Youth Ministry in the Pastoral
Area
The Pastoral Area currently
sees a significant drop in numbers between the
number of young people making their First Holy
Communion and the number of young people receiving
the Sacrament of Confirmation.
This drop in numbers is also
seen in the number of senior school children
regularly attending Mass compared to the number of
junior school children regularly attending Mass.
Young people attend many
different senior schools across the Pastoral Area
with only a few attending the Catholic Schools of St
Gregory the Great or Our Lady’s Abingdon. Therefore,
support for ongoing faith formation for young people
needs to be available through the parishes.
There are some groups already
in place that cater for small numbers of young
people, with other young people attending groups
attached to other Oxford churches such as St
Aloysius or Blackfriars.
In other cases young people
have found a place to answer their questions within
other Christian churches outside the Catholic
Church.
Opportunities for training
courses and activities have been opened up by the
Birmingham diocese to Oxfordshire as a whole,
including that part within our Diocese of
Portsmouth. However more support and commitment is
required from us in the Portsmouth Diocese to enable
these activities for young people to continue and to
be developed further.
In recognition of this, the
Pastoral Area Leadership Team, representing this
Parish and the others within the Thames Isis area,
has decided to focus specifically on Youth Ministry
across the Pastoral Area over the coming year. This
will lead to the appointment of a full time Youth
Worker to work with parishes to develop groups and
activities across the whole Pastoral Area.
The Leadership Team
will be applying to the ‘Living Our Faith’ Fund in
the Diocese for initial funding to support this
initiative. In preparation for this appointment,
which is expected to take around 12 months, it is
proposed to build up a list of young people and
their interests and also to set up a network of
volunteers from each parish who would be prepared to
assist a youth worker at all different levels of
involvement. The key volunteers at this stage are
the contact people in each parish who will promote
youth events organised both within the Pastoral Area
and in the wider Diocese. Both volunteers and young
people are invited to complete the relevant
information slips. If you have any questions please
contact your parish representative or a member of
the clergy.
Contact details for youth events run jointly with
the Birmingham Diocese:
trisha.dufficy@bcys.co.uk
Contact details for
Thames Isis Pastoral Area youth events:
helenhurrell@gmail.com
Click here for Birmingham Catholic Youth Service -
Oxfordshire area.
and here for Portsmouth Diocese Youth pages latest
news.
Click Here for details of church Youth Groups.
Useful links aimed at young adults:
SPEC
18 to 25 year olds, based at London Colney
Sion
Community A catholic community
YMT - Youth
Ministry Team
World Youth Day A From Toronto 2002 &
onwards
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