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A SPECIAL WORD

FOR A SPECIAL DAY

The great blessing with this approach is that we are
working along with what is already taking place, so that
many Testaments can reach the children on their special
day, with so many children gathered by the Dioceses.
The Lord wonderfully opened doors at Portsmouth in
2022, Chichester 2023, and Guildford in 2024 (jointly
between Regions 6 and 7). The opportunity at Chichester
came through a church contact of Region 6 member
Jonathan Longstaff who works with Chichester Diocese.
Chichester had leavers services in six locations, all
supported by nearby GOOD NEWS for Everyone!
branches. We also had contact with Jane Whittington
of Guildford Diocese Education Department who was
hugely supportive and even prepared a room at the
Cathedral for us to pack the Testaments for each school.
Richard Loveless in Region 8 had a great opening at the
Diocese of Bath and Wells. In Wells Cathedral they said,
“just leave it to us”. The Diocese recruited several young
people to place a copy of the Youth Testament on every
seat prior to commencement of the service. As each
child held a copy of the Youth Testament in their hands
during the service, the speaker helped them navigate
their way around the Testament, providing an illustration
from the Helps Section, “Afraid of Circumstances." She
elaborated on the theme of Jesus calming the storm and
assured them that Jesus would be with them as they
moved on to their new schools and the need for them to
place their trust in Him.
Branch members will be all too aware of the difficulties
with trying to arrange Year 7 school placements Each year we are all learning more and recognising
at closed and unresponsive schools. At the GOOD how to work as partners with the Dioceses. We fully
NEWS for Everyone! Connexions 2022, Beth Auger, of understand that these events are not GOOD NEWS for
Southampton Branch, suggested offering Testaments Everyone! events but Diocese events and we are guests.
to the Cathedral Year 6 Leavers Service at Winchester The presentation of God’s Word to the children adds
Cathedral. to their special services, and there are different ways to
manage the distribution, depending on each Diocese.
This idea drew the attention of Regions 6, 7 and 8 (South
East and Central England and South West England). This We have allocated the costs of Testaments to each
is what has happened since: branch according to the pupil numbers who took
Testaments in their branch area and we hope that
“Well, to be honest we hadn’t heard of these services branches can have follow-up contact with each school
before, which of course have been taking place for years. and church involved.
Paul Trotman of Hants West Branch, called the Diocesan
Director of Education for Winchester and Portsmouth We praise God for all the Testaments received this year,
Dioceses and he immediately said “Yes!” and pray for even wider coverage next year, all for His
glory alone. He has gone before us as He always does!
We were on our way - it was a huge rush, but Ben Worth
at National Office pulled out all the stops and 3,000 Let’s be inspired about these new opportunities, may
Testaments arrived on time. our work with the Dioceses bring us closer to the local
schools and churches in every area.
It took a year to refine our preparations for the Diocese,
so that we fitted in with their services; we prepared bags Submitted by Jonathan Longstaff (Region 6), Peter
and boxes of Testaments for the Winchester Diocese Bacon (Region 7) and Richard Loveless (Region 8)
services. The Testaments were distributed by the teacher The photo shows a Leavers Service at Guildford
back at the school, and we included a letter to the head Cathedral.
teacher in each bag, to introduce God’s Word, plus a
sample Discover magazine, and advising how they could
get more.

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