the same family)

Age: School years 7 -13

Apply through the form linked below:

Application Form

All the best,

Youth Ministry

We have updated this post as some may have noticed, the workshop is now starting one day later on the 28th to allow us as staff to get there a day early and really prepare well for the workshop ahead to make it the best possible experience for everyone attending. Sorry if this change causes inconvenience.

Youth Ministry structure, plan dates and goals

Kenneth Read — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:31:17 +0000

Dear all,

Youth Ministry would like to greet all the families and communities around the UK and wish you well in all that you are doing. We are already well into the start of a new academic year for our youth and are sure you have already built up a certain momentum in the ventures you are currently focusing on, whether it be school, university studies, work or homemaking. Youth Ministry would just like to take this opportunity to share with you the basic structure of the department, those who are involved and their responsibilities, the basic plan for the autumn period, dates for upcoming events and some of the hopes and goals for this academic year. We hope to have your support throughout the year to come.

Structure

This year, unlike previously, will have a slightly different structure. Instead of having the one UK Youth Leader, sharing in fulfilling that role, there will be a trinity of part-timers, Sean Greaves, Ruth Johnson and Kenneth Read. Supporting them will be two committees, though it is not strictly divided and we are all supporting both areas, one will be focused on HARP and the other CARP. Kenneth Read will continue on in his role leading HARP, supported by Ruth Johnson, Kenta Barrett, Kathleen Moloney and Lisa Hayashi. Sean Greaves will be sharing in leading the CARP committee alongside Christopher Moloney and Keishin Barrett. We hope to work in a more organic way with both committees being more connected and in supporting one another, focused on the goal of educating all the youth of our movement and helping to connect them to the vision of our True Parents.

Each person within the committee will have their own focus. Kenneth, Sean and Ruth will be sharing the role of representing the UK Unification Movement Youth on the national and European levels in regard to meetings, communication, taking personal care of youth ministry staff, managing youth ministry staff, being responsible for ensuring tasks of HARP & CARP committees are fulfilled effectively and making final decisions on educational direction and focus for monthly services, workshops, and other youth environments and strategies.

Although we have committee members associated more with either HARP or CARP, we would like to work in a way in which both groups are aware and supportive of the other when fulfilling their roles. Both Keishin and Lisa will be taking care of things more on the secretarial side within the committees. In addition Lisa, supported by Kayo Hayashi (HARP’s previous finance officer), will be the financial officer for both committees. Kenta Barrett will be focused more on the creative and educational side. Chris Moloney will be focused on general affairs and logistics, supported by Kathleen Moloney who will also be supporting Kenta creatively, while continuing her job leading worship with the Music Ministry in Head Quarters church.

Plan

Up until January our basic plans of action are, firstly, to continue to organise and develop both HARP and CARP services on the last Sunday of each month. The HARP service as of this academic year will be starting at 2pm and the CARP service at 5pm (or possibly 4pm tbc) each month.
Secondly, winter workshops will also be prepared and organised for late December.
Thirdly, we seek to build a relationship with all the regions in UK by connecting with youth pastors and youth representatives. Ultimately we’d like to start the organic development of a system that can run smoothly for the future so that we may avoid stressful transitions each year and can essentially set up an environment where time can be used effectively to focus on raising, educating, caring and empowering the youth of our movement.

Goals

We have a number of goals we hope to accomplish by the start of the next academic year.

We want to have made good connections regionally with all the youth in the UK through Pastors, Youth Pastors and/or regional representatives, in the hope that each region can feel supported to organise regional activities and education, in a way that fits the circumstance of that region (considering the number of youth and the space or venues available).
Also we want to look into developing a new tithing system for the youth. We also hope to be well on the way to developing summer projects for youth to take part in that can really inspire them for the next academic year.
Finally we hope to have developed an overall good working system that can be passed on easily at the start of the next academic year and also be expanded upon based on this year’s foundation.

As Youth Ministry for the UK, our role is to support each region, allowing all HARP and CARP members an opportunity to develop their connection to the greater church community, True Parents and, ultimately, to God. We pray that we, as Youth Ministry, can contribute, through our sincere efforts, to the wider providence, to the spiritual lives of each individual in HARP and CARP, and help the Youth of our community to inherit and continue the responsibilities of our movement.

Yours Sincerely,

Youth Ministry
youthministry@um-uk.org

43LG CARP Committee

Sungjong Choi — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:45:04 +0000

This year in our 43LG community we want to build a solid foundation in our CARP community. We want our CARP Committee to be accountable and representative of us. That is why we are going to hold online elections for CARP President and Secretary.

Their basic responsibilities will be to organise one 1-Day Seminar a term, a Christmas Party, a mid-year AGM and next year’s CARP fresher’s week. In addition to that, they should have a plan of some projects and other events.

If anything CARP should exist to facilitate a sense of a community with basic common principles and provide a means by which they can engage and share the Principle.

If this inspires you please consider standing for election, present to us (the other people on this email list) your manifesto and why we should vote for you.

President
· Represent LG CARP
· Chair the meetings
· Have a vision and plan for the year and be responsible for executing it

Secretary
· Coordinate meetings take minutes
· Follow up and delegate
· Manage calendar of events
· Update Facebook Group and Email Newsletter

The basic criteria is to be of CARP age (18-25) and to have the desire and some ability to bring together people of our age group.If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask. I have a more detailed organisational plan for those who are interested.

Let us make this year something to remember.

Sungjong Choi

Skodra Report Week 3

timread — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:53:51 +0000

After 21 days of complaining about heat and sticky sweat, it’s hard to believe that this morning I woke up feeling cold from the cloudy, rainy London weather. In our trip, each week was a new start in a new city with a new bunch of people. It wasn’t planned but it’s interesting that as it went on, it became more and more challenging.

Level 1: Korca. The centre leader, Miri, prepared most of the activities for us. We helped a little but I felt we were more participants, joining in with the mobilisation members and guests. Vlora was Level 2. Lola (Centre Leader) connected us with an Ambassador for Peace to help with the service project and many other things but at the same time, allowed us more responsibility in looking for venues, meeting and inviting people etc.

click to enlarge

The last city of our mission was Shkodra: Level 3. We were given full ownership by the centre leader, Erjon, and organised everything from scratch. This made the tasks much more difficult but the past 2 weeks has prepared us for it and we were ready. To start, we joined the Albanian mobilisation team during witnessing. In a pair, we stopped people in the street and invited them to the CARP centre and our activities. Many guests joined the Wednesday Evening Service and the football project that followed it. They even participated in the sharing session afterwards. I think it really brought guests and the teams together and formed a strong sense of community and openness around the centre. Erjon himself used to be a football professional so no doubt he loved it. I am sure he will carry it on after we leave. For volleyball we went to Velipoja beach. The heat was intense and the sun burnt our feet but this did not stop a crowd from forming and joining in. We then used this opportunity to give out leaflets, and tell the audience about CARP. That afternoon, we also did our cleaning project. We got bin bags, gloves and walked through the beach picking rubbish. It may seem pointless but to get our point across more effectively, as in Vlora, we asked people to sign ‘The Green Pledge’ to encourage them to keep the surroundings clean and protect nature for future generations.

As you can see our ideas and methods were quiet simple. The main reason was that we were pioneering. Of course we can still make a lot of improvements; however, I found that even simplicity itself can bring great results as long as our hearts are in the right place.The night we left, we celebrated Sarah’s birthday and had a leaving party which involved splatting cake at each other and traditional Albanian dancing. It was the perfect ending. I could see from our watery eyes (from the sisters at least) that for us, this trip was truly unforgettable.

To the reader, I must say that if you are looking to experience something special and meet extraordinary people, I recommend that you go to Albania!

Shum Faleminderit!

UK-Albania Summer Sports Tour

timread — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:42:08 +0000

Dear Brothers and sisters, we send you our warmest greetings from Korça!
Through this email we want to share our experience with the second generation team from London that visited us recently.
This pioneering team is established by Mr. Martin Moloney, already familiar to us, with the support of headquarters of our movement in England and it aims the establishment of a model for sport activities and service projects in community. Through these activities we not only enjoy leisure or help communities but witness the people who participate in them.
We had the pleasure of this team starting their mission in Albania in Korça city from 3 to 9 of August by holding several activities like: soccer, volleyball, camping, cleaning campaign in Lubonjë village.
The camping took place in Morava Mountain, where we had the chance to share together and entertain each other – the members of the center, the mobilization team and the guests from London.

The sports were held almost every day in the morning, sometimes more than once a day, with participation from members and guests. These activities are still ongoing.

The cleaning campaign was organized in cooperation with one Ambassador for Peace Mrs. Klara Çela. We want to mention the fact that the national leaders, Mr. Gani Rroshi and some of the villagers joined this activity.

We’d like to thank the team from London and all the brothers and sisters who joined in these activities and we wish that God’s blessings can be with you and your communities.