Some ideas are just too good to keep to yourself. We always like to give some space for parish youth groups to share what they’ve been doing.  Below you can read some reports from groups around the diocese

Claire Ferone writes from St Joseph’s & St Clare’s, Aylesbury

Situation: 2 mums of children who’ve left the secure environment of a Catholic School and are now in secular secondary schools.
Question: How to forge links with other young people in an environment where all can grow and develop spiritually.
Answer: Start a Parish Youth Group!

This is essentially what happened with St Joseph’s and St Clare’s Parish Youth Group, Aylesbury in November 2008. Penny and I were conscious that there was a distinct lack of activities for young people in our parish and we wanted our own children to have the opportunity to get together with their Catholic peers for what has proved to be an eclectic mix of fun, chat, chilling and spirituality.

Our parish priest, Fr John Beirne, was keen for us to get going as soon as possible when we initially broached the idea with him in November 2008. By Christmas, we’d already had our first meeting followed by a disco where Penny led by example with some fine dance moves as our resident disco diva. (Wish I’d brought the camcorder…)

Fr John has been very supportive and leads a spiritual discussion at the end of every youth meeting where he presents the young people with a thought provoking topic. On a financial level, he has enabled the proceeds from our monthly tea & coffee morning to go to the youth group.

We meet on alternate Fridays and now have a group of approximately 12 young people.  We’ve been to Lumos for the first time, played games, used  NYMO’s  ‘Abide’ material, made pancakes, raised money for refugees during Lent and have been tenpin bowling followed by a trip to a well known high street burger bar.  (The winning team of Penny, Claire, Jess and Livvy tried not to gloat and graciously bought the boys’ team and the mixed teens team an ice-cream as a consolation prize).

We’re ably helped by Marco, and John puts in a very valuable appearance when not overwhelmed by preparation for the diaconate - yes, we’ll soon have our very own Deacon on board!

Our first six months have gone well and we’re looking forward to another Lumos weekend in July and our future growth and development.

Claire Ferone (& on behalf of Penny Roberts)

Confirmation Programme, Sacred Heart Luton

Our programme is spread over about a dozen sessions, including a Service of Light and a penitential service for both candidates and parents. Most sessions are on Saturdays from 10.00 - 12.00 am.

We are inspired by how the apostles came together to pray before every action/decision (Acts), and so we try to make prayer to the Holy Spirit part of each session. We cover the expected topics, hoping to ensure that our young people do understand the promises they will be making. In each session we, as leaders, try to convey how God has been active in our own lives, how we have been guided and helped by Him. We’ve also been helped by parishioners bringing their own stories.

It’s probably a common experience that young people don’t respond well to talk - talk, so we try to use visual aids, drama, group discussion and games as much as possible. For example the penitential service this year, as organised by Fr Chris Whitehouse, was a series of activity stations, a holy obstacle course, to which all were sent out in two’s. They had previously made an examination of conscience and had then nailed their sins to the Cross (red drawing pin into large polystyrene cross). On completing their penance in a reflection area which included prayer stations, (like writing a prayer on a pebble and then placing this in ‘cleansing’ water) they replaced their red pin with a white one as a sign of forgiveness.

We’ve gathered pages of prayer stations and games from various downloadable sources and we’ll be happy to pass them on if you contact me. We have also taken a lot of useful ideas from www.nymo.org. It would also be great to hear from other teams what  worked for them! Bozenachristopher@hotmail.com

Further reading: 'Guidelines For Confirmation', put together by our friends at the Northampton Religious Education Services (NORES)

Supporting young people coming to Lumos, St Mary’s Dunstable

Bring on Lumos:the word in January! We can't wait! Each time there are more young people in our parish here at St Mary's (Dunstable, Houghton Regis and Toddington) who taste the Lumos experience and just can't wait to go again! Funding can sometimes be an obstacle so we do admit to enticing first timers, and anyone else who needs financial help, with a  subsidy and free transport. Cost must never be a barrier!

Most of our funding for youth activities is raised from a weekly lottery but was boosted last year by a very successful Italian Night with an Auction of Promises which enabled us to sponsor Frank on his World Youth Day pilgrimage to Sydney. Parishioners are gradually learning of the strong influence Lumos, led by the NYMO team, has on the faith journeys of our young people and have wanted to help. We have been grateful for donations from three of our church groups.

Young people are already booking for January and with the continuing trend of increasing numbers it looks as though we had better get organising some sort of sponsorship event; an all-nighter perhaps?

If you are planning some fundraising with or for your youthgroup you might find our fundraising section helpful. You can also contact Brin, the diocesan Funding Advisor on brin@nymo.org or 01844 273337

'Stronger Together' in Slough

Maria Corcoran, Pastoral Worker at St Ethelberts, Slough, reports about developments over the past year...

In this report we would like to tell you a little about an exciting initiative that evolved in Slough especially over the last year. It has been named SYM (Slough Youth Ministry) by our youth, and it is a way of attempting to integrate some of the faith experience, enthusiasm and talent of members of our different deanery parishes. Some of our parishes had been working on and off with youth in differing ways for some time, in others there was a feeling that nothing had really been done for years. In both cases there was a desire to do more and in a more consistent way. It emerged that the best way to do this is to continue to do things individually as parishes but also to work more closely together; sharing ideas, supporting each other, using existing frameworks and planning things together.

With regards to the history of Slough youth, we think that an important lesson is that things happen for two reasons. The first is that the time is right. There was a definite feeling that although we had desired something to happen for years, perhaps the time was right (for whatever reason) at this moment - there was a definite feeling that the Spirit was moving us this year. Secondly, one of the main reasons for more success this year was the people involved. Key people and groups seemed to emerge within the parishes that in true faith wished to move forward. These acted as catalysts, and are helping to sustain the momentum. As Church we are community and unless we pull together in faith, hope and trust with God as our foundation we are apt to fail.

The starting point really was the deanery gathering meeting run by NYMO at Holy Family Church which some of the adults and older youth attended. Then, even though we left it a bit late in planning, we took a large contingent to the ‘festos’ Youth Conference run by NYMO. As one of our adults stated 'that’s when the Holy Spirit living in me reassured me that nothing is impossible when God's hand is at work'. We all had a great time and it helped to bond us together; both the planning of it and the day itself. Then we came back to our parishes and had to decide what to do next. So when we got back to our parishes, one of the first things was to support ongoing events and also plan things in the different parishes. One of the great blessings in our area is the Youth Music Ministry Group at Holy Redeemer parish in Wexham. The Holy Redeemer Group have helped for a while to run a prayer group that now draws people from the different churches. After ’festos’ a few of our youth who didn't attend this now do on a regular basis. They are keen to go and it is hard to get them to leave at the end. It is a picture to see parents waiting at the back of church, and they want to go home but their children don’t!

Then the adult co-ordinator invited the Holy Redeemer Music Group to St Anthonys and helped SYM plan a liturgy for the start of the school year. It had prayer, powerpoint and drama. It was wonderful! The next liturgy was for Christ the King which St Ethelbert's had celebrated for a number of years. But this year we thought we would try to open it up much more. We had three open planning meetings, where we discussed ideas using the materials supplied on the Youth Sunday website, got into groups and worked on our differing areas; banners, music, dance, advertising etc, using the gifts and talents of out youth. It was a really wonderful celebration including a cake sale for CAFOD and refreshments in the hall afterwards.

Coming up, St Anthony's have also arranged a trip to Soul Survivor and a social trip to laser. We have tried to get a committee going so that we can take care of joint issues such as finances which can be tricky when working across parish boundaries. Two of the parishes did fundraising for ‘lumos’ with a sponsored walk and car-washing. We are still in the early stages but as one of our adults has concluded: 'I guess it’s all about accepting on our own we can do very little but when we unite...well just look at what happened with how festos came together and its just the same in our own relationships with the Lord...on our own we are without direction, but involve the Lord and just look at what happens!!!'

If you would like more information about how things are developing in Slough, or would like to start a similar initiative in your local area, why not contact Pam on pam@nymo.org / 01844 273337