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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough

Vocations

Called to Trek – Coastal Route!

A Great Celebration for the Diocese!

Bishop John is looking forward to leading the Walk for Vocations from the 6th August until the 12th August. This is our opportunity to show our support for Bishop John and take part in the great celebration of Sacraments.

We need experienced walkers to come forward and be willing to test the route and offer some practical advice. If you are an experienced walker or know of any walking groups please contact the Curial Office (Details below).

Bishop John has stated: "It will be an event which involves everyone, not those who just take part in the walk itself."

We have amended the walk to follow the Cleveland Way, especially along our wonderful coast. We feel the amended route will appeal to people of all ages.

Bishop John is hoping that more people will join him as 'core walkers' and spend the week walking and taking part in the great celebrations along the route.

We also want others to join the walk for a one day or help with registration and other responsibilities. Your Parish may like to organise a Parish Day Out and come and hold a picnic as well as spending a few hours on the walk.

The plan is to start each walk in the morning, where all walkers would need to register; we would then have Morning Prayer and start our walk. We aim to arrive at each destination in the afternoon, and have Mass at 7pm each evening, celebrating one of the Sacraments.

All the walks will be approximately 10 miles each, so you will need good footwear and waterproofs, along with refreshments and food. To be part of our Core group, which means doing the whole walk you need to be at least 18 years old and have a good sense of humour.

Please contact Kath Gallagher in the Curial Office (Tel: 01642 850505) if you can:

IN MANY OF THE RESPONSES TO THE PASTORAL PLAN THE QUESTION HAS BEEN ASKED: HOW CAN WE SUPPORT BISHOP JOHN IN HIS MANY AND VARIED RESPONSIBILITIES? SHOW YOUR SUPPORT TO OUR BISHOP BY DOING ALL YOU CAN TO SUPPORT VOCATIONS IN THIS GREAT CELEBRATION OF OUR DIOCESE.

"The Harvest is Rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest"

Return form

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The Route

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A Call from God

All of us have a calling from God to be holy. The army had a great commercial a few years ago. It challenged young people to "Be all that you can be". This is what holiness is, being all that God created you to be. This is the same call of God to every person. Be all that you can be! This phrase is the basis of a new initiative that is being developed in the Middlesbrough Diocese.

The pastoral care for vocations needs to be seen as the primary objective of the whole Christian community. The whole mind-set of the Church must be vocation. "Ecclesia" means an assembly of those who are called. Once this is realised, there won’t be a need for "vocation projects" because the church will be a church that expresses calling in all that it does. Every member of the Church, excluding no one, has the grace and the responsibility of caring for vocations. All pastoral work must be vocational, beginning with the explicit intention of placing the believer before the proposal of God. Pastoral care for vocations is a gradual process leading people to gratitude, then responsibility then a freely given response to God. It begins with the general then leads to specifics. There are those who fear that widening the idea of vocation will be harmful to the specific promotion of vocations to the priesthood and religious life, yet the reality is exactly the opposite.

The proposal of vocation is a daily task of the church and needs to be done for all ages with a community and personal dimension. This is done through:

These are done by:

To develop some of the work for building a "culture of vocation" within the Diocese while also celebrating and promoting the many particular vocations within the life of the Church, we are launching a Diocesan Vocations Team.

The role of the Team can be summarised into two areas:

To work closely with the National office for Vocation in promoting a new integrated vision of vocation ministry – empowering and equipping groups and individuals within the Diocese [chaplains, youth workers, clergy, families, parishes..] with resources and ideas to foster a "culture of vocation" and promote particular vocations (e.g. to ordained ministry); being a channel of good practice for others; co-ordinating a Diocesan "strategy" for vocations promotion.

To practically take a leadership role in various vocation promotion initiatives within the Diocese – e.g. Workshops and awareness days in school…parish…university

The composition of the Diocesan Vocations Team reflects people with relevant experience combined with an enthusiasm for vocations ministry. Our first meeting is in February, and in the next edition of the Catholic Voice you will be able to see the team and hear of our inaugural meeting. In the meantime we continue to pray for all vocations – Be all that you can be!

Fr Gerard Robinson, Vocations Director

Welcome to our New Vocations Director

During the summer we had a change of Vocations Director in the Diocese, Father Michael Loughlin has now become the Episcopal Vicar for the Southern Vicariate, so Father Gerard Robinson at the Cathedral is the new Vocations Director.

Father Gerard has commented: "I have many different tasks to develop; one is to bring together a Vocations Team from across the Diocese to help create a Vocations Culture.

Bishop John would like to make 2006 a year of focused prayer and vocations activity within the diocese so we will be in touch with every parish and school to help develop a "vocations culture." The challenge is to re-energise and re-vitalise ourselves in a strong shared sense of "calling".

The 1997 document, In Verbo Tuo, that emerged from the European Congress on Vocations, makes clear that what we are talking about is not so much "recruitment drives" to counter falling numbers of priests or sisters so much as a shared awareness that God is calling each person every day, in a unique way to participate in building his Kingdom.

I have already been invited to speak at St Augustine's High School, Scarborough and I hope to be able to do the same in other schools and colleges throughout the diocese.

I hope in the January 2006 edition of the Catholic Voice to write more on this work and of the Vocations Team that is currently being put together.

In the meantime another of the tasks that I have been asked to coordinate is our Diocesan Event for 2006, the "Vocations Walk". From the 5th - 12th August 2006 Bishop John will lead a walk that will start from St Charles, Hull and end at St Mary's Cathedral in Middlesbrough.

The aim is to have a set walk each day and celebrate Mass each evening at a different Church, and also celebrate one other Sacrament as-well, so seven days seven sacraments.

There will be a core group who will be walking each day and staying at different venues on the evening, and the hope is that our young people (especially those who went to Cologne) will be part of the core group. It is hoped that people will come along on one or more of the days to join us in our walk and Mass in the evening.

At the moment the details are still being developed and we have put together a small team from across the diocese that is helping to coordinate the event. If you have any thoughts or ideas that you think would be of help please do contact me.

The final details will be in the Catholic Voice as well as announced in Parishes and on our diocesan website. However for now, please start the training for this walk, I am off to buy some boots!

If you would like to contact me about the Vocations Walk or to talk about a possible vocation to the Priesthood please contact me on: gerard.paul@btopenworld.com or tel: 01642 597750 or write to me at St Mary's Cathedral, Dalby Way, Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough. TS8 OTW."

Prayer and Programme for Vocations

Bishop John has asked Father Gerard Robinson, Vocations Director, to make 2006 a year of focused prayer and vocations activity within the diocese. The Bishop comments “To that end he and his team will be in touch with every parish and school as the year progresses. One practice I wholeheartedly commend to every community within the diocese – be it school, parish or religious community – is to provide regular weekly prayer opportunities when, quite specifically, you ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into his harvest.

There will be a special ‘vocations event’ next year. In August I will lead a ‘walk for vocations’ the length of the diocese. Our walk begins at St Charles, Hull, on Sunday, 6 August, the feast of the Transfiguration, and ends at Mount Grace on Sunday, 13 August, when, by lovely tradition, we celebrate Our Lady’s Assumption into heaven with Mass at 3 pm. It will be an event which involves everyone, not just those who take part in the walk itself. Further details will be made available as soon as our plans are finalised.”

Towards a Vocations Culture

This sermon by Fr. Gerard Robinson can be viewed by clicking here.