Father Simon Gore from Animate Youth Ministries shines a light on the activities taking place in the 2025/26 academic year.

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With the new year under way here at Animate and in our local schools, there is a lot to look forward to.

 

The first thing to draw your attention to is that, by the time you read this, the application forms for Lourdes 2026 will be live. We have brought the application date forward because 2026 sees the 50th anniversary of the Liverpool Youth Pilgrimage and we would like to make the year as special as we can, with an increased number of young people taking part.

To help with that, we have decided to have an ‘early bird’ special whereby anyone applying from 15 September through to 20 October is eligible for £50 off the total cost. So, £50 for 50 years!

 

Promotional material has already gone into our schools and parishes, so please keep an eye out for that and pass the message on to any young people you think would be interested.

 

We are also doing a reboot of the Faith in Action award. This is not because there is a problem with the award or that we need more people to sign up - rather, it has grown substantially since its launch and we need to ensure that all involved are happy with what the award is.

 

We have spoken a few times about the number of participants, and I hope you would agree that having 2,000 young people put their faith into action each year is a great sign for our archdiocese. It does, however, create some practical and logistical problems for us and the schools and parishes involved, and that is why we are having the reboot.

 

If you are reading this and are already involved but had not heard about the reboot meetings, please come along. But this is also a fantastic opportunity for any school or parish yet to sign up to join us and meet other co-ordinators and find out how to get involved.

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As for the Jubilee Year, it is nine months now since it began. Where does the time go? We have done a few different things for it, and we still have two days planned for any school to bring a small group here to Lowe House – one for an activity on servant leadership for Years 9 and 10, and the other on vocation for Year 11 and Sixth Form. These days are offered free of charge to any school wishing to bring a small group along and for more information, please see our website: www.animateyouth.org.

 

Outside of schools, you may also remember that for the Jubilee Year, we started a music ministry group. We have added more dates for this group, which are at the bottom of this article. Anyone from Year 9 to the age of 25 is welcome to come along. You do not need any particular qualification, just an interest in music and meeting other young people. Those of us involved last year felt we got off to a good start and it was great to see young people come to the meetings and use some of the skills they had learned in Lourdes and at the Confirmation Masses here in St Helens. Our hope, over time, is that we might grow a new generation of music and worship and liturgy leaders who can take their skills into our local parishes. If you know any young people who might be interested, please tell them about this opportunity.

 

Dates for the diary:

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• Faith in Action Reboot – meetings on 10 and 24 October at St Mary’s, Lowe House, from 1pm to 2.30pm.

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• Music Ministry at Lowe House, from 3-5pm on the following dates: 5 October, 2 November, 23 November (followed by 5.30pm Mass), 25 January, 8 March, 19 April, 17 May, 7 June (followed by 5.30pm Mass).