GSUS Live!

GSUS live in Secondary schools begins in Weymouth and Portland on 24th February at Budmouth before moving on to All Saints on 3rd March, IPACA on 10th March and Wey Valley on 24th March.

If you've found this site because you saw the link on a flyer from Gsus live...WELCOME!
I hope you had a great experience. If you want to find out more why not go along to one of your local churches or groups. This is the site for some of the C of E churches in Weymouth, particularly St Aldhelm's, Emmanuel and St John's. You'll find some details about that we do on the 'What's on' tab. You'd be most welcome to come along to any of our services, groups or activities any time or if you'd just like to talk to a minister or youth leader or you have some questions you want to ask then just send us an email and we'll get back to you to arrange something.

If you want to go a bit further with the GSUS live experience, have a look at their website. 

Reaching for the Stars!

The youth video project in now well underway...although it's changed a bit since we announced it just a few weeks ago. The stars who appear on screen in 'SpaceQuest - the miniseries' are not, now, the ruggedly handsome/enchantingly beautiful teenagers of our parish but some rather surprised looking puppets made of garden wire and polystyrene! Meet the crew of the starship Destiny:

Captain Troy Adamson and the rest of the crew will be voiced by the aforementioned lovely teens who, in the meantime have been hard at work creating sets that resemble the inside of spaceships. We've begun experimenting with 'green screen' effects to see if we can get our spaceships to zoom off into outer space. But mostly we've been spending hours stopping the miniature crew from falling over and going cross-eyed!

Hopefully by the time the children assemble for the first of our Holiday clubs at Easter at Emmanuel church the videos will be all filmed, voiced and edited with all special effects in place. Any young people who would like to come and help with the remaining filming are welcome. Please contact Catharine for times and dates.

Repositioning the captain

Preparing the spaceships for the greenscreen

Tuesday Homegroup

The Tuesday homegroup for 11-14s will be taking a break until after the spring half term holiday. If you or someone you know is interested in joining the group or if you just want to ask about it please get in touch with Catharine, the Youth Minister. In the meantime check out the latest video project. Could you take part? Sunday groups for young people continue as normal at St John's, Emmanuel and St Aldhelm's.

Youth Video Project

Anyone aged 11-18 is invited to join in with the latest youth video project. It's called 'SpaceQuest' and filming begins in February. For more details download the letter which tells you more about how, when and where we will be filming. You can also read and/or download the script. Any adults who would like to help us explore strange new worlds and boldly go where no man has gone before would be very welcome. Do get in touch with Catharine if you can offer assistance. Thank you. The finished videos will be appearing on a screen near you sometime this year...watch this space!

The Ups and Downs

What was 2013 like for you? What were the high points? What were the low points? Perhaps you had a brilliant holiday or made some new friends. On the other hand perhaps you had to say goodbye to some loved ones or face failure or disappointment. At this time of year we often look back over the ups and downs of the past year and wonder if the next will be better or worse. Jesus has promised his followers that he will be with us whatever happens. His love for us stays strong in the ups, the downs and the kind of boring bits in between.

In Romans 8:28 we have a really encouraging promise to hold on to in the ups and downs of life. It says, “...in all things God works for the good of those who love him...” God is at work for our good in ALL things, fun things AND miserable things. Even things we thought were a complete waste of time: somehow God is using them for good. How great is that?!

So let’s remember God’s promises as we get stuck into 2014. There may be things ahead that we are dreading. There may be things we’re really looking forward to. Perhaps there are changes coming up in your school life or your home. God will be with you every step of the way, working for your good. I wonder what HIS plans for you are this year? I guess that we can trust him to use all the ups and downs of 2014 to make us just a little bit more like Jesus by the time 2015 rolls around!

Good News TV!

What would Jeremy Paxman ask Joseph? Would Kirsty Wark catch the wise men out with her difficult questions? In preparation for Christmas, the young people from St John's Church looked at some of the bible passages about Jesus birth and thought about what they would ask the people who who were there seeing it all first hand. These questions were developed into the script for 'Good News TV': a retelling of the nativity story. The presentation included some video clips showing on-the-spot reports and some background images created by all the different age groups.  In the presentation we heard from Joseph about his royal connections and his surprise at becoming dad to the King of Kings. Then we heard from Mary how strange it was that her little baby boy was also her Saviour. Some of the younger children showed us the enthusiasm of the shepherds and their excitement at getting to meet the Messiah. Another group showed us the how the wise men discovered a child who was more than a king and responded to him in worship. We also interviewed someone from today to see what relevance Jesus birth still has for us. Sometimes, as we tell the story of the nativity each year it somehow becomes more and more like a fairy story. We add tinsel and cuteness and inkeepers and donkeys in an effort to make sure everyone has a part but the danger is it can become less and less real to us. But what the young people got across in their 'Good News TV' presentation is that Jesus is good news for us today. He is still King and Saviour. He can be our Messiah and our Lord. Are we going to respond to him in worship this Christmas?

Bible Cake

Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’ Matthew 4:4

The decrees of the LORD... are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. Psalm 19:9,10

This bible-shaped cake reminded members of the youth homegroups that we need God's word to keep going as Christians, just as we need food to keep our bodies going. If we make time to read and digest God's word each day we'll find that it's not just 'good for us', like spinach or vitamins but actually 'good' like chocolate cake! God's word is not just holy and encouraging and challenging it's also delicious!