On Wednesday of last week we took a group of our Year 7s to Clifton Cathedral for the annual Commissioning Service. In a change to the usual format,

this year the secondary school students were given the opportunity to meet separately with Bishop Declan to talk about their views of the Church today and quiz the Bishop about his own faith journey. After a nervous start students began to speak openly about the struggles of balancing personal faith with an ever changing and fast paced society. They then moved on to asking Bishop Declan about how he viewed God and the sacrifices in life. In the end we ran out of time and had to rejoin the main liturgy but the time students had with our Bishop proved very fruitful.

The penultimate part of the commissioning liturgy involved students receiving their badges and certificates to recognise their commitment to being a part of our Chaplaincy team back at St Gregory’s. Due to numbers the Diocese only permit us to take a group of fifteen, yet we have a proactive group of nearly fourty students in Year 7! They will be receiving their badges and certificates in an upcoming assembly.

Mr M Robinson
Lay Chaplain