THERE was a certain “buzz” on February 12 not often seen on weekends at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) Banyo campus.
It came from 200 participants and more than 20 presenters sharing faith, talents and experiences at Brisbane archdiocese’s Youth and Children’s Ministry training day.
Leading the day’s organisational team was Youth Ministry co-ordinator for Brisbane archdiocese Michael Hart who said training days kept improving.
“It is the third time that we have run the Youth and Children’s Ministry Training Day and each year it seems to go from strength to strength,” he said.
“This year we were blessed to have (Jesuit) Fr Richard Leonard as our keynote speaker and he was truly inspirational and challenging.
“He took the theme of the training day, ‘What you hear whispered … Proclaim from the housetops’ from Matthew’s Gospel and broke it open in the light of the Church’s action in today’s society.
“His presentation was both very personal and theologically thought provoking.”
Carole Danby, also on the Youth and Children’s Ministry team, echoed Michael’s compliments.
“Fr Richard was dynamic and inspiring,” she said.
“He had us laughing and crying as he dispelled some myths under which we Catholics labour.
“For example, ‘Going to Mass on Sunday no more makes you a Christian than living in a garage makes you a car’.”
Following the morning keynote address, participants chose one of 10 workshops to attend relating to their particular area of interest.
These were everything from “How God is depicted in pop culture” to “Mass appeal: exploring the role of music in the Mass” to “More fun than a rubber chicken: games with young people”.
Michael said the array of morning and afternoon workshops on offer “again demonstrated that there are amazing groups of volunteers, teachers and workers with incredible commitment and passion” ready to give of their time, talents and faith.
“Feedback on the day suggests that workshop presenters gave attendees both some solid background information to their topic and practical skills to assist them in their parish or school communities,” he said.
Anita Hendrie, who presented a workshop on “social justice and young people”, said she too was inspired by Fr Richard among “a fantastic energy about the day”.
“Fr Richard … inspired me for my workshop on how we can inspire and enable young people to ‘be the change’, where I was excited to meet like-minded people who are passionate about making a difference,” Anita said.
Communications specialist Bernadette Kreutzer, from the World Youth Day Office, led “Communicating the Good News to your schools and parish communities”.
She said her 24 workshop attendees “bombarded” her with questions and were “appreciative” of advice and information received.
“Participants were able to share their knowledge experiences and challenges with each other through this forum,” Bernadette said.
“I valued the opportunity to meet different community members.”
Youth and Children’s Ministry Team member Rina Wintour gladly offered some of the written feedback received from the day.
“(It was) great value for money,” Rina read from one of the feedback sheets, adding the sentiments of others like, “Very deep insights … I am proud to be a Catholic”.
