Sunderland Catholic Chaplaincy

02/09/2026

📢 Freshers’ Events 2026 📢

New to Sunderland? Starting university? 👋

Looking to meet new people, make friends and find your community?

The Catholic Chaplaincy has four events coming up especially for students — from quizzing and film nights to prayer, community and a free breakfast! 💙

🧠 17 Sept — Freshers’ Quiz
🎬 22 Sept — Chaplaincy Tuesday: Film Night
🙏 24 Sept — Student Prayer Group + Community Meal
⛪ 27 Sept — Student Welcome Mass + Breakfast

Whether you’re Catholic, another faith, or simply curious, you are very welcome!

📍 Find us at the Upper Room Student Space, next door to St Mary’s Church, in the centre of Sunderland.

👉 Swipe through for all the details and save the dates!

We can’t wait to welcome you! 🫶

StudentLife WelcomeToSunderland

🧠 FRESHERS’ QUIZ

Get your thinking caps on and join us for a fun evening of quizzing, laughs and getting to know new people!

Hosted by the Interfaith Chaplaincy, this is a great chance to meet students from across the university.

📅 Thursday 17 September
⏰ 7pm
📍 City Space, SR1 3SD

Bring your friends — or come along and make some!

🎬 CHAPLAINCY TUESDAY: FILM NIGHT

Fancy a film, some food and a chance to relax? 🍿

Join us in The Upper Room for an evening together with food, a film and good company.

📅 Tuesday 22 September
⏰ 5pm
📍 The Upper Room, SR1 1TQ

Come along, get comfy and make yourself at home! 🫶

🙏 STUDENT PRAYER GROUP

Take a break from university life and join us for our first Student Prayer Group.

A chance to pray, reflect and connect with God, followed by a meal together. ❤️

📅 Thursday 24 September
⏰ 5pm
📍 Mercy Chapel, St Mary’s

Prayer + community + food = the perfect Thursday!

⛪ STUDENT WELCOME MASS & BREAKFAST

Come and celebrate Mass with us and discover your new Catholic Chaplaincy community!

After Mass, join us for a free breakfast and a chance to see The Upper Room — our student space at St Mary’s. 🥐☕

📅 Sunday 27 September
⏰ 10:30am
📍 St Mary’s Church

Start your university journey with us! 💙

10/07/2026

24/06/2026

Throw back to our Chaplaincy retreat earlier this month. We stayed in Wooler and travelled to Holy Island to walk the causeway, reflecting on our theme of pilgrimage. We spent lots of time in nature and loved praying, journeying and learning as a community - more photos to follow!

Huge thanks to for this awesome video he put together 🫶

09/06/2026

The Chaplaincy will be closed for the next few weeks due to staff holiday and summer festival volunteering.

Keep an eye out from 22nd June for updates from our students who are helping out at the festival - we can't wait! 🎪

18/05/2026

18/05/2026

This year's Chaplaincy retreat is fast approaching. Open to students at the University of Sunderland, join us for a two night retreat in Wooler, Northumberland. Limited places so book quickly! Deposit of £10 to secure your place, bookings can be made via the 360 player app 🙂

https://app.360player.com/registration/unisunderland/6c91b4b7-22d3-4e49-a890-6e8e3f224ceb

12/05/2026

Mass times around the parish for the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord this coming Thursday🙏

20/04/2026

A week ago today, a few members of the Chaplaincy spent the evening with Frs Casey, Tito and Jason at University Catholic Chaplaincy Newcastle. The group are Franciscan Friars from the United States and were visiting to talk about their ministry and gave us tips on how to evangelise! It was a great evening, big thank you to the Diocesan Formation and Mission department for organising the event!

10/04/2026

We are looking for student volunteers to help at summer festival. It is a unique opportunity to minister to young people from all over the North East, grow in your own faith and be part of a festival community with other students and volunteers.

It is not required that you work the full two weeks, we can work around your availability. Contact Rebecca to find out more 😊

Get in touch ASAP as all volunteers need a valid DBS in order to participate and the quicker we send off the forms, the quicker the DBS will be processed!

10/04/2026

A week ago today, on Good Friday, students from the Chaplaincy brought the people of Sunderland back in time through a powerful reenactment of Jesus’ journey to Calvary.

It was a solemn yet beautiful occasion, as the community came together to reflect, remember, and begin the Easter holidays.

A heartfelt thank you to parishioners from Our Lady of Mercy Parish who formed our cross and stewards teams, students from St Aidan’s and St Anthony’s, our choir, the sound engineers who set everything up, the many photographers who captured the event, and - last but certainly not least - our students for their moving and meaningful reenactment ✝️🙏