McKinley is the founder of Challenge 2000, a youth development organisation based in Johnsonville, Wellington.

On ANZAC weekend Challenge staff, volunteers, gap students and locals produced moving performances that recognised and remembered those who gave their lives and fought for their country.

To commemorate this year's centenary of the battle at Gallipoli the group re-enacted the bravery, courage and heroism of soldiers, nurses, Maori and Pakeha men and women.

"We've performed dramas in our local area before but this year more parishes were involved," said McKinley.

There were so many young people who wanted to take part this year they presented their drama at Johnsonville, Masterton, Eastbourne, Newtown and the Cathedral.

"Some young people attended all 5 Masses," McKinley said.

"Our vocation, service and sacrifice-themed production moved young and old."

"It was also wonderful to be joined by military people currently serving."

In Auckland to mark ANZAC day there was a memorial concert in St Benedict's Church in Newton.

It featured well-known composer/singer and Catholic priest, Father Chris Skinner, as well as musicians from three Auckland Catholic schools, St Mary's and St Peter's Colleges and St Francis School.

Source

• Catholic Diocese of Auckland

However, while there were many shared values, goals and experiences uniting conference participants, their diversity was also highlighted and their thoughts, work methods and beliefs challenged by the thought-provoking and wide range of speakers and workshops.

In his opening address Bishop Peter Cullinane of Palmerston North said ministry to and with young people involves giving and receiving. He compared this to "receptive ecumenism". "In the past, Churches brought to each other an explanation of the things that were important to them. They ‘put out their best china'. In receptive ecumenism they show instead their dirty hands - they ask each other for help with problems they have not successfully resolved. They receive from one another," he said.

Included in the programme are an address from Bishop Peter Cullinane of Palmerston North, three keynote speeches, an interactive workshop which will break open the founding documents of Catholic youth and young adult ministry in New Zealand, and eight other workshops from which participants can choose four.

The keynote speakers are Samuel Clear from Harvest Inroads Australia, who is well-known for his engaging and inspirational presentations on putting Christ's love into action in a broken world; Chris Duthie-Jung who has extensive experience in ministry with young Catholics and is currently completing his PhD on the Catholic identity of Gen Y New Zealanders, and Kitty McKinley, who has been actively involved in youth ministry and development for over 40 years and is the founder of professional youth and social work agency Challenge 2000.

Workshop themes include planning prayer and liturgy; engaging with Maori and Polynesian communities; encouraging youth involvement in parish life; supporting families in their spiritual journeys, and using new media and technology.

The conference will open on Sunday with a Mass celebrated by coadjutor bishop of Palmerston North, Bishop Charles Drennan, which will be followed by a gathering with the parish community. Each day will begin and conclude with prayer, and daily Mass will be offered at lunchtime. Br Kieran Fenn FMS will offer two evening Exegesis and Prayer sessions. The conference will conclude on Wednesday with a Commissioning Mass celebrated by Bishop Cullinane.

National Project Coordinator of the Office for Young People, Sr Helen O'Sullivan RNDM, says the conference will benefit from having a wide range of participants.

"There will be a truly national feel to the conference with registrations having come in from as far North as Auckland and as far South as Dunedin," she says. "The participants are involved in diverse ministries both in the Catholic Church and the wider community and will bring with them a range of perspectives, experiences and energies to share with others who are passionate about youth and young adults.

"My desire is that the conference will give hope to those who have been involved in youth and young adult work for a long time and provide inspiration for those who are newer to this important ministry in the Church".

Source

• New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference
• Image: I was Just Thinking

As I looked out into the grey day my mind also strayed to all those children at home on this first cold day of their school holidays. Then I began reflecting on the many children in poverty here in Wellington. So many young people that I work with have no idea what a brolly is and have never been on a plane to anywhere. Their families have large overdue Genesis power bills, live in cold houses and probably won't have as many slices of cheap bread as they used to for breakfast and lunch and tea today - even it's gone up.

Hundreds of these families live here in the Wellington Region and live through unnatural disasters - poverty, injustice, exclusion and alienation. They form a raw underbelly of New Zealand Society who are not seen or heard except by those who work with them.

And what the response to the natural disasters has shown us is that New Zealanders are a great people who will respond, give and support others when called upon - it's what we do as a nation at the personal, local, national and international levels.

These are challenging economic and social times for everyone. They are the most challenging and deadly for those at the bottom of the heap - the brolly - less poor wherever they live who are the victims of unnatural disasters.

Poverty is the single destructive tsunami. It seems so big and yet:

• If we each examine our personal situation first - what can I do to help, prevent, ameliorate, transform the way I live? and
• If we examine the groups, businesses, communities we belong to- what can we do to help, prevent, ameliorate, transform the way we live?

And then we act like we have so many times before and keep on acting to change the lives of our Kiwis stuck in poverty - I am convinced that Aotearoa New Zealand can be a country where all share in the wealth that we have.

That wealth will make us all well and healthy regardless of the conditions that assail us.

Kitty McKinley