Joyfully...

...to the annual FAITH Movement Summer Session, held at Woldingham School in Surrey. Packed with young people, it was also an opportunity to reconnect with various friends who, like me, had come along for this Wednesday afternoon and evening - traditionally the Guest Night. An excellent talk by guest speaker James Macmillan, Catholic composer, whose latest work is a Mass which wil be sung when the Holy Father comes to Birmingham to beatify John Henry Newman. Drawing on inspiration from John Paul II's Letter to Artists,, Macmillan spoke about the beauty,structure and sense of order and meaning which music imparts, and how music has an intrisic link with faith, with religion...

Our family has a longstanding link with the FAITH Movement, and it was fun to be at this Summer Session with some young relatives...including a four-year-old who loved the beautiful gardens and grounds - a rabbit lolloped agreeably through the woods as we approached, there was a great fat fish in a pond, and the sun shone on wide lawns newly freshened with rain. A happy afternoon.

Evening prayer in the chapel, and memories of so many Summer Sessions down the years. We sang "The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended...", the voices rising up in the evening air.

An excellent and at times hilarious concert, a packed room applauding each performer with much clapping and stamping. Then a walk down the lane to the station, the stars very large and bright above us, and a train ride to Clapham Junction and so home on my bike, very late, and contented.