New Pupil Chaplains going out to share the Good News

Great news this week with a large group of pupil chaplains being commissioned by Bishop Mark to help him in his mission of spreading the good news within our CAST schools. The training day a Buckfast Abbey involved eight schools from across the Diocese who are the first to be involved in the initiative and help build the kingdom within their own schools. The initiative led-by by Sr Judith Russi and EducareM has seen great success across the country with schools within the Diocese of Salford especially having huge success with the program. Not only does the initiative help tackle potential shortfalls in school chaplains available for our schools it also gives pupils the tools to speak to their friends about faith on a peer-to-peer level.

+Bishop Mark, Canon Mark O’Keeffe and Fr Mark Skelton all attended the commissioning service which took place at the end of the day in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. The beautiful stained glass window made a lovely backdrop for our photographs and made a fitting end to a truly blessed and wonderful day in such a beautiful venue. The children all received signed letters of commissioning from +Bishop Mark telling them to go out and make disciples and be the bearer of the Good News to all people in their parishes, schools and local communities.

Sarah Barreto RE Adviser hopes to arrange to train up and commission another set of 8 schools in the autumn term, as there has been great interest from all the schools in the diocese. “Our children really did us proud and were so thrilled to take part in such a special event. Many thanks to everyone for all the support and hard work and of course to all our clergy for their kind understanding and support.“

Thanks to Sr Judith Russi, EducareM and our own Diocesan school leader Sarah Barreto for preparing them so well for their chaplaincy journey ahead. Want to learn more about Sr Judith and the pupil chaplaincy initiative click here.