Mags GarganMags Gargan meets participants in a post-Confirmation parish programme which keeps young people connected to the Church
Young teenagers inside giant inflatable bubbles struggling to stay upright long enough to kick a ball into a goal was the sight that welcomed The Irish Catholic on arrival at the GAA club in Newcastle, Co. Down. Nestled under the Mourne mountains and sitting by the sea, this picturesque parish was hosting the annual celebration day for participants in the GIFT (Growing in Faith Together) programme run by the Diocese of Down & Connor.
Over 200 children in locations dotted around the town were enjoying learning circus skills, art, music, fun circuits and the aforementioned bubble football. These sessions were followed by a treasure hunt after lunch and concluded with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Noel Treanor.
The GIFT suite of programmes connects children with their parish from Confirmation age through their years in secondary school school. Unfortunately for many children the Sacrament of Confirmation marks the end of their relationship with their parish and maybe the Church in general, so this programme is a great way to keep them engaged using a mixture of faith and fun activities, and is a natural gateway to the Pope John Paul II Award for older teenagers.
Parish team
The programme was originally designed by Maura Hyland, Director of Veritas, but it has been updated by the parish team in Newcastle who have been running it successfully for the last nine years.
Two years ago Pauline Dowd, the Director of Living Youth – the Diocesan Youth Commission in Down & Connor – was looking for a way to work with children in parishes through the transition from primary to secondary school, and GIFT seemed like the perfect solution.
“We wanted to develop a cycle of care to engage children with their parish right through post primary school,” Pauline says. “The idea is to bring children back into a relationship with their parish, their priest and the Church community. All of the priests in the parishes are involved in the delivery of GIFT with parent leaders. So when the children are doing fun activities like cookery or art, he will be in the middle of them decorating his own cake or painting his Celtic cross. It is all about building relationships.”
On the GIFT programme, young people take part in fun activities, pray together, discuss various topics such as friendship, gifts and relationships and will have a positive experience of belonging to the Catholic Church and their own parish.
The programme is facilitated by parents and adult volunteers, who have been trained in how to share the Faith in a fun and age appropriate way. Young people who have completed the programme can return as youth leaders or mentors and many progress to the Pope John Paul II Award.
Each group of children runs through the four levels of the GIFT programme, which are offered simultaneously by the parish. The adult leaders stay with the same group so that they maintain a close relationship with the participants.
The diocese recruits parish volunteers in September and meets three times between September and Christmas, before the programme begins in January. “There is usually one to eight adult leaders per group, who are all vetted and go through safeguarding training. We also take them through the programme step by step,” Pauline says.
The programme is offered over two hours, once a week for six weeks. In GIFT 1 the focus is remembering Confirmation and developing unique gifts and talents. GIFT 2 looks more at young people caring for themselves and learning new skills in life. GIFT 3 begins to look more deeply at how to share faith, through a guided retreat, with the local Church, the parish and in local nursing homes. Finally, GIFT 4 looks towards the Universal Church and explores our Catholic heritage, culminating with an international pilgrimage.
Faith-based
“It’s faith-based, activity-based and community-based,” says Brenda Webb, a GIFT leader in Newcastle. “We have about 250 young people in the programme from GIFT 1-4.
“This is the sixth year we have taken forth years on pilgrimage to Rome. We have 48 parent leaders, who are also getting to know each other. It’s about giving people a positive experience of the Church – their priest, their parish, their diocese. It works really well.
“The best night for me is in GIFT 1 when we take the young people and parent leaders into the church and the priest shows them round. He takes them into the confessional, into the sacristy, he opens the safe, but it’s the parents who are nearly pushing the kids out of the way to see. In fact a lot of our parents say they would really like a GIFT for parents, because they are getting as much out of it.”
Sinead McGuire, a leader in Holy Family parish in Belfast, says she has learned a lot from the programme herself. “There are questions that probably we were afraid to ask when we went through our own childhood and education, but I did learn so much,” she says.
“It is really about trying to bring a sense of community back to the Church and trying to grow the youth section within the Church. That’s really important and it’s the only way we are going to build as a Church, by encouraging young people to become part of the community, and not to see it as a geeky or wrong thing to do. It’s about building their faith through enjoyment, fun and learning, and having a good Christian faith by helping and loving others.”
St Anne’s parish in Belfast has just completed their first course of the GIFT 1 programme. “From our experience, it really has shown me that young people still have a desire to develop their faith,” says Pat Magorrian. “GIFT is a very gentle programme and has a lot of activity which keeps young people focussed and involved, and allows them to see that to have faith doesn’t mean you have to be stuffy or holy – that faith can be fun as well.”
Fun is the word most repeated when talking to young people about the GIFT programme.
“I like the fact that it is really fun,” says Niamh Lowe (13), from Holy Family parish. “All the leaders are really nice and the activities are really fun. I’m also learning how to sing new songs, how to make things and do many things as well. It makes the Church more interesting too because they show you more of the church so it makes me realise what everything is for and it helped me understand more about what happens in Mass. It incorporates stuff about Mass but it’s not boring.”
Activities
Andrew Watson (12) from Newcastle parish also like the fun aspect of the activities. “I have made new friends from outside school that I wouldn’t have known otherwise. I would definitely recommend it,” he says.
Pauline says she believes the programme is truly a gift for the diocese. “It is changing all the time. It is added to each year and we think that’s the way it needs to be so that it stays relevant,” she says.
“Twenty parishes are now running the programme and 18 more have received training. It is really gathering momentum and I feel like the Holy Spirit is in the middle of it.”