“It’s not enough to talk about young people—we need to start talking with them.” That’s the clear message from Cesca Priestley, Go Team Adviser and Youth Voice Lead at the Diocese of Bath and Wells, who has spent the last year championing the voices of children and young people in churches, schools, and diocesan spaces across Bath and Wells.
“Last year, I shared that I wanted to raise the general presence of youth voice in our diocese, and I’m pleased to say that our diocesan blog, Raising Young Voices, is doing just that. But the physical presence—active youth participation—is a longer journey. There’s still a long way to go.”
At the heart of Cesca’s work is the simple understanding that young people want to be heard and would like what they say to help shape the Church’s decisions, direction, and dreams. Cesca says the young people she works with and speaks to clearly feel, they deserve a seat at the table, and she believes this call for inclusion is gaining national momentum. This year it was discussed at General Synod, where young representatives spoke about their need for genuine participation. A student from Archway summed up the feeling by telling General Synod “We are asking for a seat at the table. We deserve a seat at the table. We’re worried that if we don’t have a seat, then we might just become the menu.”
Reflecting on these comments Cesca says, “It really struck me. If we want to grow younger and more diverse, we can’t let children and young people just be items on the menu. They need to be seen as more than numbers to save our churches—they need to be seen as the church of today.”
In practice that means our work with young children is about real, everyday choices. “If we want to get this right, we need a culture change. Not a token gesture, not a single young person sitting in a meeting just because we want to tick a box. I’m talking about authentic collaboration in every context—from PCC meetings to worship planning.”
Cesca says young people themselves are asking for more than surface-level engagement, sighting one recent conversation she’d had with a young student who told her, “There’s so much for us to be angry or passionate about—it’s overwhelming. And it feels like the older generations aren’t doing anything about it.” Cesca says what young people really want to see is action. “They care about the response as much as the listening.
“One young person told me they’d be nervous to invite a friend to church in case they didn’t feel accepted. For them, it’s not just a question of being asked ‘How are you?’- it’s ‘Who are you?’ and ‘Will you be accepted here as you are?’”
Encouragingly, many young people are finding faith on their own terms. A young person who read the Bible by their own accord and decided they should come to church “Walked in, curious, asking: ‘This is what I’ve discovered—what can you teach me?’ That’s powerful. It’s not about us giving answers—it’s about mutual learning.”
But Cesca recognises that making space for that learning means letting go of control. “If we’re only inviting young people to be mini versions of the adults already in church, it won’t work. They may want church to look very different—and we need to be open to that.”
There are hopeful signs. In Weston-super-Mare, one church has fully embraced an intergenerational model, leading to real transformation. In Clevedon, a youth-led service is empowering young people to take ownership of worship and leadership. “It’s changing the culture. It’s happening—but we need more. It’s about rethinking our assumptions. Are we really listening to the young people already in our families and communities? Or are we just overlooking them?”
A poignant moment for Cesca came from the response of a primary school student when they reflected that ‘sometimes it gets really noisy and it’s hard for us to hear God. Can he still hear us?’. “That stuck with me. God hears their voices—so should we. And not just with encouragement or applause, but with action.”
What would it look like for you, in your context, to work collaboratively with children and young people? That’s the question Cesca leaves with all of us with, one that invites not just reflection, but real, faithful change.