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We're 1 year old this week! To celebrate, we put together a brilliant video of the highlights from the past year, and some teasers about the year ahead.
Thanks to everyone who's made the first year of Million Minutes so absolutely amazing! And together, we'll 'make the change' in 2012!
Young people heard an amazing message of hope this week from Million Minutes Champion Margaret Mizen. "You can make a difference," she said, " and make your communities safe places. And you can help change the future of our society. You can make our society a peaceful place instead of an angry place." Three schools in Birmingham hosted Margaret Mizen for a brilliant roadshow to highlight Million Minutes as the schools' Lenten charity for 2012. St Augustine's Redditch, St Thomas More, Nuneaton and Bishop Walsh in Sutton Coldfield all welcomed the Mizens to hear about their inspiring work in South East London.
"It's been amazing to spend time with the young people of the Birmingham this week. I'm thrilled that so many young people will be staying silent this Lent for Million Minutes," said Danny Curtin, Million Minutes Trustee.
Schools interested in staying silent this Lent should check out our Resources page at millionminutes.org/resources
Margaret and Barry Mizen will join the Birmingham diocesan Million Minutes silent walk on Sunday 5 February at 2.45pm leaving from Newman Centre/ St Thoma of Canterbury Catholic Church, Haywood Drive, Tetenhall, Wolverhampton, WV6 8RF. Followed by Mass at 5.15. Margaret and Barry will also give a short talk. Details from Chris Walker: chrisxwalker@doctors.org.uk
The bishops of the Archdiocese of Birmingham are to stay silent this November to raise much-needed funds for projects supporting young people, the Archbishop of Birmingham announced this week. Speaking at the Birmingham launch of the Million Minutes big sponsored silence taking place on Sunday, 6 November, the Archbishop encouraged others to join the bishops by staying silent or to sponsor them.
“Million Minutes is important to us because it is supporting projects and people that are central to our community,” he said. “We should leap at the opportunity to be united with the young people of the Archdiocese.”
Million Minutes encourages people and groups (not just bishops) to stay silent for up to 24 hours and get sponsored for it. The money raised will be given as grants to local and national projects that help vulnerable or forgotten young people. 750,000 minutes have so far been pledged, with 105,000 pledged at the launch event in Birmingham.
Million Minutes is supporting two local organisations, Alton Castle Youth Centre and the Andrew Robinson Young People’s Trust. They will receive a share of the money raised to support specific projects with young people who are especially marginalised. Money will also be made available as small grants to youth and community groups.
Also speaking at the launch, Clive Robinson - father of the late Andrew Robinson and Trustee of the Young People’s Trust - said the need among some young people in the Archdiocese was “quite mind boggling”, and that the Million Minutes silence would support projects that play a “significant part in tackling the urgent problems of our society.”
The sponsored silence will take place on Sunday, 6 November, with primary and secondary schools encouraged to join in between 7-11 November. It is hoped that both young people and adults will stay silent as a powerful message of solidarity.
“This is a campaign of silence which will speak up for young people as well as raising money to support them,” said Danny Curtin, a Trustee of Million Minutes. People throughout the Archdiocese and throughout the UK are being asked to sign up online to stay silent and raise money at www.millionminutes.org/stay-silent
And that’s not all. Million Minutes invites applications under its Small Grants programme for funding of up to £500 for projects in the UK undertaken by organisations, groups or even individuals who will work to enable young people to do things that transform our world, inspired by Catholic social teaching. Details can be found at http://www.millionminutes.org/grants/
Maybe I'm biased, but Birmingham is where it's at. Although it's about a decade since I last lived in God's own Archdiocese, it's still a very important part of my story. And my story is the story of BCYS.
I'm a Stafford boy, and BCYS for me was Diane Lamb, a fearless woman with a big laugh and a dodgy car. I wonder if she still has them both?!
From my stint in the Staffordshire Youth Team (helping to run youth Masses) when I was about 16, to the ecumenical work I did with Churches Together in England a couple of years later and even representing England and Wales at a memorable Catholic conference in Hungary aged about 20, BCYS was all about offering me and my peers opportunities to get involved and grow.
And then there was the Lourdes trip and the Walsingham jaunts, and even a World Youth Day. All very Catholic.
They were important times, growing in faith along with a group of amazing young people, with the support of greats of the Archdiocese like Diane Lamb, Eddie Clare (a big MM supporter!), Mark Crisp, Maria Bracken (Robinson back in my day!) and Jo Boyce. I was always a bit daunted by their all-round aceness, frankly!
So it's a massive thrill to be able to work with BCYS as partners in this November's silence now that I'm all grown up (29 going on 19). Two brilliant Catholic youth charities doing what they do best to support and encourage a new generation of young people grow into the people the world needs them to be.
It's testament to BCYS' long term vision. How did Oscar Romero put it? "We are prophets of a future not our own". That's about right. And I'm not the only one, you know. Birmingham youth are spread the world over (I saw one working with young people in New Zealand the other month).
So let's hear it for BCYS, but SHHH! let's do it in silence!
Daniel Hale is Campaigns Officer at Progressio and a Trustee of Million Minutes. He lives in London, in constant sadness that it's not quite as good as Birmingham.
The people who work at Missio are staying silent for a whole 24 hours. They already work for a charity; their work helps to raise funds and channel the support of thousands of Catholics in England and Wales who make the mission of the Church possible around the world. They love their work - they know the difference their work makes to communities and vulnerable people around the world.
Here’s what they had to say
Mgr John Dale, Missio National Director
You can sponsor the Missio team at www.bmycharity.com/frjohn
Thank you and well done to everybody who was silent over the weekend! Some people found it difficult at first, and others odd at times, but we're hearing that more than anything else people found it an incredibly rewarding experience and didn't want to stop!
Here's what a few people have said:
A group joined Margaret Mizen for a silent walk from St. Paul's Cathedral to Westminster Cathedral, peaking after her silent walk Margaret Mizen said:
Do email your experiences to info@millionminutes.org and good look to all of those who are still to stay silent!
We have a new press release with details of our day of silence on May the 8th. To see it, simply click here.
Across the country people are preparing for their silence, activity on our online fundraising site BMyCharity.com is increasing rapidly and we’re hearing so many more stories about peoples plans, what they’re doing to make the most of the fundraising opportunity along with their hopes, fears and expectations for their silence. Here is a selection of the stories we’re hearing:
Want to make sure everybody know what you're doing for Million Minutes? We have an image ready that you can use as your profile picture on facebook or twitter (or anything else you like!). you can find it here, and all you need to do is just save it onto your computer and upload it as a new profile picture, easy!
For those of you who are anxious about you’re silence, we have two new resources which offer you practical tips for managing to stay silent for a whole 24 hours, one is from Sr Gabriel Davison (from BBC2’s The Concent) and the other is from a friend of Million Minutes, Matthew van Duyvenbode. Find them here and here, and as with many other fantastic things they are on our resources page here.
Are you still to make plans for your silence? Why not come to walk with Margaret Mizen from St. Pauls Cathedral to Westminster Cathedral in silence? This is a great opportunity to stand (and walk!) in solidarity with not only Margaret Mizen and everyone else staying silent, but also all of those People are meeting outside St. Pauls at 12.45 to start walking at 1, the walk should take about 2 hours. It would be fantastic to see you there!
The best of luck to everyone staying silent on Sunday, we look forward to hearing about your experiences!
The team from Savio House Salesian Retreat Centre have started their preparation for their ‘big silence’, which is now less than a month away! The chart you can see them holding below is to keep track of their fundraising from friends and family, and to keep track of when each team member is going to be silent.
Alongside a period of communal silence, different team members will be silent for set periods of time in the week prior to the 8th of May as a form of witness. This will help to show the benefits of silence to the young people who come to Savio House alongside raising some money for a great cause.
If you want to support the Savio House team’s fantastic efforts you can offer words of support on their facebook page!
Million Minutes has been growing and growing since it launched and has recently taken on two interns who are keen to do all they can for youth dignity. Christine Sterlini and Chris Knowles (pictured below) have experience working with young people before, Christine volunteering at Manzini Youth Care, an orphanage in Swaziland and Chris at Savio House, a Salesian Retreat Centre near Macclesfield.
Christine, who has recently returned from her stint volunteering with overseas volunteer organization BOVA said that “it is really exciting being able to be part of such a great new venture”, “I was really keen to do something for young people on returning from Swaziland, and this has been a great opportunity”. Chris who currently finishing his Christian Theology MA at Heythrop College said that “Million Minutes is a great idea at a time when the young can easily get forgotten, I would urge anyone interested in helping the young of today to get involved”.
Head over to the Get Involved page to see what you can do!