Fawley Court in Oxfordshire, at a conference organised by the British section of the international charity Aid to the Church in Need. It was for ACN's team of diocesan secretaries, who visit parishes to give appeals on behalf of ACN, explain its work, encourage support for its projects, and sell items such as the rosaries made by Christians in the Holy Land, devotional books, DVDs of sacred music, etc. Excellently organised, it included a talk on the current situation of the Church in China, with news on the relationship between the underground and the "official" Church there, and the general scene as the Olympics approach...
Fawley Court is a conference/retreat centre run by Polish Marian Fathers. This morning we all attended Mass and recieved ashes for Ash Wednesday - done in the Polish fashion by sprinkling them on our heads rather than the British style which is to mark a cross with ash on the forehead. Yesterday evening we had delightful pre-Lent drinks at the home of a generous benefactor to ACN, who welcomed us to a wonderful party in her beautiful home.
Our conference was mostly in a modern building in the grounds of Fawley Court, but we used the beautiful chapel for Mass - an icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa and other Polish items mingling with the Jacobean panelling of an old English country house.
2 comments:
You missed a very super episcopal Ash Wednesday here in Leeds, with a full choir and psalms before Mass.
I keep intending to suggest that we make more of confessions on Shrove Tuesday. Somehow it always springs up on me before I've fully recovered from Christmas.
Are there any photos of the chapel - the juxtaposition sounds delightful!
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