Thank you so much!

Celebrate Family ConferenceDear friends

A huge thank you to every one of you who made the Heart of England Celebrate such a blessed and wonderful weekend.

We were full to the brim with over 430 delegates!

Particular thanks goes out to Princethorpe College for hosting our event and especially to all our speakers, musicians, stream leaders, stewards and team for their input and hard work. Special thanks to Malachi Theatre Services for managing our sound and transforming an echoey sports hall into a colourful and dynamic auditorium!

Please have a look at the wonderful photos on the left hand side of this page. To enlarge, just click or select.

Barry and Lynn
and the Celebrate Midlands core team

The weekend was held at:

Princethorpe CollegePrincethorpe College, a former Benedictine monastery, is set in 200 acres of beautiful parkland and provided a stunning location for our weekend.

Rollover to see aerial photo

What the Cardinal said

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor

“Since 1994, the annual Celebrate Family Conference, which I visited in 2003, has been a great encouragement to adults, young people, and children of all ages, with its emphasis on good, practical Christian teaching, celebration, services and fun.

I am delighted that the new Celebrate Weekends will make the Celebrate experience available to many more people in the local parishes, and I join with you in praying for their success.”

Princethorpe College

OUR Speakers INCLUDED:

David Payne
Founded and directs Catholic Evangelisation Services, which began life as the Catholic Alpha Office. It rapidly evolved to become an evangelistic teaching ‘engine-room’, producing multiple, powerful CaFE “video” programmes used worldwide by parishes and communities. David is the ‘face’ of CaFE and is joined by his wife, Gio, and children, Carlotta, Giorgio and Lily.
Watch out for the NEW CaFE release—‘Believe’—a major series reflecting on the Creed.
Fr. Chris Thomas
Director of the Irenaeus Project in the Archdiocese of Liverpool promoting spirituality in an accessible way for all. Part of the Emmaus Family of Prayer and involved nationally with Catholic Charismatic Renewal, Fr. Chris used a beautiful blend of story and reflection to “open the Gospel”!
Margaret Duncan
Aberdeen-based Margaret’s shared her story of a life transformed by an unexpected experience of God over twenty years ago. Mother of five, with five grandchildren, Margaret’s dynamic ministry takes her as far afield as USA, India, Papua New Guinea and Poland, helping people really believe God loves them—‘warts and all’!—encouraging them into a relationship with God, not just ‘doing religious stuff’.
Mgr. Paul Watson
Fr Paul Watson
Director of Maryvale Institute, cofounder of Bible Alive and contributor to CaFE’s Believe series, he has an STL (Licence) in Spirituality, awarded by Rome’s Gregorian University. Augmented by his Masters Degree in Education, Mgr. Paul has built on extensive pastoral, spiritual direction and teaching experience, in advancing Maryvale’s courses in theology, religious education, philosophy, catechesis and evangelisation…
‘to serve Christ’s mandate and his Church’s mission of evangelisation in contemporary society’ – Maryvale’s mission by Arch. Vincent Nichols

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Children and young adults:

There were 5 streams for children and young people:

  • Crèche: Anita Fildes, Karen Ireson & team
  • 3 year olds: Ann King and Lyn Lawrence
  • Reception to Year 2: Helen Leroux, Jackie Biddle & team
  • Year 3–6: Jean Merriman & team
  • Years 7–13: YMT looked after the young people in this age range with 2 streams
YMT
YMT logo
Set up in 1996 by Bishop Ambrose Griffiths, of Hexham and Newcastle, YMT communicate the Gospel to young people in multiple creative ways. Regularly involved in running streams for young people at Celebrate, this year YMT offered our young people live worship, multi-media and dynamic prayer experiences.
Jean Merriman
Jean Merriman
Jean from Northampton led the 7–11 year-olds. Passionately committed to passing on her knowledge of Faith, she led children to, and nurtured a living relationship with Jesus. She has modelled, taught and led her own school in a variety of ways of prayer, since each effects a different response in different children.

All ages catered for

Young adults during Celebrate 2006

Others ministries WHO supportED the weekend:

Boyce & Stanley (CJM)
Jo Boyce and Mike Stanley
Established in 1996 and headed by Jo Boyce and Mike Stanley, CJM Music has gone from strength to strength, and is at the forefront of contemporary liturgical music.
They recently sent Pope Benedict their Age to Age album on a personalised iPod!
Eamonn and Dominic
Eamonn Pugh and Dominic Watts
A combination of Eamonn Pugh, Thomas Pugh, David Wood, Dominic Watts, Chris Power, Mike and Gill Walsh led us in praise and worship throughout the weekend. Thank you so much!
Good News Books & Audio
Good News Books & Audio

Visit the Good News website.

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Heart of England Seminars
Exploring God’s Love:

Experiencing God’s love for yourself

Fr. David Keniry offered an introduction to Life in the Spirit and how to find deeper life in the love of God. Fr. David, gifted Parish Priest and Pastor to many, is the Director of the Ark of the Covenant Diocesan Centre for Evangelisation and Prayer, in Potters Green, North Coventry.

Bringing your Parish Community alive in God’s love

Fr. Jonathan Cotton and Nichola Hurley explored ways of enabling parish communities to have a greater experience of God’s love, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Fr. Jonathan Cotton, former Director of the Pilgrims Community from Nottingham Diocese, is highly experienced in Parish Mission and is currently developing ways to share this experience with the wider Church.

Nichola Hurley is Director of Maryvale’s Evangelisation & Ministry Course and also Birmingham Archdiocese’s Co-ordinator for Evangelisation.

Showing our secular society God’s love

Dr Dudley Plunkett, Senior Academic Tutor for Maryvale Institute, explored ways in which we can become agents of the love of God in the world around us and help to re-awaken faith in society. The seminar was based on his book Saving Secular Culture.

The Cross and the Glory

A time of ‘Refreshing in the Spirit’ led by Pat and Ray Briskham, highly experienced prayer and healing ministry leaders from Turvey. It was a blessed time for all.