Diocesan Director of Education Andrew Smith writes:
It is with mixed emotions that we say goodbye to Dr Carolyn Edwards as she leaves her role as Children and Youth Adviser in the Diocese of York.
Sadness as we lose her energy, enthusiasm and expertise for work with children and young people in our churches. Joy as she begins her new role as the Church of England’s Ministry with Children and Young People Officer where we know she will be able to influence decision making across the Church of England which in turn will help to continue to shape our own work with children and young people.
Carolyn has made a tremendous contribution to the work of the Diocese over the last five years. She has written various resources that are now being used across parishes – The Journey through the Bible Family Calendar, The Big Bible Storybook Toddler Resource and the Jesse Tree resource to name but three. Carolyn has also spent much of her time out and about across the Diocese praying, supporting, encouraging and nurturing our network of paid and volunteer children and youth workers in their work with children, young people and their families. This was especially important during and after the Covid pandemic period when we needed to re-imagine ways of engaging children and young people, be it in schools, churches or households.
Carolyn reflects in her final Children and Youth mailing, ‘I am very sad to be leaving the Diocese, particularly as so many exciting projects are developing, but also excited to see what God has in store as I work towards inspiring and equipping 30,000 more people to join you in mission and ministry with children and young people.’
As for next steps, planning has already started on how the Diocese seeks to respond to requests from deaneries for more help and support in engaging with children and young people. This will involve the recruitment of a successor to Carolyn to oversee this area of work as well as looking at how we effectively support parishes with their engagement with the early years, children and families, and youth and young adults.