CONFERENCE 2009 'THE GLORY OF GOD IS THE CHAPLAIN FULLY ALIVE' 22nd-24th June 2009 Loyola Hall, Rainhill (Nr Liverpool)
CONFERENCE CENTRE
This will stand out for me as the most stimulating, challenging, informative and enjoyable conferences that I have enjoyed in the last nine years!
This parting comment of one participant on the morning of the 24th was in fact repeated in essence many times as chaplains left Loyola Hall after this year's annual conference.
It had been for most who attended,a wonderful experience.
The venue, Loyola Hall near Liverpool , proved to be very popular with the vast majority, affording as it did ample space, both inside and outside, for work, reflection, prayer and social gathering. Resident staff members Stephen and Vron were excellent hosts attending to our every need.
This parting comment of one participant on the morning of the 24th was in fact repeated in essence many times as chaplains left Loyola Hall after this year's annual conference.
It had been for most who attended,a wonderful experience.
The venue, Loyola Hall near Liverpool , proved to be very popular with the vast majority, affording as it did ample space, both inside and outside, for work, reflection, prayer and social gathering. Resident staff members Stephen and Vron were excellent hosts attending to our every need.
SPEAKERS
Our speakers this year , Michael Paul Gallagher, SJ, and Professor Tina Beattie, excelled themselves in encouraging us to use our imaginations, take stock of our situations and challenging us to new horizons.
Michael Paul in his address reminded us (as did Newman) that the heart is not commonly reached through reason but through the imagination and quoting Pope Benedict in support of this he said
'The core of Christianity is a love story between God and humanity. If we could understand this in the language of today, everything else would follow.
Life styles now are very different and therefore an intellectual approach on its own is not enough. We have to offer people living spaces of communion and of travelling together.
The trouble with the modern age is not merely the inability to believe certain things about God which our forefathers believed but the inability to feel towards God and ourselves as they did.
Christianity is not a theory about what has happened.but a description of something that actually takes place in human life.
Practice gives the words their sense. Life can educate one to a belief in God. And experiences are what brings this about.'
Tina Beattie in her address concentrated in some detail on Newman's Idea of a University and how we might apply that to our Universities of today.
The belief that life is purposeful, that creation is good and that the universe is orderly, creates what one might describe as a spiral of desire. Desire is aroused by our experience of the world, and as we study and reflect on the objects of our desire we come to appreciate the goodness of God manifest in the goodness of the material world and thus our desire is once again directed outwards as an expression of love not only for the created object but for the God who created it.
We might also identify with her statement: 'The modern university doesn't seek to claim truth and goodness at all, but is rather a fragmentary and inchoate assortment of disciplines, trendy theories and sometimes fashionable causes, but with a profound resistance to discussions about meaning and a careful avoidance of the language of truth.'
Tina went on to stress ATTENTIVENESS as very important for the chaplains in their dealings with all who come their way; it is the most important task of simply being there. In all the confusion and diversity of student life the chaplain is uniquely placed to keep watch in a spirit of loving attentiveness, simply by being a presence for others. If this attentiveness is important then the chaplaincy needs to be a place where that kind of focused attentiveness is possible we live in a culture which has forgotten how to be quiet!
A very lively Panel session on the Tuesday evening dealt with many of the questions arising from both addresses.
Workshops: There were practical sessions on Media, Weeks of Prayer, Prayer and Healing, and Faith and Vocation available during the conference. These were well attended and much appreciated.
The Liturgy throughout , conducted by Sister Marie Dunne, was prayerful, simple and very appropriate, picking up different aspects of the theme on each occasion.
Michael Paul in his address reminded us (as did Newman) that the heart is not commonly reached through reason but through the imagination and quoting Pope Benedict in support of this he said
'The core of Christianity is a love story between God and humanity. If we could understand this in the language of today, everything else would follow.
Life styles now are very different and therefore an intellectual approach on its own is not enough. We have to offer people living spaces of communion and of travelling together.
The trouble with the modern age is not merely the inability to believe certain things about God which our forefathers believed but the inability to feel towards God and ourselves as they did.
Christianity is not a theory about what has happened.but a description of something that actually takes place in human life.
Practice gives the words their sense. Life can educate one to a belief in God. And experiences are what brings this about.'
Tina Beattie in her address concentrated in some detail on Newman's Idea of a University and how we might apply that to our Universities of today.
The belief that life is purposeful, that creation is good and that the universe is orderly, creates what one might describe as a spiral of desire. Desire is aroused by our experience of the world, and as we study and reflect on the objects of our desire we come to appreciate the goodness of God manifest in the goodness of the material world and thus our desire is once again directed outwards as an expression of love not only for the created object but for the God who created it.
We might also identify with her statement: 'The modern university doesn't seek to claim truth and goodness at all, but is rather a fragmentary and inchoate assortment of disciplines, trendy theories and sometimes fashionable causes, but with a profound resistance to discussions about meaning and a careful avoidance of the language of truth.'
Tina went on to stress ATTENTIVENESS as very important for the chaplains in their dealings with all who come their way; it is the most important task of simply being there. In all the confusion and diversity of student life the chaplain is uniquely placed to keep watch in a spirit of loving attentiveness, simply by being a presence for others. If this attentiveness is important then the chaplaincy needs to be a place where that kind of focused attentiveness is possible we live in a culture which has forgotten how to be quiet!
A very lively Panel session on the Tuesday evening dealt with many of the questions arising from both addresses.
Workshops: There were practical sessions on Media, Weeks of Prayer, Prayer and Healing, and Faith and Vocation available during the conference. These were well attended and much appreciated.
The Liturgy throughout , conducted by Sister Marie Dunne, was prayerful, simple and very appropriate, picking up different aspects of the theme on each occasion.
See PHOTOS link for more!