Catholic Parish of Guildford

GYM-jams, jGYM and GYM Newsletter

Welcome to a new school year!

We hope you have a great year in our youth ministry

We are looking forward to a fantastic autumn term with our three groups. Below details what we are looking at this term. Dates for the term are below. Please note there is no jGYM and GYM next week (2nd October) due to the launch of the parish First Holy Communion programme. 

I also draw your attention to the new Children, Youth and Families Newsletter here with the latest information about family-focused events coming up in the parish. Below is an event we are particularly excited about and that we would like the young people, you and your family to come to, the inspirational Wintershall Nativity performance on Friday 18th December.

We would love to keep growing the youth ministry groups. Can you help us? Please spread the word about the groups to your friends, to other parents in the playground. We also need help with cooking at jGYM in particular. Can you help once a term?

What we are doing at GYM-jams and jGYM

Apologetics - how to answer some questions about our faith

We are very excited about our new term with GYM-jams and jGYM. At both groups, we are looking at apologetics in a fun and dynamic way. We are looking at the following topics:

How Do We Know That God Exists?
Why Is There So Much Suffering?
Did Jesus Really Exist?
Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead?
Do Miracles Still Happen Today?
Why Believe In Creation?
Truth - How Do We Know What Truth Is?
Bible - How Do We Know The Bible Is True?
What have I been created to be and do?

Because we only have a short time to unpack these themes more questions than answers may come up for the young people. It would be great if you could ask your child what has come up for them from through the weeks.

What we are doing at GYM

The person of Christ

We are very excited about our new term with GYM. With the completion of the Cafe area in St Joseph's hall, it has provided us a special space for our older youth. We used it for the first time last Friday and enjoyed some yummy smoothies. After a fantastic summer camp, DAMASCUS, we would love to keep the momentum going in terms of the faith exploration and sharing. So we have invested in a new programme called Life Teen. This is an American Catholic Life Teen resource that allows parishes to lead teenagers and their families into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church. Find out more here.

This term we are looking at the following topics:

All Who Are Thirsty: Faith - Our Response to God
Puzzled: The Most Holy Trinity
Emmanuel: The Incarnation & Hypostatic Union
Light Up Your Life: Jesus Teaches Us About Ourselves
A Royal Pain: Suffering
God, Give Me More...Now: Jesus Teaches Us How To Pray
Fear Vs Dreams: Suicide and Depression

The aim is to link the person of Christ with our person done in a Catholic but sensitive way. We'll be keeping the fun and relaxed feel of GYM throughout. I hope to send you some questions to reflect on with your young person after each of the Life Teen sessions.

We'd like to invite the young people, you and your family to magical performance of the Nativity