CTK students attend Chaplaincy visit to the 10th Anniversary Memorial Service for Jimmy Mizen

On the Thursday 10^th May, Ascension Day, CTK students from Emmanuel and Aquinas, joined the Chaplaincy team to attend the 10^th Anniversary Memorial Service for Jimmy Mizen. During the service powerful words were offered by friends about the legacy, in particular about the three Good Hope Cafes that have been established with the intention of creating safe spaces for young people to grow up in.  Margaret, Barry, Jimmy’s parents, and Danny Mizen, his older brother (pictured with group), reflected on the ten-year journey since Jimmy’s death and spoke positively about plans for the next 10 years. The couple appealed for young people and communities to come together to stop violence, particularly in London.

Archbishop Peter Smith, who led the service, spoke of the need to assure young people that they are valuable and precious in God’s eyes and encouraged all gathered to think of how we can show each other love, forgiveness and compassion. The students were profoundly impacted by the experience of the occasion. Georgina, a CTK Aquinas student, said: “The memorial service for Jimmy was beautiful, insightful and showed the bravery and pure determination of the Mizen family to create peace and forgiveness amongst the youth. The service not only captured the life and true beauty of Jimmy, but despite the tragic circumstances, it also captured what he has inspired and how his life is lived through his family, and how the charity set up in his honour  has and will continue to drive change.  I was honoured to be present at the memorial.”