Chris Marwick

The Napier Catholic youth group has had a busy start to 2017.

During February we were involved with the Gatsby Morning Tea which took place at St Patrick’s church in Napier. This was part of the Parish’s involvement in the Art Deco weekend. Mass beforehand was celebrated with Art Deco vestments and a lot of parishioners dressing up for the occasion.

In March, as part of our Care of Creation, we helped with a Beach Clean-Up for SeaWeek.

For April we will be supporting the Parish Ecumenical Cross Walk on Good Friday starting at St Patrick’s at 9:30am. The youth take part in the walk then head to the pier on the beach afterwards where we make crosses out of drift wood, stones and palm leaves. Last year we had tourists taking photos of us!  Being a youth event we end with food, but not too much: Fish ‘n’ Chips, being Friday!

Another fundraising event we have booked in our calendar each year is working for Mahens Amusements in their food trucks at the Hawkes Bay A&P Show.

Last year we also managed to start up a parish Youth Band. This has been very well received by all three Parish Church communities. The band practices fortnightly and celebrates Mass once a month, rotating around the churches. This is a very rewarding ministry for our parish and I encourage other youth to seriously consider joining it, as the band is always looking for more members. Our youngest is a keyboard player in Year 8 and our oldest is in his 30s, married and a father of three, but very much young at heart!

Faith in our Catholic Youth of Napier is very Alive, albeit in a small loyal group. But, from small good things grow great things.

For more information about youth events in the Catholic Parish of Napier, contact Chris at [email protected].