Marriage and Family Life

Guide to Organisations Supporting
Family Life and Marriage 

Download the guide
 

Pastoral Care for Mental Health Newsletter 

The national mental health support project was born from the responses received to the Listening 2004. The aim of the project is to help our Catholic community to become more aware of mental health issues and more effective in pastorally supporting people with mental health issues and their families.

To find out more about the project, click here.

To download the newsletter click here
 

A four page resource which aims to develop greater awareness and understanding of the reality of Christian family life and marriage today.

To download click here

Marriage & Family Life E-Bulletin November 2006

(Word document)

The Joy of God's Plan - Natural Fertility Awareness in the Church's Teaching 
An introductory presentation on Natural Fertility Awareness (NFA), suitable for marriage preparation, RCIA, and use with young people. It was created by Luton Good Counsel and is published by the Catholic Truth Society.  For more information click here. (PDF file - 275KB)

An overview of the preparation for marriage available around the Diocese is available here 

Support for Marriage

There is a variety of sources of support for marriage.

• Worldwide Marriage Encounter
•  Marriage Care
• The Marriage Course
• and contact details are available here.   

Home is a Holy Place

Home is a Holy Place is the second phase of initiatives born from the Listening 2004 consultation by the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. It aims to develop among families, parishes and the wider Catholic community a vision of:

• the holiness of the home as a place of life, love, service, teaching, fellowship, witness and prayer
• the presence of God as love in all loving family relationships

"A broader understanding of marital and family spirituality among both clergy and laity will be fundamental to the success of any future work by the church in support of family life."

www.homeisaholyplace.org.uk

Engaged Encounter

Engaged Encounter is part of the Worldwide Marriage Encounter Movement, which is active in almost 100 countries.

An Engaged Encounter weekend is a form of marriage preparation. It is designed to give couples preparing for marriage the chance to talk openly about their expectations and attitudes in such areas as work, money, children, in-laws, sex, leisure time, church and so on.

The focus of the weekend is on growth in relationships through communication as a couple.

It is not a retreat and there are no group discussions.

The weekend begins at 8 p.m. on Friday and finishes around 5 p.m. on Sunday.

For details of upcoming weekends and bookings – go to www.wwme.org.uk  

Links to more online information and resources