This year 'Search for the Light' - our open Easter retreat, is taking place from Thursday 1st to Sunday 4th April. Download the booking form here!
We are now taking applications for young people 16 – 18 (years 11 – 13) who are not in a Catholic school but want to go on our Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes. This is a great opportunity to celebrate our faith and serve members of our diocesan family on pilgrimage.
Live it Derby is working with the parishes of Derby to put on a musical interpretation of The Stations of the Cross. Click here to find out more.
The Briars and Reach4 are seeking applicants for next years residential and outreach team.
The photos from Advent 2009 are finally up, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
October the 9-12th 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.
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 5th 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.
The beginnings of the Nottingham Diocesan Catholic Youth Service can be traced back to the 1960s when Lady Albermarle produced a report on the ‘Training of part-time Youth Leaders’. A National College was established in Leicester to train people in youth work and a Catholic Youth Service Council emerged in partnership with local authorities. In our own diocese, retreats for boys had been taking place for some time at Mount St Mary’s College, Spinkhill, many parishes had youth clubs and the Diocesan Youth Committee did valiant work all over the diocese.
Supported by Bishop Ellis, this committee decided that a residential facility was needed to further the work so, after much hard work and perseverance led by Fr Paul Klee, the Briars opened for business in September 1969.
The Youth Service has subsequently grown and gone through several phases of life. It has always been led by a diocesan priest and has included other priests as assistant directors, lay men and women as area youth officers, assistant directors, Briars retreat centre managers and staff and armies of volunteers.
The Youth Service now comprises the Briars residential youth centre, reach4 outreach team, and training and advice offered supports and complements the work undertaken in parishes and schools throughout the diocese.
The Briars is acknowledged as one of the foremost providers of retreats for young people and welcomes over 5000 young people a year. Reach4 outreach ministry started in 2007 and has quickly become established as a powerful ministry in our parishes and schools. New training courses are being developed and offered to help the growth in peer ministry. Several parishes are involved in employing local youth workers and there are increasingly strong links between the Youth Service and other Diocesan commissions such as Education and schools, school chaplains, Eucharistic Ministers, Safeguarding and many more. The prominent place the Youth Service has occupied for the past 40 or so years is only getting more significant as we work in the diocese to lead young people to Christ.
This year Search for the Light is taking place from Thursday 1st to Sunday 4th April.
It cost’s just £80 and is open to anybody year 11 and over.
“Search” is the perfect opportunity to look at the real meaning of Easter with young people from all over the country.
Places as always are strictly limited so download the booking form here and get your deposit in!
If you want to help publicise the event then you can download the poster too!
The Briars and Reach4 are seeking applicants for next years residential and outreach team.
If you are 18 and over and interested in applying for the residential team at The Briars then you can find out more by looking at The Briars pages or by contacting Hannah by email hannah@ndcys.com
If you have experience in youth ministry already and are maybe looking for a something a bit different – then reach4, the outreach team may be for you. For more information click on the reach4 pages to see what we do or contact Tom by email tom@ndcys.com
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!!
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We all had a great day at St Barnabas Cathedral in Nottingham today. It was great to see you all from different schools in the diocese and we had a lot of fun working alongside you to combat climate change. The artwork that you created was very impressive and we’re looking forward to seeing the video messages that you created. The water game brought us a lot of laughs and there were some good efforts to break the records of the day! We hope you all enjoy the goodie bags and that St Benedicts, Ratcliffe College, St Peter and Paul, St John Houghton, De Lisle and All Saints are all proud of the difference you made today.
Reach4
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 5th 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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Click here for more information
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.
