Three schools in Durham – St Leonard’s, St Godrics and St Thomas Moore, part of Durham Martyrs Parish – spent time this Advent delving deeper and exploring their views on the Church, their parish and being young people.

The ‘listening survey’ they used was created by Million Minutes in response to Pope Francis’s letter Christus Vivit, to challenge parishes to create opportunities to engage with young people in their local community in new ways. The survey is an opportunity to listen to the realities and challenges young people face, to learn from one another and to work together to make lasting change in local communities.

Tom from Year 7 said "I feel part of my parish community when I go to school Masses and when the priest visits my school. My message to the parish would be, ‘try to connect with the youth because they are the future of the world’”.

A Year 8 pupil said “I live in a small community with no local church, so it can be hard to get too. I think churches and parishes aim activities and services at older people who have more time.” Another comment that came back was it should be the young who should be in charge of the homilies at Mass!

Million Minutes’ hope is that parish communities will take up Pope Francis` challenge to go out to the peripheries - to be brave and to journey together. And the Million Minutes’ team is here to help, with resources and support to help discern how best to serve young people.

If you are interested in understanding your young people in 2020, pledge your time to making real change here: https://millionminutes.org/understandingyoungpeople