Blaze Central
Blaze South
Blaze North
Blaze gives you, and others from across your local area, the opportunity to come together and cement all you've explored in your own confirmation programmes. There's going to be drama, music, workshops, prayer and Mass. There's plenty to do and see. It's a good chance to ask questions about Confirmation, the Church, and God.
Speak to your catechist, parish priest, or school chaplain to find out more.
See you there Blazers!
We are so excited for Blaze 2027!
Blaze is our yearly event for confirmation groups bringing together 100s of young people throughout the diocese. We explore who the Holy Spirit is and look at the difference it makes to have Him in our lives.
If you’ve not been before, it’s a day full of activities, games, praise and worship, workshops, Mass and time with the Bishop.
It’s a great experience of what it means to be Catholic, a day to come away with other young people and God and have a load of fun along the way.
This year’s theme is ‘the Holy Spirit.’ We’ll be looking at who this often mysterious person of the trinity is.
Info for Group Leaders
This day will offer your group the time and place to consolidate all they’ve been exploring during your confirmation programme and look at who the Holy Spirit is and what confirmation means for each of them. Having a day to come away as a group, really helps bond the group and cement the friendships they’ve made during the confirmation programme. For long term faith growth, it is so important to have experiences like this to make concrete the journey God takes each individual on. And having friends who they’ve experienced it with, makes it even more likely their faith journey will continue beyond their confirmation programme. Journeying in faith as a young person today is not the easiest, but to have friends who are also on that journey and to have experiences of the wider Church and the wider Church community, can help strengthen their resolve and give them hope which will carry them through.
If you are in the north of our diocese (North-Northamptonshire, Northampton, Bedford) then please book on to Blaze North which will be held at Thomas Becket School in Northampton.
If you are in the South of our diocese (Aylesbury, South-Buckinghamshire, Chiltern, Slough), then please book on to Blaze South held at St Joseph’s School, Slough.
If you are in centre of our diocese (Luton, Flitwick, Dunstable) then please book on to Blaze Central held at St Paul’s Catholic School, Milton Keynes.
In order to attend Blaze, all groups must have submitted a booking form and have purchased tickets in advance. This is due to limited spaces at each venue.
To help in submitting the booking form, please download a Blaze Attendees Spreadsheet to help you consolidate all the information you gather from your confirmandi and adult helpers. Template forms to send to legal guardians and confirmandi and adult helpers to gather consent, and the Blaze Attendees Spreadsheet will be found in the ‘Documents for Group Leaders’ section on this page once bookings are live.
Tickets need to be purchased online, they can be paid for by card, bank transfer or cheque.
If You’d Like To Talk To Us About Funding For The Event, then Please Contact: NYMO.admin@Northamptondiocese.com.
Bookings and tickets will go live on 30th September 2026.
Due to restricted numbers at each venue, places will be allocated for those in closest geographical area first.
If you want to attend one of the other Blaze events, and not the one closest to you, then please get in touch with us prior to booking (NYMO.admin@northamptondiocese.com).
There are some optional workshops available at Blaze this year, but sadly not enough time for everyone to do all of them.
So we’re giving all confirmands the opportunity to choose which ones they’d like to do and we will accommodate their preferences as much as we possibly can.
There will be an online form you can share with your group for them to fill out and let us know their preferences, or you can gather their preferences manually and send it on to us.
If you have any questions, then please get in touch with us (NYMO.admin@northamptondiocese.com).
Documents for Group Leaders
These are some documents and policies you may want to know about or share with the attendees and/or legal guardians of those you are bringing to Blaze.
Please download a copy of the Blaze Attendees spreadsheet to fill out and complete (it will be available here once bookings are live). It should provide us with all the information about the attendees in your group.
The online booking forms have a section where you can upload your spreadsheet (the booking form will be live from the 30th September 2026).
If you’d like a template to use to gather information and written consent from your attendees, you can download one we’ve made using the button below.
If you’d like a copy of our Code of Conduct to share with attendees, helpers, and legal guardians, you can download one using the button below.
If you’d like a copy of our Privacy Policy to share with attendees, helpers, and legal guardians, you can download one using the button below.
Group/activity photographs and videos taken during the event will be in-line with Diocesan policy, which can be found using the button below.
We’ve created a poster to advertise Blaze to get your young people interested and for them and their guardians to find out more. This can be downloaded using the button below.
It promises to be an amazing day and we’d love to bring together as many confirmation groups as possible. So what are you waiting for, get booking! We’d love for you to join us!
Tickets and online bookings will go live on the 30th September. You will need to complete both an online booking form and purchase tickets in order to secure your group’s booking.
when: 17 april (Central), 8 may (south) and 5 june (north)
Where: Thomas Becket RC High School, Northampton (North), st paul’s catholic school, milton keynes (central), and st Joseph’s catholic school, slough (South)
What time: 11am – 4pm
Who: confirmation candidates
How much: £13 (please bring lunch)
If you have any accessibility needs, let us know via email or when booking so we can help make the day universally accessible.
To secure your place you must complete the booking form (including uploading a completed Blaze Attendees Spreadsheet) and purchase tickets.
Tickets need to be purchased online, they can be paid for by card, bank transfer or cheque.
If You’d Like To Talk To Us About Funding For The Event, then Please Contact: NYMO.admin@Northamptondiocese.com.
Bookings for Blaze will open on 30th September 2026
I just want to use this opportunity to thank you for the youths’ event yesterday in the parish of St Augustine, Heelands.
The program was absolutely amazing, Oh the singing at Mass was breathtaking. That has been my vision of how I want a Mass to be.
It was an atmosphere of worship, the kind of atmosphere that can cause an encounter and begin a process of transformation in people. The Holy Spirit was in our midst yesterday in a very palpable way.
I was really touched and words can not express my gratitude to you for your ministry, may your effort be sown for an eternal harvest.
I liked the availability for the young people to have a choice of several workshops.
I attended the workshop on Canva and have since registered as a charity in order to access premium resources. Thank you. My hope is to engage with the youngsters to actively use Canva for advertising and creating posters for parish events.
I was grateful for the youngsters being given the opportunity to attend Reconciliation during the lunch break. This was perfect timing as my group were being confirmed the following Friday!
I always think Bishop David’s Q &A is time well spent with the young people.
The dramatised sections were very good. Very thought provoking and perfectly pitched.
The music ministry was also excellent.
A beautiful mass to end the day.
Thank you to ALL involved
It was lovely to see so many students – I can’t comment on previous years, but I found it well organised with their colours on their lanyards [for the workshops]
It was lovely to be local and have more face to face time with Bishop David. It was great to meet people from the Deanery and have face to face contact.
As catechists, we are truly grateful for the Blaze opportunity and experience over the years, and all the work that the NYMO team puts into this!
I thought it was a really good day for the Confirmation candidates, and we were really grateful to NYMO for putting it on for us.
Our daughter was there for the second time on a weekend like that. The first time was D weekend, and now D summer. She loved those weekends.
She liked all the talks and Prophetic dance. She also liked the craft time.
Thank You very much for everything you do for children.
May God bless you all🙌
Francesco had a great time, he’s already looking forward to coming again next year.
It was fun! I enjoyed the games we played as well as the music!
As her mother, I can say Amelia always enjoys the weekends and comes home full of light and joy. Thank you so much.
I thought the day was very good. A day to meet those involved in Youth ministry . It’s always lovely to put faces to email addresses.
I especially enjoyed the activities provided by RISE Theatre, such a talented and experienced group.
The warm up games were perfect for getting to know people and helped to make me feel more relaxed and comfortable in an unfamiliar setting and among strangers!!
The rest of the day was more enjoyable knowing a little about each of the participants.
A great opportunity to make links with other catechists, which hopefully will continue.
The day gave me a renewed passion for my youth ministry within my parish but also a reassurance that there is a vibrant Diocesan youth team who are available to help and support.
Thank you, looking forward to the next opportunity for a Catechist day!
I will certainly be exploring Youth Leaders’ learning community and have added the online meetings to my calendar.
I’ve had such an incredible time. I’ve been able to work in an amazing team of people, I’ve been able to run events, and I’ve been able to make a genuine impact on other people’s lives by bringing them closer to God. So if there’s anything within you that thinks ‘maybe I can be a youth worker, maybe I could work in youth ministry’ then please apply, because it is such an incredible opportunity!
Thanks for an enjoyable and hugely worthwhile training session. We took away lots of great ideas for planning for the Confirmation programme, and were really grateful.
It’s been so good working with you! The kids loved it and you’ve given us some really good ideas moving forward!
Flame, was such an amazing experience. It was truly heart warming to see how the young people responded to the event. Being present at the event made me realise how alive the Church is! I am very sure that this was a life changing event for some.
I did 3 activities [at Blaze]: there is no “I” in team, the questions and answers with Bishop David, and the activity related to painting. All of these were interesting, and they all showed different things in relation to Confirmation. The one related to painting showed that I can communicate with God in any way, whether it be through painting or praying, I can easily talk to God about anything that is going on in my life. And with the questions and answers with Bishop David, we talked about a more spiritual depth of our lives, for example, why God makes us go through suffering. When I got told the answers to our questions, I felt that I was getting closer to God, and I was able to understand things about God, which I never understood before. The no “I” in team activity showed that sometimes, you can’t go through things alone and that you need teamwork to become better followers of God. They have all prepared me for Confirmation because they have all showed me how to show appreciation to God and how I should act in my life.
I attended Blaze this year for the first time. The whole time I was there I wished I’d had the opportunity to experience such an event as a young person. The activities were incredible; interactive, informative and engaging for all. It really encouraged young people to think about their faith and what it means to them. I feel the experience helped young people to grow in confidence and feel comfortable discussing their experiences and feelings about Catholicism, whilst being educational and fun!
I had started my religious journey when I was quite young. I never asked questions and I was told what to do throughout my religious journey. After time this was what caused me to lose my way. As I grew older I felt something in my life was missing, and I was looking for that gap to fill. At this point, I was recommended the Alpha course. I felt nervous, I felt I needed to know everything before I began the course, but as I went, I asked more and came out of my shell more and more. And I felt that gap fill more and more. The group was so friendly, so warming, and I felt very welcomed. I enjoyed listening to the sessions on each week and being connected. I enjoyed listening to everyone’s experiences, different views. It opened my perspective to what I once knew, and to what I know now. I do recommend the Alpha course, no matter what your personal views. It becomes a part of you more than you realise! This was a great first step in my Catholic Journey, and I look forward to learn more and more as I progress in my faith.