Forget the beach, try a gap year with God
FOR young people planning a gap year, thoughts of lying on a beach in Fiji, partying round Australia or even working in an Indian orphanage usually come to mind.
But youngsters are now being asked to turn their backs on travel to exotic places to work in local congregations of the Church of Scotland.
The Kirk’s leaders are confident they can convince would-be gappers that helping out with parish coffee mornings and children’s Sunday clubs is every bit as rewarding as an international adventure – and just as good at providing life experience.
They plan to recruit gap year travellers as part of a strategy being launched by the Kirk later this year to attract new worshippers and bring people into the ministry.
Convener of the Kirk’s Ministries Council, the Rev Neil Dougall of St Andrew Blackadder Church, North Berwick, East Lothian said: ‘We’re developing a number of gap year opportunities for people to go and work in congregations.’
They will be able to go for three, six, nine or 12 months and get an idea of what it is like being involved in church life, Mr Dougall added.
‘Those taking part will be doing hands-on work with people, getting to know them and doing little things which will make a big difference to their lives. This is more likely to appeal to someone who doesn’t want the constant partying type of gap year but goes and works in an orphanage in India or a school in Tanzania.
‘It’s that kind of experience where you get involved with real people, see how they live, have an opportunity to use your skills and talents to make a difference.’
The pilot scheme, Volunteering Vocations, is to start in September and young people aged between 18 and 25 will be placed in groups of two or three among parishes in Glasgow and Arbroath in Angus.
The kind of activities they will take part in could include youth outreach, music and arts projects, working
food bank teams and environmental work or pastoral care. They could also have opportunities to take a prominent role in church worship.
Volunteers will receive a basic subsistence allowance as well as travel and work-related expenses. Accommodation will be provided in an ‘intentional community’ where they will share meals and chores and also pray together. A house chaplain will oversee each group.
The deadline for applicants is February 27 and the Kirk, which has 110 vacancies for clergy, hopes the scheme will help plug the gap between the number of ministers due to retire and the level of recruits.