That's a lovely assembly Powerpoint. It is very timely for me too as my wekly theme for next week is vocation and the Newman prayer on the last slide is our school prayer and I hadn't thought about using it until now!

This is great. I was just in the middle of writing a piece for our newsletter about Easter and the new Pope and I'g gone down the line of renewal and JPII new springtime, challenges during Benedicts time and the early characterisitcs of Francis' papacy. This image is a perfect match!

As above-just starting with Rainbows and the Spectrum material looks good. They are currently piloting a learning disability specific package too which may be of benefit for some or our more impaired SEN children.

I did a week in Lourdes with the Diocese(managed to track you down to the Soli but didn't get chance to see you ). THen stayed in France for a further week in Rocamadour and the weather was fantastic. On returning home, the weather was good so several bbqs followed. The end of my summer was extended because our new school wasn't ready so got an extra week off!

Cool. I'm in Lourdes next week too. Arriving Friday 27th

Excellent. We're there on 31st after spending a few days meandering down through France. We should overlap by a couple of days so I'll keep an eye out for you when we arrive! We're doing Tuesday to Tuesday this year? Apparently to do with organising the train.

I've been volunteering in a chaplaincy role at my local RC college for some time now and after an arduous 2hr interview yesterday, I have finally been appointed to the Lay Chaplain post! As far as schools go, I think it is quite challenging for me to cut my chaplaincy teeth on as it has nrealy 2000 pupils, a sixth form, significant Muslim population and a relatively low practicing Catholic population plus it is the result of merging two schools together and they are fully integrated on a new site from September! Other than that, I'm feeling quite confident

Jack, I'd like to access the private board now if I could? I think I may well need to sound people out on lots of things over the next 12 months!

I'm putting together my  first retreat/reflection day plan and am hoping for some feedback from more experienced chaplains. It's for y8/9 and the children have had little in the way of spiritual direction to date. I'm attempting quite heavy stuff I think but using very practical workshop sessions which I'll outline below:

Aim: to develop sense of self and start to discern personal mission

Objectives:    1) To experience practical ways to pray, meditate and question ones identity.
               2) To formulate a draft personal mission statement

Sessions:

1)   Introduction and opening prayer.
Outline of workshops and use of” spiritual levels” framework to explain process and outcomes

2)   Vision
Use of timeline to explore past experiences and develop vision for the future. Develop skeleton goal plans to realise vision

3)   Beliefs
Exploring beliefs that support or hinder realisation of vision. Use “Museum of old beliefs” technique to replace unhelpful beliefs with more functional ones.

4)   Prayer(talking to God)
Discussion about rationale for prayer and various examples of prayer.
Introduction to PRAY acronym and development of personal prayer.
Introduction to “Praying in colour and development of non-verbal art prayer.

5)   Meditation(listening to God)
Discussion of rationale for meditation and various examples/
Guided meditation “Golden Core”
Guided meditation based on scripture
MP3/CD  for future use containing guided meditation


6)   Develop personal mission statement
Use information gathered from earlier workshops to inform formulation of personal mission statement. Formula outline to assist in construction. Link with Newman link in chain prayer.

7)   Plenary and closing prayer
Linking personal mission with school mission and move from self to serving others.

Does this look OK or am I being too ambitious? There will be a team of experienced RE staff facilitating.

Hi all. I've just completed my application for a chaplaincy post at my local secondary school. I've done some groundwork with regard to this e.g. met the episcopal vicar for education to discuss chaplaincy from a diocisan perspective and discussed more operational stuff with several chaplain friends. I'm a strong candidate with regard to pastoral care but I have no formal theology qualification. I'm planning on doing an MA in chaplaincy studies to address some of the knowledge gaps and I've had an informal meeting with the school head to discuss the school vision and the benefits of further study. My parish priest is one of the referees for the application and is also chair of governors so hopefully this will be useful! My children will be attending this school too and my eldest is due to start y7 in September so I've got a vested interest in the school regardless of my sucess.So my question to you chaplains already in post is what can I do to fully prepare for the interview? What questions did you get ast interview that you weren't expecting?
In eager anticipation
Chris

This makes sense as the baths have always been tight for space and also a very strange expereince for the uninitiated! I'm glad there will be a new format too rather than the full immersion in the icy waters I hope there is still some good space retained on the prairie as it is a great location to relax and take in the grotto and wider sanctuary. I wonder if there will be a new bridge constructed to handle the increase in traffic?

I've had the following site bookmarked for some time now ans there is also a short section on spiritual engagement:
http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/science-of-happiness/?gclid=CK2_hPnmyawCFbQntAodJWjzqg
Working within the mental health field, it's been interesting watching the slow shift from "hard" therapies e.g. CBT to softer approaches that recognise the benefits of more intangible feelings such as happiness. There is a good book by Connirae and Tamara Andreas called core transformations which demonsrates a therapeutic process to acheive a peaceful/happ core state
http://coretransformation.org/
I've used this approach therapeutically had had great results. It's only over that last couple of years though that I've examined my practice specifically through the lens of being catholic and many therapeutic approaches would benefit from additional spiritual strengthening.

Hi sfobe

I went to complete your survey but I couldn't fill it in as it is currently designed. I don't conceptualise the topic you refer to in a hierachy and so cannot rate on that basis. Is there another way of requesting the information you desire or an alternative format of survey? All the best with your project.

I attended the youth ministry conference for Liverpool diocese yesterday (as an interloper as I'm in Salford!) and I was very impressed with enthusiasm ans commitment from both young people and youth ministry. This was the second day with the first being 6 monthds ago and there has been much progress in some areas with regard to establishing or enriching activities.

I came away enthused and hope that similar can be acheived in my own diocese and I'm going to approach our diocesan youth worker and bishop to suggest such a day for ourselves. Congratulations Liverpool!

Thanks juggler. I've checked on the Liverpool website and the day looks like it will be very useful. I'll enquire tomorrow to check if they would accomodate an interloper.