Youth Bus going to Rally for Life, Dublin, Saturday, 1 July
The Rally for Life is taking place on July 1^st in Dublin. The Armagh Diocesan Youth Ministry Team is organising a ‘Youth Bus’ to go to Rally!!  If you are interested in going please let us know asap by filling in this form https://form.jotform.com/231442812691353

This is an important Rally to really show our stand for Life.  Since 2018, there have been 31,000 abortions in this country.  Now is a time to take a stand.  If we continue this fight as William Wilberforce said “you may choose to look the other way but you can never again say you did not know.”  For more information please contact Rob 0832085877 or Janet 07968738486.

Visit to Cathedral

A first class relic of Blessed Carlo will visit the Cathedral from Sunday 11 – Tuesday 13 June 2023. Blessed Carlo was beatified by Pope Francis in Assisi in October 2020. His friends remember him as a young dreamer, service-oriented and full of charisma. He died in 2006, at only 15 years of age, after a battle with leukaemia. His life may have been short but it made a huge impact. Recently, in the process for the teenager’s beatification, his tomb became a real pilgrimage site. Please share attached flyer

Prayer to the Servant of God, Carlo Acutis

Exam Mass at Knock Shrine – 5 June
Exam Mass at Knock Shrine: For all students preparing for exams and their families. Take some time out from your studies for a quiet moment to ask for God’s strength and guidance as you move through your exam period. Bring your pencil case to have it blesses. June 5th, 7.30pm, Knock Basilica.


Visiting St Patrick’s Cathedral Armagh

First Class Relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis, to visit St Patrick’s Cathedral, in this the 150th year since the Dedication of the Cathedral

Prayer:

Dear Father, who has given us the ardent testimony of the young Servant of God Carlo Acutis, who made the Eucharist the core of his life and the strength of his daily commitments so that everybody may love you above all else, let him soon be counted among the blessed and the saints in your Church. Confirm my faith, nurture my hope, strengthen my charity in the image of young Carlo who growing in these virtues, now lives with you. Grant me the grace I really need…..I trust in you Father and your beloved Son Jesus, in the Virgin Mary our dearest mother, and in the intervention of your servant Carlo Acutis. AMEN

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be

“Always to be united with Jesus, that is my life’s programme”. Carlo Acutis

Sunday 11 June

11.00am Mass

12.30pm Mass    

5.30pm Mass

7.00pm Rosary

9.00pm Night Prayer

Monday 12 June

8.00am Mass

10.00am Mass

12noon Midday Prayer

3.00pm Rosary

6.00pm Evening Prayer

7.30pm Mass

9.00pm Night Prayer

Tuesday 13 June

8.00am Mass

10am Mass (Relic departs immediately after Mass)

Children’s Commissioner calls for more support for RE in schools

Dame Rachel de Souza

Source: RECEW

Students, RE experts, and leaders of faith and belief organisations meet in London to celebrate the subject and discuss its future amid teacher recruitment challenge.

Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, has spoken of the ‘safe space’ offered by good RE teaching in schools, remarking that it is “the one place in the curriculum” where young people can discuss “important and exciting philosophical, religious and moral conundrums in safe spaces”.

Attendees at an event marking the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Religious Education Council of England and Wales heard from students, teachers and faith and belief leaders who spoke of the academic skills and knowledge the subject provides young people in helping them to take their place in modern Britain.

Religious education continues to be a popular subject in schools. Over the last five years entries to Religious Studies GCSE have stood around an average of 250,000 with entries to the full course GCSE rising by 30% over the last decade.

Despite its popularity, many schools offer little or no RE provision. A recent data review by the National Association of Teachers of RE found that around 500 secondary schools in year 11 offer no RE provision. There is also a problem with specialism in schools, with a recent parliamentary question revealing that half of secondary RE teachers spend most of their timetable delivering another subject.

Dame Rachel de Souza said: “Children have told me that they want school to be the place where they can learn about life skills, relationships and how to set themselves up for the future. The RE curriculum is one place that children can learn these important things.

It provides children with a chance to understand more about the world, other cultures and religions, and also about themselves. RE helps us understand the different faiths and communities which make up modern Britain and crucially, RE is a place where these young people can discuss important and exciting philosophical, religious and moral conundrums in safe spaces.”

REC Chair Sarah Lane Cawte, said: “The world has changed significantly in the fifty years since the REC was founded and RE has continually evolved to serve the needs of our society. We must continue to change, working towards the vision of the Commission on RE, with an approach that recognises the complexity of religious and non-religious worldviews in the twenty-first century.

“This change starts by those in government and schools recognising the value of subject in preparing young people for a rich, diverse, multicultural society and global workplace.”

In October, a Westminster Hall Debate saw MPs and Peers from across the House agree on the RE’s importance for life in modern Britain as well as express concern around a lack of government support for the subject. Last March, the Father of the House, Sir Peter Bottomley MP hosted a roundtable on the future of the subject.

He said: “We must support our RE teachers in delivering a modern, relevant RE curriculum. High quality religious education builds cohesion in our societies and helps prepare young people for the world beyond Britain too. We need a national plan for religious education to curb the present teacher recruitment crisis and ensure this high quality provision reaches every young person in every school.”

An RE teacher recruitment campaign, Beyond the Ordinary, is currently underway to attract the next generation of RE teachers. It has called for applicants from a variety of backgrounds, stressing the ability of the subject to help young people answer the big questions in life.

Established in 1973, the Religious Education Council of England and Wales (REC) brings together over 60 national organisations. These comprise academic and professional associations specialising in religious education, as well as individual religion and belief organisations representative of the range of communities found nationally.

LINK

Religious Education Council of England and Wales: www.religiouseducationcouncil.org.uk/

After a very successful pilot, the first three modules of this exciting new digital programme will be available for first teaching in September 2023.  We are now able to offer teachers links to further information as set out below: 

1. The first link is to an in-service video (25 minutes) which was prepared by Siobhan O’Donoghue, one of the writers of the programme.  In the video, Siobhan outlines the aims and structure of this fully digital programme, and guides teachers through the content of the first three modules. Each module has five units. 

https://vimeo.com/810089026/d0fde1ec23

2. The second link is to a sample unit.  It is part of Module 2: Climate Justice, Unit 3: Meeting the Challenge to Live Sustainably.  This is so teachers can have access to a unit within a module to try it out and see how they might use it with a class. 

https://rise.articulate.com/share/gTIZXRTFDQ0JyDNeJa4iXm6n3IDZPGja

3. The third item that we are offering to teachers is the attached Scope and Sequence document. This contains an overview of each of the modules which will be available to schools for first teaching in September.  This is to allow teachers to plan for the next school year. 

Subject: Webinar: New Horizons Tonight 6.00pm-7.00pm

Dear Colleagues, we are doing an evening seminar for Post-primary teachers who want to find out more about our New Horizons programme for Senior Cycle non-exam RE.  Could you please send out this invite to a Zoom Call tonight (6.00pm-7.00pm) for any teachers wishing to learn more about New Horizons? This has already been advertised on Facebook and Twitter – but just in case someone didn’t see it.  If teachers can’t attend, it is being recorded as well. 

Many thanks,

Susan Morgan is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: New Horizons Webinar

Time: May 4, 2023 06:00 PM Dublin

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85791158077?pwd=Q1FCaTZsYVp5aVNENXoxdEtXMU5zZz09

Meeting ID: 857 9115 8077

Passcode: 327727

One tap mobile

+15642172000,,85791158077#,,,,*327727# US

+16469313860,,85791158077#,,,,*327727# US

Dial by your location

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Meeting ID: 857 9115 8077

Passcode: 327727

Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kcR9PlwN2f

Subject:  try this link for the New horizons in-service video if the other one fails to work.

New Horizons – 2023 on Vimeo