Tel:        028 28276455/28272196
Fax:       028 28277999
Email:    maura@drumalis.co.uk

The Purpose of the Course:

The principal purpose is to offer a space for reflection and discussion about Life, Faith and Ministry.  It aims to provide participants with an opportunity to reflect on and share their own experience.

The course values the life experience which the participants bring and, accordingly, group sharing is an integral part of the learning process each year.  The course also offers the spiritual and theological formation which will enable them to explore their faith with greater confidence.  It also helps to assist people to prepare themselves to respond to the needs of their Church and community and to work in partnerships and parish teams.

Participants have an opportunity to take part in various liturgies and times of Directed Prayer during the year.

2008 will see the third intake of participants on the Pathways Course. 
The first participants who joined in September 2006
are now coming to the end of their course - here are the personal reflections
of two of those students to give you a flavour of what the course has meant to them:

"In September 2006, five parishioners from St Mary’s on the Hill Parish Cell groups were accepted onto the first Pathways Course in Drumalis, Larne.

The Pathways course enabled us to share and develop our understanding of our faith and to rethink many misconceptions that we had inadvertently gathered over the years.

The format of the course required that course members would gather into groups at the end of each lecture to discuss specific teaching points that had been presented to them. This prompted animated discussions that spilled over into further lively debate and faith sharing during coffee breaks, lunch breaks and on the journey home. We quickly began to develop friendships with others on the course, but in particular our own relationships (among the five of us) began to deepen as we continued to meet in our parish cell groups. The Pathways course made us increasingly aware of the responsibility and duty we each had as Christians to build up our faith community, as well as in our families and personally. With the strength, support and encouragement we got from each other, we soon felt prompted to contribute in our small way within our parish community.

The Holy Spirit led this group of Pathways participants into parish led prayer activities as the Holy Spirit prompted them as individuals, over the year 2006-07

- A now annual Eucharistic vigil giving profound expression to the different strands of our Catholic worship;
- A weekly Divine Mercy Chaplet;
- Mothers prayer groups;
- Marian movement weekly cenacle
- Divine Healing prayer liturgies (including 3 interdenominational services and personal divine healing prayer in the church for individuals after Mass on a Tuesday morning)

We believe that the Pathways course has given substance and purpose to our cell group discussions; has energized us into following through with our ideas and has united us in strong, trusted and supportive friendships. With the experience of this year, seven more cell group members chose to embark on the new Pathways course which began in September 2007, making 12 parishioners in all benefiting from the Pathways experience.

We feel blessed by the content of the Pathways course, which has allowed us to clarify our understanding of our religious beliefs and the time to assimilate that teaching into our lives; for the wonderful like-minded people we have met who have inspired our thinking and with whom we are building relationships, throughout the Diocese; and for the courage, insight and vision the course has given to the work we are already involved in at parish level."

-  Patricia Wade and Velvyn Riddell