LYV Parish Partnerships

The Lifting Young Voices mission began at All Saints Kingston by sending professional singers into local primary schools to deliver music lessons and share the choral tradition. This sparked something – Children’s Choirs, faith being explored, and a community enriched by young voices.

The Lifting Young Voices network seeks to continue the story by supporting and developing choral mission projects like All Saint’s across the Anglican Diocese of Southwark. Rooted in the Anglican tradition and open to parishes across the diocese it enables the power of music and faith to transform young people and their families.

Becoming part of our network means sharing in our mission, benefiting from our resources and support, and growing others in the community through your own experiences.

Our Mission

Lifting Young Voices is based on young people connecting with God through the joy of singing.

We take our expertise of singing into schools, drawing upon the riches of the Anglican choral tradition. We invite young people into church-based children’s choirs, involving them and their families in worship. We encourage their faith development by building supportive communities which weave together Christian formation and the joy of singing.

Ultimately, we want young people to know the truth, often attributed to St. Augustine, ‘that to sing is to pray twice.’

Our seven core elements

  1. Offering expert choral training in primary schools

  2. Building a children’s choir through attracting young people via outreach to schools

  3. Engaging a community of parents and families

  4. Share Jesus through faith and music in choir sessions

  5. Integrating the children’s choir into a regular pattern of worship

  6. Offering discipleship and faith development for children and parents

  7. Onward opportunities to continue in music and faith development

Our Theory of Mission

  • Music has long been seen as a source of Revelation. In its melodies we see the beauty of God, and in scriptural lyrics we encounter the Word of God in new ways. Participating in that music is also a response to that same revelation, lifting our praise to the God who inspires it.

  • Community is then the good soil for the nurturing of faith, which can be found in church communities such as choirs. The existence of both sacred music and the church community is incarnational. Both reveal who God is, and by inviting children and their families in, we give them space to experience him.

  • In community we then encourage Children and Families to grow in faith. Both by the expressions they are exposed to in music, and the experience they have of choir community. It is in the living of these elements that belief is nurtured. How we live shapes what we believe, and what we believe shapes how we live

Our current parish partnerships

How we support you

Learning Community & Professional Network

We provide spaces, both virtually and in-person, to gather together to share experiences and learnings from our varied contexts. Held six times a year in rotation across member parishes, these gatherings allow for observation of rehearsals and services in addition to peer learning and collaborative development.

Joint Events Programme

Two major festival services each year, around Christmas and the Summer, allow our choirs and/or schools to come together sharing in their identity as choristers and being inspired by each other’s music making.

Shared Resources, Branding & Methodology

Use of the LYV branding and resources. These include the LYV curriculum, templates for school and choir advertising, operational guides, and a dedicated website for our resources and network. These all help to reduce the load on your own parish team.

Bespoke Training & Secondments

Support can be tailored to the needs of individual parishes, but may include:

  • Teaching development including lesson planning, classroom management and curriculum design.

  • Classroom observation with feedback.

  • Support for parishes as they develop project strategies.

  • Support for mission leaders, including Director of Music and Clergy.

  • Short-term cover when possible.

Grants & Financial Support

We provide the opportunity for financial support to start or expand LYV mission projects. Where a parish contributes funding (e.g. from PCC or fundraising), LYV could match this up to £3,000 — enabling seed investment of up to £6,000 to launch or expand your programme.

What we ask of you

Partner Parishes in the Lifting Young Voices Network are expected to:

  1. Commit to LYV as a mission project with intentional faith development woven into school and choir activities. This includes having the support of the PCC, Incumbent, and Director of Music.

  2. Attend our network gatherings.

  3. Use our shared branding and curriculum.

    These are built to be developed and incorporated into your own parish’s identity. Your LYV project is yours.

  4. Participate in our joint singing events.

  5. Contribute £50 per year or £5 per month to support the running costs of the network.

Next Steps

If you are interested in becoming a partner parish and would like to schedule an inital visit, or would like to know more about the project, please contact us.