What we Do
The youth ministry office is here primarily to offer support to parishes across the diocese as they undertake their many and varied projects engaging young people with the church. Quite often the challenge is to do the reverse, in fact, and engage the church with young people. Whatever the project and wherever the parish the experts are the parishioners themselves who, hopefully, spend time with young parishioners finding out what life is like for young people in that area. They ask questions of young people and listen to their responses, walking with them on their journey of faith. The youth ministry office is a part of the Department of New Evangelisation and is in a position to offer training and support for parishes who would like to develop their own youth ministry further or who might just have a question about a particular issue.
Alongside the training and development role there are three specific areas that the youth ministry office combine to form a template for youth ministry that is continuous from year 7 to early 20s. The first is Confirmation preparation. There are a huge number of programmes available to use to help young people discern whether or not they would like to be confirmed. The key to any successful confirmation group is, however, the depth of relationship between the catechists (parishioners) and the candidates. Getting to know young people takes time and commitment and so any confirmation programme is at its best when it is only a part of a 1 or 2 year focus of ministry to this age group.
The second area is the Lourdes pilgrimage. The question often arises, ‘What do we do post-confirmation?’ Well, the summer Lourdes pilgrimage is where we encounter the largest gathering of young people in the diocese. A new area of development for the diocese is to take groups of young people in years 9, 10 and 11 who can follow up their confirmation years with a pilgrimage to this most beautiful Marian shrine. The pilgrimage itself is a great time of service, prayer and reflection but it can form the focus of another year’s ministry to young people. After year 11, of course, young people can join one of their local hospitality groups, perhaps with their own 6th form at school or college, and they will be able to serve in more distinct ways those in greater need.
The third area completing the picture is our ministry to young adults, those who will themselves minister to young people. This takes many forms across the diocese including 20 and 30 something groups, discussion groups and social groups who have formed spontaneously as a result of meeting at various diocesan gatherings. One of the main projects for young adults is the International World Youth Day which occurs every 2 or 3 years. The next one is in Rio de Janeiro in 2013 and is already shaping up to be an exciting once in a lifetime opportunity.
If you would like to take part in any of the above projects or find out more, then please do contact the youth office on youth@dioceseofshrewsbury.org or call 0161 480 8065.
Much of the material contained within this section is courtesy of the Diocese of Salford.