In the January edition of the Voice, we included information on a significant event at York Minster on Saturday 21st April. We now include the link to the online questionnaire which we would like you to encourage everyone to complete. Results will be collated and announced at the York Minster event.

Archbishop John Sentamu and Bishop Terry Drainey will preside over the Minster event on the morning of 21st April and then on the afternoon, a series of workshops will be held at York St John College. In addition, a Government representative and senior representatives from national charities (Christian Aid, CAFOD, etc) will also be present. For more information, visit our website; www.CConCC.wikispaces.com, or please contact Emma Casson, Administrator for the Christian Census on Climate Change, tel 0787 937 2999, e-mail CConClimateChange@gmail.com

Please support this vital initiative. This is an opportunity for Christians from all denominations to take action and raise concerns about a major challenge facing our planet. As custodians of God’s Creation, we can make a difference for the Common Good.

John Hinman
Chair of Ecumenical Working Party

Survey available here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CConClimateChange

The ongoing work of the Diocesan Development Group and the Catenian Association to support the Diocesan Youth Mission Team has included a grand raffle.

The winning tickets were drawn at the Catenian Annual Clergy Dinner on Friday 20th January at the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough.

The winners are:

1st Prize: Mr. John Lagan from Sacred Heart, Northallerton

2nd Prize: Mr. Mike Tonks from St. Augustine’s, Redcar

3rd Prize: Mary Durant from St. Joseph’s, Middlesbrough

A group of saddle-sore cyclists have raised £6,000 through a 180-mile coast-to-coast bike ride – despite admitting that none of them knew how to repair a puncture or fix a chain!

The six-strong Teesside group travelled from Cumbria’s Walney Island on the west coast to Whitby on the east coast in just two-and-a-half days as part of a fundraising push that also included two golf days and a dinner. Read More »

Sung Evening Vespers with Benediction each Wednesday at 6.00 pm followed at 6.30 pm by Sung Station Masses during Lent.

Why not make this your preparation for Easter?

With Middlesbrough Ladies Schola Cantorum

Everyone most welcome!

Around 12 years ago, Father Michael O’Connor asked me if I was interested in doing something to help pass the time now that I was officially retired. Retired! Well I was working part-time for Hull Daily Mail, a governor of St Richard’s Primary School, and about to start my own business as a marketing consultant. What was it he wanted me to do? To join him in participating in a Sunday morning religious programme on Radio Humberside. Read More »

Every year, the Sanctuary of Lourdes set a pastoral theme for pilgrimages to focus on. For the last three years, the themes have been centred around prayer. The Lourdes Theme for 2012 is With Bernadette Praying the Rosary. The theme is the final part of the three year prayer theme. The theme aims to put the prayer of the rosary into the light of Bernadette. MYMission have put together their own version of the theme abridged from the original version. It can be used by all pilgrims to help in our spiritual preparation for this year’s pilgrimage. It can be accessed at http://mymission.org.uk

Diocesan Youth Chaplain, Fr Paul Farrer, has written an article on the the effects of economic downturn for the young people in our own Diocese

Credit researchers Experian report that Redcar and Cleveland, Middlesbrough and Hull all make the top 10 places hardest hit by the economic downturn. They predict 10 years of hurt.

Our young people are going to suffer.

The work of the MYMission Team is simple evangelisation – that ‘trumpet blast’ of the Good News – young people are created by God and he loves them.

Behind that comes a challenge to find dignity and self worth in a life well lived, at the service of others, in relationship with Jesus Christ and the Church.

Seeing the young people we work with take up that challenge is the only evidence they heard the first part at all.

It is troublesome to stand before young people speaking of dignity and self worth when there is so little hope for them. Our ‘twenty somethings’ are not going to get a fair crack of the whip in the employment market. Nobody wants them. Read More »