groups
YOUNG CATHOLIC ADULT NETWORK UK
For some time YouCAN has had in person young Catholic adult groups in Birmingham and Clifton Dioceses, but we have expanded!
We hope that many more of you UK young Catholic adults will join one of our Regional WhatsApp Groups! Then you can start to meet people who live your way and maybe even get involved in organising more and more events, so that we can connect with more and more young Catholic adults! This is no time to be shy or be on your own, so please get in touch, and you too can be added to one or more of our Regional Groups. There is no charge, no fee, nothing at all!
To apply to join a YouCAN WhatsApp Group, please contact Rina rina@youngcatholicadultnetwork.uk You will also be added to our main UK WhatsApp group so that you start to get a “feel” as to what YouCAN is all about. This helps to build our young Catholic adult community in the UK. We all need to be connected!
These are the groups, admins and where they live, and the groups’ Spiritual Homes… so far;
YouCAN UK
Spiritual Home – Buckfast Abbey
YouCAN+ (a UK group for those aged 30 to 45)
Sian – Bath
Alyn – Llandudno
Esme – Swindon
Spiritual Home – Various
Scotland, in time to divide into east and west.
Marie – Glasgow
Christina – Dumfries
Spiritual Home – Pluscarden Abbey
Northeast
Luke – Darlington
Tom – Newcastle-on-Tyne
Spiritual Home – Ampleforth Abbey
Northwest
Rachael – Manchester
Louis – Manchester
Rachel – Preston
Spiritual Home – Hyning Monastery
East Midlands
Marcin – Northampton
Jacinta – Northampton
Spiritual Home – Blackfriars, Cambridge
West Midlands
Si – Coventry
Sean – Birmingham
Spiritual Home – Belmont Abbey
Southeast
Juani – London
Bethany – London
Spiritual Home – Douai Abbey
Southwest and Wales, hopefully in time Wales to be a separate group
Nali – Bristol
Angelo – Bristol
Glaxy – Shepton Mallet
Spiritual Home – Brownshill Monastery
Southern England
Raphael – London
Spiritual Home – Quarr Abbey
You will be given the following information before joining YouCAN, and asked to agree to YouCAN's ethos and guidelines, which are as follows;
YouCAN UK
YouCAN is a religious group for practicing young Catholic adults in the UK, operated entirely by it’s members on a voluntary and unpaid basis. Although connected through the WhatsApp YouCAN Community, it is hoped that members will support the regular in person events organised by the group.
Members are encouraged to tell others about YouCAN, as that is how the group can grow and accomplish it’s simple mission of linking all young Catholic adults to build a strong young Catholic Community of Faith in the UK.
YouCAN includes;
YouCAN
for young Catholic adults between ages 18 and 35
YouCAN+
for Catholics between ages 30 and 45
YouCAN Regional Groups
YouCAN has Regional Groups in;
Scotland – Spiritual Home Pluscarden Abbey
North West England – Spiritual Home Hyning Monastery
North East England – Spiritual Home Ampleforth Abbey
West Midlands – Spiritual Home Belmont Abbey
East Midlands – Spiritual Home Blackfriars
South West England and Wales – Spiritual Home Brownshill Monastery
South East England – Spiritual Home Douai Abbey
Southern England – Spiritual Home Quarr Abbey
These groups have not long been established and are still growing and developing.
The Spiritual Home of YouCAN UK is with the Community of Saint Gregory the Great, presently based at Buckfast Abbey.
YouCAN Chat
Podcasts comprising conversations between young Catholics about their Faith and life in the Church.
YouCAN Explore
YouCAN have launched an online initiative to reach out to people of no Faith and introduce them to Catholic Christianity.
More information about YouCAN can be found on;
Website
https://youngcatholicadultnetwork.uk/
Instagram youngcatholicadultnetworkuk
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/youngcatholicadultnetwork/
YouTube for YouCAN Chat
@YouCan_Chat
Information about our WhatsApp Groups
YouCAN+ and our Regional Groups are subsidiary to the main WhatsApp Group to which everyone belongs and to which you will be added when joining. This is so that we develop a single community and help you better understand the work of YouCAN, which is simply linking young Catholic adults.
Before being added you will be asked to provide your full name and mobile number. You will also be asked to provide contact details for your Parish Priest. YouCAN may seek a reference from him in order to ensure the continuing security of the group.
The Chaplain of the main WhatsApp groups is Fr. John McGowan, who is a Discalced Carmelite Friar based in Chalfont St. Peter. Also in the group is Sister Elizabeth Mary Mann, Prioress General of the Bernardine Cistercian Order, and Fr. Valens Ngiruwonsanga, who is based in Rwanda. There are also a number of Seminarians in the group and a few International Catholics. The International Catholics joined when the Community was first set up in March 2020.
Each morning Rina posts information about the Saint of the Day, together with any YouCAN news and an appropriate prayer. All events are noted in the Announcements section of the Community. This is regularly updated. Members of the group will lead us twice a day in the praying of the Angelus. A member of the group will also occasionally post Prayer Intentions. There is a regular Wednesday evening online Zoom praying of the Rosary, and the link will be posted in the main group. Each Sunday evening there is also a fun online quiz!
We ask that you please bear in mind the following guidelines when chatting in all of the YouCAN WhatsApp groups;
1. Love God and your neighbour
2. Remember we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Therefore, let us help each other get to heaven and grow in holiness
3. We are predominantly a social group. However, sometimes it may be fruitful to discuss theological, political, moral and other issues in order to understand more deeply our Faith and the teachings of the Catholic Church. These are contained within the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1994, and summarised in YouCAT. Such discussions, to take place in our Discussions WhatsApp Group, must take place in a spirit of humility, and respect that others may hold an equally valid, but different, view.
4. Remember we stand for The One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and submit to The Supreme Pontiff, Pope Francis. Young Catholics in the group come from all different backgrounds, and we have to respect that others may hold different views, and in particular celebrate Mass in a different way, to ourselves. We can learn from each other.
5. Please pray for each other and especially for Fr. John, Sister Elizabeth Mary, Fr. Valens and our Seminarians.
6. In the morning prayer we pray to the Patrons of the group, Saint John Paul ll, Sister Clare Crockett and Blessed Carlo Acutis. We also pray to Our Lady Queen of Peace especially for persecuted Christians in so many places in our world, to the Holy Martyrs of Ireland, to Saint Edmund the Martyr, former Patron of England and to Saint Gregory the Great, to help the English Benedictine Monks, formerly of Downside Abbey but now at Buckfast Abbey, co- founders of YouCAN.
7. Sometimes it is more appropriate for a conversation to take place in our Discussion Group . This is certainly the case if you and just one other are chatting about something over a period of time, or where you wish to dispute something with someone that could cause upset or embarrassment.
8. The WhatsApp Community is not for the promotion of other groups, or events not organised, or supported by, YouCAN. Any messages of this nature will be deleted. Persistent breach of this rule may result in you being removed from all YouCAN groups.
9. Rina, in consultation with Fr John, will remove anyone from the group whose behaviour is considered to fall below the standards set out above.
10. As with any WhatsApp group, your mobile number will be seen by others in the group. Rina will not divulge either your mobile number or email address to anyone else without your permission.