A year of abundant fruit in youth ministry

By Catherine Sheehan

Catholic youth ministry in Tasmania has taken some great strides forward over the past 12 months, with more young people discerning a vocation to priesthood or religious life, parish youth groups steadily growing, and the revival of university chaplaincy in both the north and south of the state.

Director of the Office of Youth Evangelisation for the past four years, Sam Clear, said that despite many challenges, he had seen much fruit and was hopeful for the future of youth ministry in Tassie.

Without doubt the most notable area of growth amongst young Catholics in the state over the past 12 months had been the rise of vocations to priesthood and religious life, according to Sam.

“We have seen two young women join religious orders in the last twelve months, one young man apply to begin at the seminary next year, two other young men discerning very genuinely their own call, and four young women in correspondence with religious orders, discerning their vocation,” he said.

“The simple fact that our youth and young adults are looking at the Church with love and a desire to serve is wonderful. We also have seen two young women in the past two years become the first Tasmanian-born National Evangelisation Team members, and we now have local men and women both with and studying Diploma’s in Youth Ministry to assist youth groups. The future is bright.”

One contributing factor in the rise of interest in vocations was the highly successful ‘Life to the Full Conference’ held earlier this year in Ulverstone, led by four young and vibrant Sisters of Life from the US, and attracting 37 teenagers from around the state.

“The ‘Life to the Full Conference’ provided such a good platform for friendships to flourish that are centred on faith and love,” Sam said. “We have also seen a number of youth express interest in a religious vocation as a result, and one of my favourite outcomes of the conference was the formation of a youth praise and worship band from the Kingston and Huonville parishes, who were absolutely incredible.”

Hoping to further this trend, the Office of Youth Evangelisation will host a series of retreat days beginning this December, allowing young people to meet and live for a day with particular religious orders.

Working alongside Sam in youth ministry across the state is a small but dedicated team. Youth Minister Sam Excell runs youth groups in the Hobart and Cygnet parishes and said both groups were slowly growing, currently with 15 members each.

“Attracting young people has been a continuous process but we have gone into schools and promoted it during religious sessions, at assemblies and left flyers at the school office,” Sam Excell said. “We have spoken at the end of Masses and are actively looking to continue this. Word of mouth has also helped quite a lot on building the youth group.”

 He said the key to running a successful parish youth group was to genuinely connect with the young people.

“You need someone who is able to connect with the youth and build a trustful relationship with them… someone who has a motivated heart for it. These factors attract and keep the youth coming back for more, if they have someone they can connect with.”

Volunteer Youth Minister, Mishika Perera, helps run the groups at Hobart and Cygnet and also the youth group at the Kingston-Chanel Parish.

“I have loved seeing each and every participant grow in love with God and to see a sense of calm, peace and love in their eyes has been so rewarding,” Mishika said.

“The main challenges have been making some of the ideas come to life when it comes to brainstorming ideas for youth groups and figuring out how we can make these ideas materialise into activities.”

Sam Clear said that while parish youth groups had “solidified” over the past year with “good numbers” in Cygnet, Kingston, Hobart and Launceston, university chaplaincy had also “exploded” under the leadership of Fr John Joseph LEB and Daniel de la Motte in the south, and Fr Chathura, Aleena Nelson and Merin Abraham in the north.

Fr John Joseph has been serving on the university chaplaincy team at the University of Tasmania in the south. He said the revival of university chaplaincy was “great news” for Catholic students.

“This year has also seen the return of the celebration of the Sacraments on campus at Sandy Bay,” he said “There is Mass twice a week, and weekly opportunities for Reconciliation. Once again, there is an active and visible Catholic presence on campus—the Church’s face is back on the block.

“Through chaplaincy, we have connected with Catholic students and accompanied them on their faith journey at this critical juncture in their life as they embark upon adulthood.”

Sam Clear said the biggest challenge in establishing the foundations of youth ministry had been overcoming the mindset that ministering to youth was not of great importance.

“We have seen some incredible growth and fruit in a few areas of the state, but in other parts we’re still only trying to implement basic foundations. It’s a slow process and one built on long-term mentoring, and it can really start anywhere, so long as it’s Christ-centred and has a few people dedicated to the journey with the youth.”

He added that the key to successful youth ministry was genuine faith and love.

“I’ve now seen twenty years of full time youth ministry across five states and whilst every state, even every parish, is different, one of the key components to successful youth ministry is strangely to not focus on success, but as Saint Teresa of Calcutta would say, focus on faithfulness.

“Youth ministry flourishes when there is genuine love, joy and connection, regardless of how many people are involved. The more we take on the mindset of journeying closer to Christ with youth, the more depth grows in the conversations, questions, and ambitions.”