...organises various events through the summer. The Summer Session for young people (18-35) took place this week.I attended this gathering over 40 years ago, and have returned as an occasional visitor over the years. This time I led a workshop on Britain's heritage of Christian feasts and seasons, customs and traditions. A good response and a most enjoyable and satisfying morning.
It was great to meet good friends - the FAITH priests were present in large numbers and the Session is a great gathering filled with news and talk in a relaxed atmosphere. A glorious sung Mass, and the day concluded with Compline...I had to leave immediately afterwards, missing the quiz and social time which followed. Walking down the lane towards the station, through the lovely Woldingham valley on this cool summer evening, with the Salve Regina still ringing in my ears, my memories went back to similar golden evenings in the 1970s, with that same ancient prayer chanted in that same way in a full chapel...and now the children and even grandchildren of those who sang it back in the '70s are singing it...
In those early days the Summer Session was held at Roehampton, and things moved to Woldingham some years ago. It's a fabulous setting, and offers beautiful grounds and even a swimming pool. Numbers rose year on year, but have evened off now. The number of priests continues to rise The Britain into which today's young Faith Movement members have grown up is different in so many ways from that of the '70s - we did envisage nastier and nastier attacks on marriage and the further promotion of abortion etc, but we did not envisage some of the social changes: the huge growth of the "me" culture or the easy availability of things which to us seemed special treats or luxuries (eg holidays in exotic destinations, a vast range of restaurants even in ordinary suburbs), and of course the dominance of mobile phones and the whole "social media" obsessive lifestyle...new challenges, new opportunities for evangelisation...
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