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A&B Diocesan Catholic Youth Service

Archive for category Papal Visit 2010

You might have heard that the Pope is coming!

Sep 8

Posted by yaab in Papal Visit 2010 | View Comments

Next Thursday will see be the first ever state visit of a Pope to the UK, and the first visit of any kind since 1982.

Yes, really… I know there hasn’t been much talk of it lately, but in a weeks time Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in Great Britain for a four day visit.

Seriously though, we are quite excited about the visit and I’m sure plenty of you are too. If you are going to London with one of the Diocesan groups, we will be in touch really soon to give you the remaining information.

For the rest of you though, here are some interesting bits and pieces to do with the visit that are aimed at young people…

The Official Papal Visit website, though not specifically aimed at young people, has a wealth of material and information and is well worth a look. They also have a Facebook page which will give you up to date information in your newsfeed when you log in if you are a ‘fan.’

Among other things on the official site, is a great set of videos in which some of the Bishops – including Bishop Kieran – talk about times when they have experienced God.

The Catholic Education Service has put together a blog all about the Big Assembly, which is the schools’ event on the Friday.

There is another blog called kids quiz the Pope, which has a load of questions little children have written that they would like to ask the Holy Father. Warning: It will make you go ‘aaaaahh…’

The official youth anthem for the trip is called Heart’s Cry by Ooberfüse. You can listen to it here.

As well as an official youth anthem, there is also an official Papal Visit merchandise store.

CAFOD have launched some brilliant resources for Young people connected to the Pope’s visit.

Bosco Volunteer Action and livesimply have also launched a Papal Visit challenge.

An exciting autumn ahead for young people in A&B

Aug 29

Posted by yaab in Local news, Lourdes Main Pilgrimage, National Youth Sunday, Papal Visit 2010, Prayer & Spirituality, Redshirts 2010, The Redshirts (LYSG), WYD 2011, World Youth Day, Youth Gather, Youth Gather 2010 | View Comments

Flick.com user: gisleh

Okay, okay… well we know you’re probably a bit gutted that the summer is over and that those sunny days have been replaced by clouds and rain, but we are fairly confident that the autumn ahead of us is going to be a great one. There is just so much coming up for young people in the diocese. Here is a small taste…

By the way, before we get into it, just a small point: As you’ll see below, we are making use of Facebook events via our Facebook page. If you click on the links below, the Facebook events will give you the details, like times and places etc etc. You can also use the Facebook page to tell us you’re coming – though in most cases you still have to book properly with the youth office. Got it…!?… Good :)

Plenty of reunions for the Redshirts

Getting together at Guildford and Dalesdown

The experience of being a Redshirt is one that people will continue in Lourdes in the future, and also something that they will hopefully continue in their parishes, communities and their lives. If you have been a Redshirt, you’ll know that it changes you in a lot of positive ways.

To help people reflect on the experience there are a few reunions in the months after Lourdes. We are all meeting together for an overnight stay at Guildford on September 11th and then again for a weekend at Dalesdown in December.

A chance to apply for Redshirts 2011

If you want to go to Lourdes with the Redshirts in 2011, watch this space… details will be appearing on the site during the autumn. In the meantime, why not have a look at our Redshirts page, which gives loads of information. Or you can have a look at what past Redshirts have got up to by clicking the categories on the left hand side of this page (and down a bit!)

Preparation for World Youth Day next summer

Now that World Youth Day 2011 is less than a year away the preparation with the Diocesan pilgrims will step up a gear. There is a day for pilgrims at DABCEC (Crawley) this coming Saturday, and then a weekend at Dalesdown in December.

Youth Gather 2010 at St. Richard’s, Bexhill

This promises to be an awesome day, as always! Have a look at the Facebook event page for more details. If you are bringing a (school or parish etc) group, then purleeeeeze tell the youth office. Also, if you feel like doing a bit of walk marshalling, then please tell us that too!

More work on yaab, including a database of youth groups

As you might have noticed, we have been waving a bit of a magic wand over yaab lately – and thanks for all the positive feedback, by the way :) – and we’re not done yet. We are planning to use the integration with the Facebook page to communicate more and more news, meaning that once you have become a ‘fan’ of the page (I mean… you’ve done that right??) you’ll get news on your Facebook news feed whenever you log in, as well as on the site.

The one part of this site that’s looking a bit sorry for itself at the moment is our Youth Groups page. Are you in a youth group? Or, do you run one? If so, tell us all about it because there may be young people in your area hitting the site who might be really interested to know about it.

National Youth Sunday 2010

We don’t have much details about this yet, other than the fact that it will be marked on Sunday November 21st – the Feast of Christ the King – and that the Catholic Youth Ministry Federation will be putting some resources together to mark the occasion. As soon as more news becomes available, we’ll stick it on the site. Until then, why not let us know what you are planning to do in your area?

The visit of Pope Benedict

It can’t have escaped your notice that Pope Benedict XVI is visiting the UK in jus a few weeks time. Some young people from the diocese are going up to London to see him, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. For more news and details, why not check out the official site.

Advent daily prayers for young people

Building on our successful daily prayers from past Advents and Lents we will once again be putting together some daily Advent prayers for young people. There isn’t much on the site yet, but by Advent time, there will be loads of resources as well as prayers for each day.

In the past, the prayers have proved popular with young people, Chaplains, form tutors, youth leaders, parents and loads of other people in A&B and beyond.

Youth delegates for the Papal Visit get together in Worthing

Jul 3

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Young People and volunteer leaders from around the Diocese preparing for the Papal Visit

It can’t have escaped your attention that Pope Benedict XVI is visiting England in less than three months. While we don’t know everything about the visit yet, what we do know is that a large part of Saturday is going to be devoted to young people.

Each parish in England & Wales has been asked to nominate one young person to represent them, and the diocese in the Piazza outside Westminster Cathedral on Saturday September 18th. Among other events on the day, Pope Benedict will say Mass in the Cathedral. He will then come outside and address the thousands of young people packed in to the square.

Getting together to talk about what lies ahead... In this picture, the representatives from Crawley, Horsham and Woking.

The delegates from our diocese all met together today at St. Michael’s in Worthing. The aim of this was to get to know one another, to learn about the Pope, about Cardinal Newman and about the visit, and to think about why we are going. We also had a chance to think a little bit about how we are going to spread the message once it’s all over and done with.

Representatives from Guildford and a few other places discussing what questions to ask about the visit

Getting to know each other over (packed) lunch. The beautiful weather and the grounds of St. Michael's didn't do the day any harm either!

The day was very interactive and was very much led by the thoughts and questions of the young people themselves. They came up with some fascinating questions and some really inspiring reasons as to why they wanted to be a part of it all. On young person commented that “with all of the negative news about the Church lately, it is important for us to show our support for the Church and for the Pope.”

The day ended with a prayer in the Church led by Fr. David Parmiter who was with us for the day. We were grateful to him, to Ray and to the other leaders. We were also grateful to Fr. Chris for letting us use his beautiful Church.

A time of prayer in the Church before leaving