After a series of meetings negotiating costs and a slight revision of the original Diocesan programme for WYD 2011, the Youth Service is now able to offer a package to pilgrims for the cost of £999.

This cost includes:

• Coach transfer from the UK to Valladolid
• Transfers from Valladolid to your day excursions
• 4 nights’ half board accommodation at Olid Melia in Valladolid (breakfast, evening meal and packed lunch)
• Transfer from Valladolid to Madrid
• 5 nights’ bed and breakfast in chosen accommodation in Madrid
• Coach transfer from Madrid to UK
• 1 night’s accommodation en route back to UK
• Insurance
• WYD registration (currently £200)
• Youth service T-shirt

We are delighted that the cost has been reduced and our hope now is that this will enable more young people from the Diocese to be able to join with us on pilgrimage.

If you require further details or a booking form, please get in touch with Fiona Moffat: dyo@dioceseofmiddlesbrough.co.uk or (01642) 850505/07791 146017.

Preparations for this year’s Lourdes pilgrimage are well underway in the schools around our Diocese. Groups have begun to make bookings and many of our young people have started fundraising to ease the financial burden of the trip.

The youth service have started to plan for the preparation days and pre-pilgrimage youth Mass for the young pilgrims. Look out also for information about changes in Lourdes after the planning trip in February.

The Diocesan Lourdes website is regularly updated. If you register as a user, you will get updated on news. Go to www.middlesbroughlourdes.co.uk.

Information packs for the pilgrimage to Madrid in 2011 are now in schools and parishes throughout the Diocese. If you will be 16 or over by August 2011 and are interested in coming along, get in touch with your parish priest or school chaplain for a pack. All the information in the pack, including an application form, is also available on the website.

Currently, it is estimated that the trip will cost in the region of £1200.00. This price includes travel to and from Madrid from the Diocese; seven days exploring pilgrimage sites in southern France and Spain (Lourdes, Segovia and Avila); accommodation for the duration of the trip; all meals; travel insurance; registration for WYD and a youth service t-shirt. The cost of the trip is only a guide price at present and there is help available with funding. The cost of the pilgrimage will be spread across the 18 months between now and the departure date. The payment plan is below:

Fiona and David are currently visiting the secondary schools around the Diocese with more information on the pilgrimage. Keep an eye out in your school for dates when we will be there. If you have any questions or need any more information, e-mail Fiona at dyo@dioceseofmiddlesbrough.co.uk or ring her on 07791 146017.

To keep up to date with all the information on the pilgrimage, register on the Diocesan website (www.middlesbrough-diocese.org.uk/youthservice – the register link is at the foot of the page).

The annual Youth Service event ‘Springboard’ is taking a break this year.

Springboard has run in its current format for in excess of 20 years and with the establishment of a Diocesan Youth Mission Team this year, we are currently taking stock of the events in our calendar and a re-vamped event will return in the future.

In September 2010 our first YOUTH MISSION TEAM will be formed. Youth Chaplain, Fr Paul Farrer, is looking for up to six young adults to join him in forming a community. Living together at St Thomas More’s, Middlesbrough, the team will spend a year working with the young people of the Diocese.
To join the team you must be 18+ on or before the 1st of September 2010. The team is ideally suited to people who are interested in deepening their relationship with God and helping other young people to do the same.
Under Fr Paul’s direction the team will work with groups of young people in the schools and parishes of the Diocese. School Missions, Retreats and all kinds of other group work will be the back bone of our daily work while community living and prayer will be the back bone of our daily life.
Volunteers will be housed, fed, and receive a small amount of money each month during their stay, which will mirror the academic year.
Bishop Terry asked Fr Paul to set up the Mission Team and told him, ‘I am certainly asking you and the young people of the team to put out into deep water.’
Fr Paul said, ‘I am really looking forward to working with a team of young adults. It is very exciting. There is much that we don’t know yet but the first team members will have the chance to help establish something very important for the future of our Diocese.
‘Our Diocesan Secondary Schools are already very excited about what we will be able to offer them. In fact, there is plenty of work lined up already for the first couple of years. All we need now are volunteers!
‘Anyone who is interested in applying to join the team should write to me asking for an application form. I would be happy to speak with anyone who would like more information. Get in touch – this is the kind of opportunity that will change your life and the lives of all of those you meet!
Fr Paul Farrer, Church House, Kirkham Row, Beechwood, Middlesbrough, TS4 3EE
youthchaplain@middlesbrough-diocese.org.uk
01642 814564

On Tuesday 1st December, Year 6 pupils from primary schools in Hull and Market Weighton joined Year 7 pupils at St Mary’s College for the ‘Big Sing Advent Thing’.

After being welcomed by St Mary’s headteacher Mr Fitzpatrick, the children enjoyed a full morning of singing practise led by Music teachers Mike Hassan and Dan Zobkiw and their fantastic choir and musicians. In addition to rehearsing the hymns for the afternoon liturgy, the children also learned a few shorter songs with some fun actions.

After lunch (and a quick warm-up) the Advent Liturgy took place. Each school had prepared a short reflection on the different characters that are included in the Nativity story and as these were presented, the figures were carried to the front in candlelight. In between each character, the choir provided gentle Taize music and an Advent prayer was read out in the many different languages by students represented in the schools. After a blessing from Fr Burns, the theme of Joyous Expectation was truly present in the final hymn – Joyful, Joyful!

Everyone involved had a fantastic time and it was very moving to see so many young people praising God with such enthusiasm and excitement.

Thankyou to all the schools involved and everyone who made the day possible. Special thanks to Carmel Hardy, Neil Wood, Chris Cuthill, Dan Zobkiw and Mike Hassan at St Mary’s, Fr Burns and Micki Coyle (lay chaplain to five of the Hull Primary Schools).

David Barwick
Diocesan Youth Worker

Rocking In The Aisles is back in 2010!

Priests, Deacons and Young people will have you laughing, dancing and clapping on 15-16 January at Middlesbrough Theatre.The Knights of St Columba underwrite and produce this ever popular show, now in its 12th year. Thousands of pounds have been raised for charity over the years as the Knights support various charities in line with their charter to support the Bishop in his ministry.

In 2010 proceeds from the show will go towards the Youth Mission Team and also towards the upkeep of the Shrine at Mount Grace, Osmotherly.

Canon Dan Spaight, Canon Eddie Gubbins, Fr Pat Keogh and Deacon Pat Thomas return as The Chancey Brothers. Fr Gerard Robinson will compere the evening, and Fr Paul Farrer will be back with The Scratch Band, now made up of around 18 young and not so young people.

Tickets are £8:50 each and are available from the Theatre Box office on 01642 815181 or by calling Jeanette on 01642 596817

Will you be 16+ by mid August 2011? Yes? Then you can join the World Youth Day pilgrimage. Click here to download the Middlesbrough World Youth Day 2011 Application Form.

Bishop Terry joined around 150 young people from all over the Diocese for Mass to mark the Feast of Christ the Universal King. This feast is always designated as National Youth Sunday and was chosen by the Diocese of Middlesbrough and Leeds as the day to launch preparations for the joint pilgrimage to World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid.

More information and a downloadable application form is available on the Diocesan World Youth Day Page.

For more information email Fiona: dyo@dioceseofmiddlesbrough.co.uk or call 01642 850505 (ext 232)

The idea of World Youth Day had never been something that grabbed me. So the thought of travelling all the way to Australia and being present at the celebrations of World Youth Day in Sydney didn’t initially fill me with joy.
However, I can now tell you I am a convert! The experience was very moving and to be among so many hundred thousands of young people from all over the world – praying, reflecting, singing, worshipping, sharing life, learning and, most of all, recognising that we are God’s people, chosen, anointed and gifted by the Holy Spirit, sent to bring the Good News of Jesus to the ends of the earth – will never leave my memory.

The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has called us, and especially you, to be with him and to gather with him in Madrid from 16-21August 2011. As your bishop I do not want you to loose out, I don’t want you to miss this wonderful opportunity to gather together with our brothers and sisters from all over the world and to not only understand in our hearts and minds that we are God’s people, but to experience it with our life.

It will cost money, it will demand effort and it will require commitment, but the end result for you and me and all our parishes and the diocese will be awesome. In an age when so many things are relative, and there are no firm foundations or directions it is so important for us to know that we are “planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith”. (2 Colossians 7)