PARISHES in the Cowes cluster aim to reach young families in their communities – by creating a toddlers’ group and a Sunday School.

Worshippers in St Mary’s and Holy Trinity, Cowes, All Saints Gurnard and St John’s Northwood have worked together in their Pilot Cairn to devise the plans, which will be paid for by strategic funding.

They hope the first stage will be to employ a part-time children’s and youth worker who will help to lead a toddlers’ group and a Sunday School at All Saints Church, Gurnard.

The idea is to meet the needs of young families in the local area by providing a group for parents and toddlers to meet from March – and to offer spiritual input for younger children during Sunday worship too, from April.

The plans were put together by the area’s Pilot Cairn – the group of clergy and lay leaders serving that part of the Isle of Wight. It is one of eight such Pilot Cairns around the diocese that have been meeting once a month for food, prayer and study, as a prelude to developing these mission plans.

As well as the work with children and young people, the funding will also help to pay for the hospitality associated with discipleship groups such as Alpha, the Bible Course and a new course on developing the Christian spiritual life.

The Rev Ryan Cook, priest-in-charge of Cowes and vicar of Northwood and Gurnard, is leading this project with the Rev Emma Taylor, assistant curate in the same parishes.

Ryan said: “Our Cairn has had regular meetings over the past six months, and we’ve done audits of our strengths and weaknesses. There is a clear need to prioritise children and families, as there are hardly any present in our four churches.

“The part-time worker will help us to develop the toddlers group and the Sunday School over the next two years. We will begin in Gurnard, and then hope to create something similar elsewhere. The funding will help our discipleship courses to run for the next three years.

“There was also some additional legacy funding available in Gurnard, which we will use to support this worker. The Cairns process has given us the confidence to take the risk and to spend this money – it’s a step of faith.

“The paid worker will obviously be supported with volunteers in both the toddler group and Sunday School. Hopefully we can start with 10 toddlers and parents in our church room, but if needs be we can expand into the church itself and reach 30 families.

“And it is this provision for the community that we hope will develop into people coming on a Sunday as well. Because we’re reaching out to young families, our Sunday School will initially focus on those aged up to six years old, but we’re also growing a group for teenagers as well.

“And as far as our discipleship groups are concerned, we want to make sure we offer either Alpha, the Bible Course or our new course about spiritual life each term. The hospitality for these groups is important to make sure the people who attend feel welcome.”

The creation of Cairns across the diocese was part of the diocese’s rejuvenate strategy, which was approved in 2024 and to which national strategic funding was allocated. Each Cairn includes key lay and ordained people, who were initially encouraged to study Divine Renovation resources as they ate, prayed and studied together.

Each of our eight Pilot Cairns was created as part of our Revive strand, which aims to provide mutual support to those in spiritual leadership, and has the opportunity to develop mission plans. Up to £50,000 of the central funding is available to each Pilot Cairn to enable the delivery of their plans.