austraLasia
#1825
'..a world that celebrates
and rejoices in youthfulness...': young sdb on online
ministry
BOLTON: 22nd April
2007 -- Bro Matt Jeziorski is a young
Salesian from the UK, one who reflects at length on a world that he is very much
at home in (he speaks of 'losing my heart to MySpace'), and explores its
positives and negatives for Salesian ministry. He is sanguine and sensible about
it: 'I have always been excited about the potential that lies within the World
Wide Web for youth ministry' he says on the one hand, and 'yet recently I have
found myself becoming disillusioned with youth ministry done online... I find
that I am abandoning my earlier dreams of an online retreat centre, a Salesian
Oratory in cyberspace....'. This is serious - only yesterday or the day
before I was holding a discussion with a representative of another province of
precisely such a thing - an online oratory, something like the apparently
successful Triveneto www.donboscoland.it site.
Fortunately
Matt takes his reflection on from this point, locating his solution in the fact
that 'young people want to keep in touch with those who minister to them'.
Once he has established this principle for himself, he finds that he can begin
to think of online ministry as 'an extension of our work in the real world'. He
acknowledges the obvious difficulties, including the many suspicions about
adult-child relationships online, but adds, 'if nobody uses the internet for
good, then evil triumphs. Doing nothing and thus allowing this cannot be Gospel
living, surely?' And as a young and frequent user of this kind of media,
he readily recognizes that 'the technology, once you get to know it and lose any
fear of it, does the child protection thing for you. Everything is recorded,
logged and saved...'
At this point Matt can bring in C.40,
the 'lasting criterion for discernment and renewal in all our activities and
works', and asks (and answers) a series of pertinent
questions:
'Is it a home? If we see home as a place where
young people feel comfortable and are relaxed then yes; this is a young person's
world and they belong here. There is a question mark over the safety essential
for a home but surely this is more of a reason for good people to be
involved...'.
'Is it a school? ...if the internet is used
as an extension of our relational ministry then the conversations and
communications here can be as much an opportunity for learning and growth as the
face to face contact'.
'Is it a playground? Spend even a
few minutes on MySpace or any of the social networks, or even a couple of
minutes mindless surfing and you realise that the internet is a world that
celebrates and rejoices in youthfulness...what perhaps is lacking is that loving
adult presence...'.
'Is it a church? ...I would suggest
that with the peer ministry that already exists and relational youth ministry, a
journey together towards God, then the Church is almost
built!'
Good for you, Matt. If you agree that we can
put your reflections up where others can read them, there is likely to be some
useful additional reflection. At the very least, via Boscowiki,
someone might like to set the conversation
going?
_________________
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