On Friday 11th June, over 180 keen golfers gathered at Chevin Golf Club, Duffield to compete in the 25th Briars Am-Am.
'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. This is the story so far....
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.
Well it was an amazing week, and finally here are the photos! Leave your comments on the post and thank you to all those who made this a really special Holy Week.
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.
Hi!
I’m Marsha, I’m 19 years old and come from Nottingham. I went to St. Patrick’s R.C. Primary School, The Becket Secondary School and then to The Becket Sixth. Back in Nottingham I live with my Mum and Dad, my two younger sisters Sarah and Ruth and my younger brother Lawrence.
Some of my favourite activities include listening to music (my favourites include Panic at the Disco, Beyoncé and Fall Out Boy), watching TV (I love One Tree Hill and Mock the Week) or having a laugh/ chilling out with my friends. I play the flute, enjoy a good sing song and I am planning to put some real work into learning to play the guitar this year!
I have already spent a year working at The Briars on the residential team but this year is a bit different because I’m working as part of the outreach team – Reach4. I’m really looking forward to all the sessions and mission weeks that we have planned for you guys and I can’t wait to come and visit your schools and parishes to make many more exciting memories and to see how things work with you in your schools and parishes.
See you soon!
Marsha x
I really enjoyed coming to your parish and working with you on your confirmation programme. The creeds that you wrote were really impressive and definitely something to believe in! The parts that you prepared for mass went very well and it was a proud moment to see you being enrolled onto the confirmation programme, good luck with the big day!
Marsha
x
Though we only spent an afternoon with you at you school it was definitely an afternoon to remember! It was great to see some familiar faces and to meet some new people. You did really well with the way that you answered questions, made the boxes and completed the tricky challenges. I’m looking forward to coming back and seeing you again sometime soon!
Marsha
x
I’ve never been to a all night vigil before but I don’t know how any others will live up to this one! We started our day with 6th formers at The Becket to prepare their part of the vigil. I really enjoyed working with you and having a chance to see your brand new school, I can’t wait to come back and have the full tour of the place! On the night itself we began with the reconciliation service which the Becket 6th formers had prepared and it was very impressive, you read really well and you should all be proud of the parts that you played in the vigil. The next session was run by Jack from Cafod and I felt very powerful being able to write something that the prime minister would see! Next we spent time in prayer in the small chapels at the back of the cathedral – it was very reflective and I enjoyed listening to the music as well as sharing with others in prayer. We ended with a dawn mass and then bacon sandwiches! The mass was a great celebration and a big thank you to those who made the sandwiches – they were very much appreciated! Well done to everyone involved – it was a great success!
Marsha
x
Well how can I sum up this amazing, jam-packed week?! Working with the whole school has been a real privilege and I’ve really enjoyed it all. The trees that each house made and the challenges you all completed in the Tree House competition were really impressive and the liturgies that you prepared parts for were really powerful. Our day at Grimsby auditorium was busy but buzzing! Working with all of you from St Mary’s and St Joseph’s primary schools with St Mary’s secondary school really helped me to see the amazing community that you have and there was a great atmosphere for the afternoon liturgy. the community mass was an amazing event to be a part of and being up on stage with Grimsby’s own rock stars was a fantastic experience. I’ve loved working with you all and I’m already looking forward to coming back and visiting sometime soon!
Marsha
x
Well it was lovely to visit you guys and to see some familiar faces. Learning the 10 commandments with you all was a lot of fun and you did really well to work out which one was which and to remember them. Well done with the challenges throughout the day, you kept at them and we were impressed with how well you did. The food that we were lucky enough to share with you guys was AMAZING (writing about it is making me feel hungry now!), thank you so much for your generosity we really appreciated it. Mass as an amazing celebration and the drama and prayers that you prepared clearly blew everyone away – you should all be very proud of yourselves.
Marsha
x
After starting the day with Wake and Shake we all felt a lot more energised and ready to tackle the four golden rules of chaplaincy. You were all really fast learners and you will all clearly be great at the work that you do. Thank you for such a great day, we had a lot of fun playing on the field with you at lunch and the liturgy at the end of the day was great.
Marsha
x
WOW – your school is amazing!! We had a great day working with all of year 7 and you should be proud of the way that you all came together to complete the challenges. Thanks to the 6th formers who helped out during the morning and well done to all of you for your parts in mass, it was a wonderful celebration.
Marsha
x
It was a brief meeting but we managed to cram a lot of stuff in! All of us were impressed with the way that you threw yourselves into the games and what you prepared for mass – hope the mass went well!
Marsha
x
What a great day – although it was ROASTING in your dance studio we all managed to have a lot of fun with tricky challenges and it ended with an amazing celebration. Your singing was amazing and I was really impressed with how you all worked together and supported one another throughout the day’s tasks – hopefully we’ll see some of you again this year, maybe even here at the Briars?
Marsha
x
What a week! After a great start with St Mary’s year 6 I had the pleasure of meeting year 10 from Blessed Robert, Sutton. It was great to have young people back in the centre and I really enjoyed the meals we shared together – DRINK SOME WATER!!! Thanks to you girls who waited with me before my driving lesson, it was great to have some company and it made me feel a lot less nervous about it! I really enjoyed meeting you guys from Christ the King, Leicester and St Mary’s, Grimsby and sharing the turkey burgers with you – that was a great meal! Thursday saw our first 6th form group and it was amazing! We’d never worked together as a team with 6th formers before or done any of the activities that we did on Thursday but it went better than any of us could have imagined and I loved spending the day with you. The rooms that you brave volunteers created were very funny and despite what you tried to argue – you can’t cheat on the electric maze! Mass had a great atmosphere – very chilled out, I loved the role plays that you did and was very proud of you all with your prayers not to mention the fantastic singing from you all! We’re lucky enough to have the weekend off but we’ll be back on Monday so I look forward to meeting more of you then!
Marsha
x
