DIOCESE OF BILOXI YOUTH CONFERENCE

This year will be the 42^nd Annual DBYC (Diocese of Biloxi Youth Convention) held at the Gulf Coast Coliseum which invites all the parishes to come together with their youth groups to celebrate the faith through community, mass, keynote speakers, and worship.  The Diocesan Spirit Movers (10^th – 12^thgrade peer ministry team) are the force behind planning the skits, theme, decorations, and act as the Masters of Ceremonies.  Target age group for Youth Celebration is 9^th – 12^th grade.

Started in 1977, the goals have been to encourage community within our entire diocese.  In many ways, if our young people don’t travel outside their own town or visit other churches they may not realize that other young people excited about their Catholic faith exist nearby. 

We have a welcome ceremony on Friday evening where each parish introduces themselves to our Bishop (in a fun way) and then present the bishop with a gift from their parish.  We usually close Friday with a concert or keynote speaker.  Saturday is a day filled with fellowship, guest speakers and service activities throughout the day.  For lunch, we even invite our young people to dine with our seminarians and other religious to discuss religious vocations.  We close Saturday night with Adoration/XLT and Reconciliation.  We invite all the priests in our diocese to participate in the Reconciliation service.  On Sunday morning Mass is led by our Bishop before we dismiss.  Later that afternoon we have a Youth Rally for our 6^th-8^th grade youth in each parish where they have a keynote speaker and praise and worship opportunities.

We constantly gather feedback from our Spirit Movers and parishes to grow the DBYC into something relevant to our young people while staying rooted in the catechesis of the Catholic church.  We’ve invited our Knights of Columbus, Sisters of Mercy, and other religious orders and groups to set up tables and have opportunities to engage the young people of our diocese to invite them to take part.