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Youth Ministry
Friday, July 30, 2010
Letter from the Coordinator
Dear Friends,

As Youth Minister with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s, I have been blessed with opportunities to reach out to parishes, youth and their families and to our wider community to help our young people come to know and embrace their Christian faith in the celebration of the joys of life and also as a means to help them through the difficulties and challenges of life as well. This ministry is not one that I take lightly nor one that I feel I do alone. I know that our community is already doing great work in this area, and I am hope we may count on your support and participation in an exciting initiative that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s is undertaking during 2007.


YEAR OF YOUTH 2007 was launched at a Youth Rally on Sunday, Jan. 28, followed by a Year of Youth Celebration Mass (all ages welcomed) at the Basilica of St. John the Baptist, during which Archbishop Brendan O’Brien commissioned the youth in the assembly with a special blessing. Youth were then invited to St. Bon’s for a Pizza Supper after the liturgical celebration.

The theme for YEAR OF YOUTH 2007, "YOUTH POWER - ELECTRIC CONNECTION" suggests the theme of light and the importance of connecting to the Power of Youth in our community..... Church, School, Environment, Social Justice, Home and Family, Neighbourhood. My hope and prayer is that this message raises the awareness in our community that our youth, as empowered lights, are lighting the way of the future for our community. I am sure you will agree with me that our youth need to hear words of respect and love from our faith communities so that they know how important they are. YEAR OF YOUTH 2007 is an opportunity for the Roman Catholic Church to pause from the busyness of life, raise our heads, take the time to pay attention to our youth and to voice these messages of unconditional love, acceptance and support of our young people.

Throughout the year, we have had other activities for the YEAR OF YOUTH 2007 including:

"ENGAGING OUR YOUNG PEOPLE: WORKING TOGETHER TO CREATE YOUTH FRIENDLY PARISHES": On Saturday, April 21, 2007 at Knights of Columbus on St. Clare Ave., Neil MacCarthy, of the Archdiocese of Toronto offered this inspiring workshop to share his wealth of knowledge working with youth and youth leaders. Those who attended came away truly motivated to help youth become empowered members of our faith community.

Four young people represented the Archdiocese at the YOUTH SUMMIT which took place in QUEBEC CITY on May 18-21, 2007. This exciting and prayerful gathering of youth from all across Canada helped the participants prepare themselves for the International Eucharistic Congress to be held in Quebec in 2008. If you are a young person reading this letter and are interested in attending the Eucharistic Congress, please contact me for more information.

Remember Hurrican Katrina? Remember the roads washed out in Placentia? Well, a group of 15 youth and 4 adults were scheduled to travel from the Argentia ferry to attend STEUBENVILLE ATLANTIC at St. Francis Xavier University on August 3-5, 2007. Because of the roads washed out, we had to scramble and charter a bus to take us to Port aux Basque to catch the ferry from there. Well, the good news is we made it to STEUBENVILLE ATLANTIC and had a wonderful spiritual and fun-filled experience!

Coming up very shortly is YC 2008 REIGN, an amazing Christian youth conference, being held at Mile One, Oct. 5-7. A group of 15 are registered so far, but we always welcome more!

The ARK OF THE NEW COVENANT will be visiting parishes in the Archdiocese of St. John's during the week of October 19-26, 2007. Youth are invited to plan celebrations in honor of the visit of the Ark in preparation for the International Eucharistic Congress.

The ATLANTIC YOUTH MINISTERS CONFERENCE is being hosted by the Archdiocese of St. John's and will be held on the weekend of Oct. 19-21 at Hotel Mt. Pearl. Our conference facilitator is Mariette Martineau, from the Centre for Ministry Development in Kenora, Ontario. The theme of this conference is "BUILDING BRIDGES" which invites participants to look at partnering with family catechesis to have available in parishes youth ministry resources and people to help with the faith formation of pre-teens and teens moving from the family catechesis resource and wanting to stay connected to their parish through some good activities and programs geared toward youth and their families. This will be a very worthwhile conference for parents, clergy, teachers, catechists and youth leaders working with and interested in youth faith formation.

Also, I welcome suggestions and comments you may have regarding ministry with youth! May God continue to bless you. Please give me a call at 726-3660 or connect with me by e-mail at youthcentre@nf.aibn.com.

Joy and Peace to you,

Linda Maher
Youth Minister