Young Pilgrims Commissioned
26 June 2008
World Youth Day (WYD) pilgrims from dioceses of Clifton, Plymouth and Portsmouth met together for the first time last Saturday (21 June) in Father Kevin Hennessey’s parish of Our Lady’s in Churchdown.
With only two weeks to go before the faith-filled trip to Australia, there was a great deal of excitement and anticipation as pilgrims compared notes and shared stories.
The day started with ice breakers as the young people were given the opportunity to find out more about each other. The question ‘find someone in the room who has already met the pope’ proved to be a slight stumbling block until they realised that Bishop Declan was the obvious person to ask!
When it came to finding someone who could tell a joke, many of the pilgrims were keen to have a go which suggests the long flight over will not be boring, although given some of the jokes were the type that made you groan and that the flight is over ten hours it may be that people will be sleeping towards the end!
There was a shared lunch after which the more serious part of the day began with Father Kevin - who is chaplain to our WYD pilgrims - reflecting with the group what it means to be a pilgrim. The youth officers from the Plymouth and Portsmouth diocese then went through the programme of events and made sure that everyone understood where to meet, what to bring and the programme for Australia itself.
The group then moved into the church where, with the help of the music group from the parish, they celebrated a liturgy with Bishop Declan and were commissioned by the bishop. Bishop Declan spoke to them of the reasons for going on pilgrimage and that God would always be a part of their journey. As they came forward to be anointed, the World Youth Day hymn was sung, reminding us of the power of God’s Spirit in our lives and our responsibility to witness to our calling through the choices we make in our everyday lives.
Bishop Christopher Budd from Plymouth and Bishop Crispian Hollis from Portsmouth will be joining the pilgrims in Sydney. Bishop Declan will be remaining in Clifton to join those young people under eighteen years of age who, though unable to go to Australia, will be celebrating World Youth Day at a special event at St Bede’s College in Bristol on 19 July.
cliftondiocese.com will be kept up to date with news from Australia by our two WYD communications officers. Rachel and Antonia have been specially trained as part of unique project arranged by various agencies of the Catholic Church in Engalnd and Wales. They've already started making reports.
You can meet some of our pilgrims in our special podcast series.
World Youth Day (WYD) pilgrims from dioceses of Clifton, Plymouth and Portsmouth met together for the first time last Saturday (21 June) in Father Kevin Hennessey’s parish of Our Lady’s in Churchdown.
With only two weeks to go before the faith-filled trip to Australia, there was a great deal of excitement and anticipation as pilgrims compared notes and shared stories.
The day started with ice breakers as the young people were given the opportunity to find out more about each other. The question ‘find someone in the room who has already met the pope’ proved to be a slight stumbling block until they realised that Bishop Declan was the obvious person to ask!
When it came to finding someone who could tell a joke, many of the pilgrims were keen to have a go which suggests the long flight over will not be boring, although given some of the jokes were the type that made you groan and that the flight is over ten hours it may be that people will be sleeping towards the end!
There was a shared lunch after which the more serious part of the day began with Father Kevin - who is chaplain to our WYD pilgrims - reflecting with the group what it means to be a pilgrim. The youth officers from the Plymouth and Portsmouth diocese then went through the programme of events and made sure that everyone understood where to meet, what to bring and the programme for Australia itself.
The group then moved into the church where, with the help of the music group from the parish, they celebrated a liturgy with Bishop Declan and were commissioned by the bishop. Bishop Declan spoke to them of the reasons for going on pilgrimage and that God would always be a part of their journey. As they came forward to be anointed, the World Youth Day hymn was sung, reminding us of the power of God’s Spirit in our lives and our responsibility to witness to our calling through the choices we make in our everyday lives.
Bishop Christopher Budd from Plymouth and Bishop Crispian Hollis from Portsmouth will be joining the pilgrims in Sydney. Bishop Declan will be remaining in Clifton to join those young people under eighteen years of age who, though unable to go to Australia, will be celebrating World Youth Day at a special event at St Bede’s College in Bristol on 19 July.
cliftondiocese.com will be kept up to date with news from Australia by our two WYD communications officers. Rachel and Antonia have been specially trained as part of unique project arranged by various agencies of the Catholic Church in Engalnd and Wales. They've already started making reports.
You can meet some of our pilgrims in our special podcast series.
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