A Rocha at the Grand Kiff 2021
©Samuel Gruffaz
450 young people mobilised for the planet!
From 29 July to 2 August, a team of A Rocha France Ambassadors was able to participate in the “Grand Kiff”. This festival is organised about every four years by the United Protestant Church of France. It is aimed at young people between 15 and 20 years old who want to deepen their journey of faith and life.
The 2021 event, on the theme of “Sharing the Earth”, took place in Albi. There, 450 young people gathered around the themes of social justice and ecology. They came from almost every region of France! The participants had three days to meditate on the positions and commitments that these topics provoked for their personal life and their church life. To achieve this, many activities were on the programme: services, spiritual times, games, discussions, but also more informal times of rest, music, meetings and sharing.
During the festival, A Rocha was able to offer three activities to young people. The aim was to encourage reflection and discussion on the safeguarding of creation and the changes in society that it requires.
Our three key activities
Theatre against clichés
In theory, we all agree about protecting the environment. But in practice, how do we do it? At the Grand Kiff, there were plenty of topics for debate and plenty of caricatures. This was the aim of the activity, which challenged young people’s views on ecology. Participants were asked to play a role (a vegetarian, Greta Thunberg, a cow …) and to interact with the role of the opposing team in a given situation (in the supermarket, at work, on the Champs-Elysées…). In the last phase of the activity, the participants had to defend an imposed role for a big final debate. In addition to the fun, this activity allowed for discussion and sharing on issues of ecological transition.
Antoine, 16 years old, from Montélimar, so enjoyed deconstructing with us the prejudices on the topics discussed, he expressed his desire to get involved with the Ambassadors network!
We’re going to turn everything upside-down!
©Manon Palminteri
The second activity aimed to go deeper into the spiritual implications of the environmental and societal crisis we are in. For this, we created a Chamboul’tout (game of stacking cans and then throwing balls to knock them down) where each can represented an element of society, be it a behaviour, an institution or a value, to which we linked a passage from the Bible. Once everyone had had a chance to play with the rules of the “classic” Chamboul’tout, the young people had to guess together the elements we had chosen to represent today’s society. They could then reuse them or use extra cans to build the society they wanted.
It was interesting to see that there was not necessarily a consensus! Some wanted to incorporate being rebellious to the authorities but others did not. Some could not believe in objective justice, others found it necessary. We were able to enter into deep discussions. Then we concluded the activity by testifying that our belief in a just and true God inspires us to act with confidence, taking into account the concerns of everyone.
Biodiversity Jenga
©Samuel Gruffaz
Our last activity proposed was a biodiversity Jenga. In the form of a game, we could visualise an ecosystem of about 50 forest species, ranging from bacteria to deer. Each wooden brick represented a different species and the tower represented the whole ecosystem. The participants removed the bricks from the tower one by one. A removed brick represented a species that disappeared from the ecosystem entirely. Some were happy to remove the mosquitoes, until we discussed the impact of this on the rest of the ecosystem! They were also very disappointed to see the tower collapse by removing the sowbugs after having already removed 8 other species…
In addition to the fun aspect, this game helped to raise awareness among thirty or so young people about the importance of the biodiversity that surrounds them and to break down certain clichés about species that are sometimes unloved but which nevertheless have their place in God’s wonderful creation!
The partner area
©Samuel Gruffaz
In addition to the organised activities, A Rocha had a stand in the partners’ area. There we were able to discuss individually the actions of our association and the possibilities of involvement. We were also asked to speak to young people and help them find projects to get involved in with their churches.
A very positive result!
Despite the health restrictions, the Grand Kiff 2021 edition allowed us to :
- share the vision of A Rocha with about 150 young people and 50 adults
- share quality moments of witness with around 90 young people and 50 adults, and
- be enriched by the sharing and different testimonies of the young and not so young people who surrounded us.
All came away with a new impetus for commitment, some with the A Rocha Ambassadors, others at different levels. We pray for these young people and their commitments and are grateful for the fruits that will come from this Grand Kiff 2021. For God has done everything good in its time, and we are convinced that he will do it again.
Samuel & Manon, A Rocha France Ambassadors