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Tasmanian Anglican

March 2003

 

 

 

 


Oswald Lang, sole Tasmanian delegate to the NAYG

 

NAYG 2003 - awesome experience

by Oswald Lang

 

 

Every two years young Anglicans from all over Australia gather for the National Anglican Youth Gathering. This year it was held at the St John's Conference Centre, Morpeth in the Diocese of Newcastle.

After a long journey (but not as long as the WA delegates whose journey took 5 days!) I arrived at NAYG 2003 not quite sure what to expect, except that I would be learning a lot more about Unity, the NAYG 2003 theme.

Girls

I soon discovered that I was the only Tasmanian and that I had been assigned to the girls' dorm! (For the rest of the week, I was known as that lucky guy that was put in the girls' dorm or 'the Tasmanian'). After finding the right dormitory, we moved into opening worship with Bishop Roger Herft who referred to Newcastle as one of the four founding dioceses of Australia. (Later he acknowledged that he had overlooked Australia's oldest diocese!)

The next day was an 'ordinary' day: we explored unity within our world, with a bible bash, small group sessions, workshops including some on mission and another on spiritual elements in the media and heard what it means to be a Christian in the real world. There was plenty of free time.

Landcare

On Friday we joied the Uniting Church's National Christian Youth Convention (NCYC) and remembered that our many denominations are unified in our love of Christ and our common gift of God's love and grace. Ecumenical worship was with the Newcastle City Church led by Kate Spence, and Bishop Roger and the Catholic Archbishop of Maitland challenged us to think of our interaction with other churches and encouraged us to be more like Christ.

Ordinary

On Sunday we joined the congregation at the Newcastle Cathedral, and in the afternoon helped the local landcare group. In the evening, Matt and Annette Shorten spoke about unity in the family and overcoming relationship difficulties. On Monday we had workshops on sharing God's love in the 'real' world, and Graham Stanton taught us about engaging with friends whether they are Christian or not.

On Tuesday at the final morning worship service the Primate, Archbishop Peter Carnley reminded us that basically it was all about a loving relationship with God, just like his marriage of 37 years. It was announced that NAYG 2005 will be held in Bathurst.

NAYG 2003 was an awesome experience that really inspired me to go into the world and live for Christ. In 2005, I would like to see a Tasmanian delegation rather than one Tasmanian delegate. Please pray and encourage young people in your parish to consider NAYG 2005. For further details please contact me on 6397 6162 or email schnozwald@hotmail.com