From across Europe, delegates involved in Children’s Ministry and Religious (Christian) Education gathered together in May 2023 for a week of fellowship and sharing on the shores of Lake Balaton, Hungary. This was the three-yearly (four years, in the case of a pandemic!) European Conference on Christian Education (ECCE)
Lorraine Webb, Programme Officer for Children’s and Youth Work in the United Reformed Church, had the privilege of being part of the steering group for this event, representing the Children’s Ministry Network (part of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland) and the UK/Ireland region and was joined by six colleagues from other UK/Ireland denominations.
It was an opportunity to step outside the usual networks and experience other cultures, new approaches, discovering what challenges we share and what are different. Each region led an act of worship, as varied as using natural resources to create an image of ministry, creating origami boats, and walking down to the shores of the lake at sunset to sing music from Taize. The irrepressible Bob Hartman joined us for the week to lead Bible Study with his own particular style of story-telling. We had lectures – leading theologian Balazs Siba spoke on hospitality while psychologist/psychotherapist Zsófia Csáky-Pallavicini provoked much thought on the theme of child protection.
Several delegates volunteered to lead workshops and people could choose to explore, amongst other things, Japanese paper theatre, a new Bible card game from Hungary, the role of silence in spirituality, and workshops on children’s discipleship in school and intergenerational ministry.
An excursion by boat across the lake to visit a local vineyard, to go on a bike ride, or simply to sit and eat extremely good ice cream, gave an opportunity to cement some of the relationships formed during the week and to talk more casually about life and ministry and faith and culture. And a highlight of the week was a Hungarian evening with band and dancers who soon had feet tapping and even got delegates up and dancing.
In contrasting tone, another highlight was the chance to chat with our colleague in Ukraine over Zoom and hear a little of the challenges his congregation faces. While many people have left the country from his congregation, he was delighted to report the number of teenagers has grown and he is trying to plan a summer camp for them, despite the uncertainty. It certainly put our risk assessments into perspective! He blessed the conference and we were able to pray for him, his ministry and those he ministers to.
Lorraine continues to represent the UK and Ireland on the steering group for the next ECCE conference, which is planned for May 2026 in Geneva and, at the request of all the delegates, there will be two online conferences in the intervening years to maintain those new connections and the joy of worshipping and learning together.
If you haven’t experienced ECCE for yourself, it is such an enriching experience. Yes, there is chance to share resources and approaches which may stimulate your creativity as you think about how you might adapt these ideas to feed into your own work. But it is so much more than that.
It is a chance to be nourished and refreshed in your own spirituality and creativity as you engage with a different group of like-minded people away from the usual environment that can become mundane or distracting. It’s like a mini-sabbatical in a role where sabbaticals are not the norm. It’s a chance to have your world view challenged by those whose context is quite different to yours. It’s also a chance to feed and encourage others while you’re being fed and encouraged in turn – many people there don’t have the same supportive structure and networking as we are lucky to have in CMN. And it’s a chance to know yourself part of something far bigger and more varied than we usually experience within our denominations, and even within our region.
See you in Switzerland, perhaps?
Children’s Ministry Network 