| Outreach
weekends
This pitch
follows a proposal made by Fr Chris Hughes
and Ely Leg a few years ago after a
successful ‘mission’ in Scotland.
Proposal
The proposal is
that three or four of the Student Cross
‘reunions’ that take place each year should
be ‘Student Cross outreach weekends’.
Rationale (in brief)
1. Student
Cross outreach weekends should:
- act as a
reminder that Student Cross is part of a
wider church
- enable a
student cross experience to happen outside
Holy Week
- help with
recruiting for Student Cross
2. If we have
gifts (and Student Cross is a huge gift in
itself, and has many gifts within it), then
they should be shared
3. What Ely Leg
offered in Ross-shire was really
appreciated. In particular seeing young
(ish) people for whom faith, and the
community that is derived from, that is so
important. For many of are parishes there
are few people in the 18-40 range. Many
parishioners are down-hearted at the fact
that their own children are disaffected to
the church and see no relevance in it, so it
really was a tonic for so many in Scotland
to see people for whom faith was alive,
important and integral to our lives.
Proposal Outline
- Student
Cross outreach weekends should hook up
with one or two neighbouring chaplaincies
(or parishes) and spend the weekend with
the students/parishioners.
- The weekend
should be based around a theme and invite
people to engage in a bit of
reflection/thinking, this can be done
through a myriad of activities such as:
discussions, creative activities (art,
music, poetry) reflection, game playing,
liturgy
- Activities
should also include typical student cross
stuff ie a walk and a few visits to
support the local pubs
- Student
Cross should propose four centres for
outreach weekends at the AGM (thus
ensuring that we move this outreach around
the country in different years).
- A group
should be established to offer guidance or
support in planning the outreach weekends.
Fr Chris Hughes is willing to be a part of
this group.
- A couple of
people should put themselves forward, or
be nominated at the AGM, to co-ordinate
one of the outreach weekends.
- Those who
join the outreach weekends should be ready
to do a bit of planning of the Friday
night and bring their instruments so that
everyone can take part and offer their
talents.
If it all goes
well we should get a healthy bunch of new
recruits and share a bit of Student Cross
fellowship with the rest of world!
Want to know
more? Contact outreach
[at] studentcross.org.uk
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A
few useful websites with inspiration and
practical ideas for an outreach weekend:
www.cafod.org.uk/resources
The CAFOD
resources tend to focus on ‘real world’
issues. The website provides some really up
to date, eye catching resources and lots of
ideas to cater for a wide age range.
ignatianspirituality.com
This
website produced by American Jesuits
introduces Ignatian spirituality. Ways of
praying such as imagining the scriptures and
reviewing the day (the examen), which are
part of Ignatian Spirituality, could be good
things to do with people during a mission.
www.ycwimpact.com/page.php?page=5
Getting
people reflect on their lives and what God
could be calling them is an important focus
of any mission. One way to do this is the
‘See, Judge Act’ method created by Cardinal
Cardjin, founder of the Young Christian
Workers. This website introduces you to this
method.
www.vatican.va
On the
‘Resource Library’ page of the Vatican
website, there is a version of the Bible on
line (New American Translation), the
Catechism of the Catholic Church and the
documents of the Second Vatican Council. On
the ‘Papal Archive’ page all Papal teaching
going back to 1878 is on this site.
www.catholicchurch.org.uk
The
‘Prayer and Spirituality’ and ‘what does the
Catholic Church Teach’ pages on the website
for the Catholic Bishops of England Wales
could also be a useful resource.
www.revealedonline.co.uk
Revealed
is a great starting place for hunting out
youth ministry related sites, it contains
lots of links.
www.cymfed.org
This
website has information about the Catholic
Youth Ministry Federation, including a free
summary report of recent youth ministry
research.
www.ncvys.org.uk
The
National Council for Voluntary Youth
Services is “The independent voice of the
voluntary youth sector” and their site is a
useful one stop shop for a broader
perspective.
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