Methodist Church backs Core Skills for children's workers

The Methodist Church is backing a new ecumenical trainingprogramme for children's work in churches. The Core Skillsprogramme was created by the Consultative Group on Ministry amongChildren (CGMC) to provide training and good practice in six keyareas of children's work.

The Core Skills programme will be launched this weekend with aConference at the University of Nottingham. The speakers willinclude Jane Williams, wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Methodist Children's Secretary Steve Pearce said, 'Core will bringinspiration and a skills revolution. Churches want to do the bestthey can for the children who come to church activities and to beattractive to children who don't, and that means taking trainingseriously. Core can help churches succeed.'

Professor Al Aynsley-Green, Children's Commissioner for Englandsaid that the Core Skills book is 'an excellent piece of trainingfor all those working with children to explore the issue of faith.Seeing children as equal partners and respecting their rights iscentral to this training and it gets my full support.'

The national launch at Nottingham will be followed by a series ofregional launches around the UK and Ireland.