Updates and Upcoming Events!!!

Greetings again from the NEWorcester blog! It has been quite a long time since we’ve last chatted! Of course if you happen to be an avid follower of the blog then you’re probably ecstatic to see us back from our temporary hiatus as it has been nearly two years since the last posting. There is quite a bit to update you on especially with the start of the school year in just a few short weeks! Below are some updates and upcoming events and happenings in our diocese over the course of the next year:

New Diocesan Director for Youth and Young Adult Ministry

If I haven’t had the chance to say hello to you yet, my name is Tim Messenger and I began as the Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry back in April taking the place of Liz Cotrupi who was previously in this position until last August and Fr. Nick Desimone who served as the Interim Director until I arrived. My family and I moved here from Baton Rouge, LA where I served in the Diocesan Youth Ministry Office there as well. I am married to my wife Megan of 6 years and we have a 4-year-old daughter and a 6-month-old son. I am super excited and blessed to be here to serve the Diocese of Worcester.  There have been a lot of great things going on here and I know I have some big shoes to fill from Liz but I hope to continue the great things going on here and serve you and you parish in any way I can!

Confirmation Retreats

The diocese will once again be offering Confirmation retreats!  We will be offering 3 different retreat opportunities that parishes are welcome to take advantage of Below are the dates and locations:

Sunday, October 15, 2017 at St. Patrick, Rutland

​Monday, January 15, 2018 (MLK Day) at Our Lady of Providence, Worcester​

Sunday, March 18, 2018 at St. Edward the Confessor, Westminster

​​We are also able to take requests for additional retreats. We do however require a minimum of 25 participants. For more information on the Confirmation Retreats, see the "retreats" option under the Youth Ministry tab or click here.

High School Youth Rally

Join us for the 2017 Diocesan High School Youth Rally on November 5, 2017 at Assumption College!!! The event is open to all youth in 9-12th grade. Join us for a day of great speakers, dynamic music and worship, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! The event will last from 1pm-6:30pm. The speakers for this year are Kelly Colangelo and Tim Glemkowski. Click here for more information.

Middle School Youth Rally

Join us for the 2018 Diocesan Middle School Youth Rally on March 10, 2018. Join us for an afternoon of fun, games and worship with junior high youth from across the diocese. We are working on finalizing a location and should have that information soon. More info will become available in the Fall of 2017.

​Young Adult Ministry Summit

In an effort to better serve the young adults of our diocese, we would like to invite you and/or any young adults you may know to a Young Adult Ministry Summit on Thursday, August 31st at 6:30pm at St. George in Worcester. The purpose of this meeting will be to discuss the needs of young adults and brainstorm ways in which these needs can be met on both a local and diocesan level. This gathering is open to any young adult in our diocese so please also feel free to pass this along to anyone else!  If you plan on attending, please RSVP by Thursday, August 24th so we can get an accurate head count. We’d love to see you there!  To RSVP or for any questions, please contact Tim Messenger at [email protected]

Monthly Youth Minister Meetings

Beginning in September we will we will be having monthly youth minister gatherings.  These gatherings will take place on the first Wednesday of the month and are meant to be a time for fellowship and community as we gather for lunch and share ideas in an effort to collaborate and participate in the shared mission of leading young people to Christ.  These gatherings are very informal and are open to any adult who works with youth including youth ministers, DRE’s, priests, adult volunteers, etc.  The agenda is lunch and a discussion on various topics pertaining to Youth Ministry.  There is also a time for sharing upcoming events for going on at parishes as well as in the diocese as a whole. In an effort to spread the meetings out to accommodate as many people as possible, these meetings will be offered at a different location each month. We will also be offering two of these meetings in the evening to accommodate those who are unavailable during the day. Click here for a complete schedule of these meetings.

NEWorcester Website

Our Diocesan Youth and Young Adult Ministry website (neworcester.org) has had many recent updates and additions.  On the website, you can find the latest updates for events, and programs for youth and young adult ministry. There is also a lot of helpful information and resources specifically for youth ministry leaders.  This includes our online ministry resource library, a collection of various Youth Ministry resources available for parishes to use.  These include things as simple as ice breakers and prayer ideas to outlines for youth nights and retreats as well as some training and formational materials.  Currently, there is not a whole lot of stuff on the page.  However, I hope to collect several resources including anything that any of you would like to submit.  So if you have any games, icebreakers, prayer services, or activities that you have used, a youth gathering or retreat outlines that worked really well, or really anything at all that you would like to share that would be beneficial for ministry, please send it to me and I can put it on the page. We also have a parish support page which provides a listing of all the services the Diocesan Youth Office can provide to your parish

Going forward I hope to provide weekly posts on this blog that contain a mix of postings which are either informational in nature, formational for youth leaders, and spiritually uplifting specifically for youth and young adults in our diocese! Thanks for all that you do! Please remember that Diocesan Youth and Young Adult Ministry Office is here to serve you so please do not hesitate to contact us!