On Friday 11th June, over 180 keen golfers gathered at Chevin Golf Club, Duffield to compete in the 25th Briars Am-Am.

Held each year in support of the Briars Catholic Youth Retreat Centre, this hugely popular tournament continues to be a hard fought contest and an enjoyable day out for the participants.

Begun by Father Michael O’Donoghue in his time as Director of the Briars, teams from all around the East Midlands and beyond come to tackle a beautiful but demanding course, renew acquaintances and support the work of the Briars.

Over 5000 young people stay at the Briars on retreat each year, coming as a school, parish or youth group for a mix of prayer, reflection, fun and friendship. As a charity, the Briars depends on the support of events such as the Chevin tournament and it raises several thousand pounds each year for the centre.

This year, the tournament organising team of Fr Michael, Pat, Leo, Rosemary the secretary and staff at Chevin and the staff at the Briars joined together to provide a superb day of golf. The weather kept fine, the course was in excellent condition, the welcome from Mike Reilly and his staff was as warm as ever and winners and runner-up alike went home happy.

The overall prize was won this year by a team from Lincoln College, 2- 5th places were shared between teams on the same score and the Mike Nolan schools trophy was won by St Bede’s School Scunthorpe.

Father Joe Wheat, the present Director of the Briars, was present throughout the day and awarded the prizes. He described the day as ‘an essential event in the life of the Briars and a testament to the dedication of our supporters and friends. All the staff, volunteers and young people who call the Briars ‘home’ truly are grateful to all the organisers and participants.’

You can download the results table here.

‘LIVE IT’ are a series of events taking place all across the Nottingham Diocese. They are a chance for young people in different areas to meet each other to share and celebrate their faith.

So far there have been Gour ‘LIVE IT’ sessions; Nottingham, Derby, Scunthorpe and Leicester. Each has brought young people together in a social setting and given them a chance to learn and share with each other.

Below are the galleries from each of the events. ‘LIVE IT’ in Derby even included a theatrical production in the form of ‘Born for this’ a musical setting of the stations of the cross.

Held again this year at the Moorways Centre in Derby, we saw our biggest ever turn out! This year saw around a thousand year 6s from all over the diocese gathered together to reflect on taking the big step up to secondary school.

With lots of singing, a video link up with Bishop Malcolm and a fantastic celebration of mass – a great day was had by all. We even had a very special play written and performed by The Briars Team to help us think about the challenges facing everybody!

Thank you for every one who took part and made this day a fantastic celebration.

Have a look at the photos and see if you can spot your school!

Well it was an amazing week and finally, here are the photos!

Leave your comments on the post and we’d all like to say a big “Thank you” to all those who made this a really special Holy Week.

Well were back for 2010! We’ve just got back and realised that we havn’t put the photos for Advent 2009 online! so here they are!

A big thankyou to everyone who made this retreat so special, hope you had a great Christmas!

Happy New Year!!

October the 9-11th saw the biggest ever reunion of past and present Briars team members. In part of a series of events to mark the 40th Anniversary of The Briars over 150 people dropped in at some point to make this weekend a truly memorable celebration.

Every bed and bedroom was used as the reunion saw an unprecedented number of former team members return, some from as far away as Ireland and Seville! The weekend climaxed in an incredible celebration of mass, with people literally crammed in to the Lower Conference Room.

The weekend was a brilliant opportunity to catch up with old friends, and make new ones, as teams past and present shared stories and memories.

Enjoy the photos, we’re already looking forward to the next one!

As part of the visit of St Therese’s relics to our cathedral in Nottingham, the Youth Service led an All Night Vigil. Starting at 11.00 on Monday 5^th October and finishing the next morning with Mass at 6.30, it was split into three parts, each focussing on a different aspect of St Therese’s spirituality.

11 – 1.30 – Vigil Opening Liturgy and Service of Reconciliation

1.30 – 3.30 – Prayers for Justice and Peace (led by Cafod)

3.30 – 5.30 – Exploring and affirming faith.

As you can see by the photo’s it was a truly memorable and moving event. The opening mass was attended by appropriately 3000 people with well over 4000 people making a visit to Cathedral at some point over the 24 hours.

The All Night Vigil, was also led by some brave, and now very tired, students from Becket 6th form, Many thanks to them for all their help and hard work.

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This incredible week saw us journey back to St Mary’s High school in Grimsby. This year is to be their last as a school and we spent the week reflecting on the things that are going to change, and celebrating the things are not.

It involved work with every house in the school, and work with the two feeder primary’s, St Mary’s and St Joseph’s. We also celebrated a huge community mass at Grimsby Auditorium.

We kept a video blog of the week which can be veiwed here and we also blogged every day about our work with the houses. (You can find them by using the search bar or visiting the reach4 page)

Below are some of the photos from the big community mass at The Auditorium but you can see more about the mission by looking at the individual posts.

It’s the start of another busy year for the youth service and as always there are a few changes. Not only have we welcomed 7 new volunteers and expanded the outreach team, but we have also welcomed new staff at The Briars in both the kitchen and the office! You can find out more about them on the “Who are we?” page.

You may also notice we have a new website. Following feedback from the very successful Youth Leaders training weekend, we have made a few changes to help you find information more quickly. Have a look around and let us know what you think. The search bar on the right can now search for anything youth service related so if you’re after something specific that’s a good place to start. You can still get access to information about The Briars and reach4 on thier pages, and you can still find a wealth of resources and links by using the menu above.

We hope you enjoy you’re visit and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

What an amazing celebration! A big thank you to everyone who helped make this day so special. A big thank you too, to those who supported the event, either through attending, donating, or simply buying a raffle ticket. it was a great celebration of 40 years of The Briars. Enjoy the photos!