Senior CU

Senior Christian Union is a group of Ballymena Academy students in Years 11-14 who are interested in finding out more about God and actively living out their Christian faith in society.

Weekly activities take the form of meetings with guest speakers, prayer and worship days and small group Bible studies led by pupils.

In October there is a weekend away at Castlewellan Castle and each year an evening event is held before Christmas to raise money for a chosen charity.

A pupil committee leads Senior CU under the guidance and direction of teachers, supported by Scripture Union’s E3 Ballymena worker.

At Senior CU this year we discussed the theme of the ‘I AM’ statements, exploring who God is and what this means for us as Christians. Our committee of 10 sixth form pupils was led by chairperson Naomi Turtle and vice-chairperson Kristen Kelly. We had guest speakers from all over Northern Ireland, speaking about the character of God, for example, ‘I am the good Shepherd’ as well as ‘ I am the light of the world’.

Senior CU plays a huge role in the average school week, with over 100 members from Year 11-14 attending CU on Thursday afternoons. This year, our CU has seen a growth in striving for evangelism through our Tea, Toast and Testimony (TTT) weeks. We listened to testimonies of different members of the Senior CU and enjoyed tea and toast. They have provided us with great opportunities to invite non-Christians to hear how God has been working in the lives of members at our CU.

One highlight of CU this year has been our Senior CU weekend, in Castlewellan, enjoyed by 80 pupils, where 5 of our teachers delivered talks, about how we should act before God. We had lots of fun activities such as team challenges and a dance off. Our seminars on theweekend took the form of Dare to Be Different, in both media and praise aspects of life. Prayer walks to pray for different missions and missionaries across the world also happened around the grounds. Finally, a highlight of our weekend was the praise, in particular our worship night.

We also had the opportunity to take part in a joint CU hosted by Cambridge House, allowing us to get to know other Christians outside of our CU. It was a amazing afternoon of fellowship and fun, hearing from Paul McIntyre on the work of CEF.