Catholic Peoples Weeks celebrates 75 Years….. virtually

Conversations to plan for the 75th anniversary of Catholic Peoples' Weeks began more than five years ago, but the thwarting of plans because of Covid-19 restrictions prompted a virtual week. ''I am sorry not to have seen you all in person, of course, but there have been so many unforeseen blessings experienced this week, as we all worked way beyond our comfort zones'', reflected Chair Anne Dixon at the conclusion; ''the old familiar ways were gone and we had to re-think what it meant for us to have a meaningful gathering in a virtual setting.'' Participant Sam Corcoran reflects on the positive experience of more than 150 participants of all ages.

Catholic Peoples' Weeks (CPW) were due to meet in Kintbury and Oxford in August 2020 for two week-long events leading up to a special 75th anniversary celebration in Kintbury on 15 August, the very day CPW was formed 75 years ago. When both events had to be cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions, the undeterred CPW team got together to stage the first ever online CPW, using Zoom.

Traditions were maintained on the first evening of the week with the first ever night 'cheese and wine' event held over Zoom. But the limitations of Zoom were exposed when Anne Dixon kindly offered everyone the first drink free on the house.

Features of Zoom were well used during the week, with breakout rooms for small groups to discuss a talk and then being brought back (on time!) into the main group. The ability to mute people also came in useful during the marking of the quiz - the quizmaster's ruling was final! There were occasional problems with people's connections dropping or their batteries running out, but these were well covered by someone else taking over or moving into breakout groups while the technical problems were fixed. Thanks to Mike Wilcox, Liz Dingle and Rebekah O'Keefe for their patient and calm IT support.

A 75 Gifts fundraising challenge was accepted!

Challenges were set throughout the week, including setting a different colour of the rainbow for clothing on each day of the week and doing something 75 times. Some imaginative responses included smiling at 75 people, playing 75 scales on the violin, picking up 75 pieces of litter. The young people had positive reflections on their 75 CPW Blessings.

The basic format of each day was very similar to an in-person CPW with morning prayers, talks during the day, grace before meals (including a very entertaining video grace from the Cook family) and evening prayer. The children and young people had their own activities, ably led by the helper team, including making a rainbow T-shirt, listening to bedtime stories read by the helpers and discussing how they could persuade the adults to take action on climate change. The music was good, with the downside that to avoid sound interference only one family at a time could perform the music with everyone else being muted - but the upside that when you were muted you could sing as loud and as flat as you liked with nobody else hearing you.

A very active WhatsApp group helped us through the week, enabling us to reminisce over old CPW photos, swap jokes and profound thoughts, as well as contacting other participants when planning liturgies.

The talks covered a wide set of speakers including Diarmuid O'Murchu (People's Theology for the 21st Century), Derek Reeve, Henrietta Cullinan, John Paul de Quay (Ecological Conversion Group) and Melanie Nazareth (Christian Climate Action). David Wells was the keynote speaker for the 75th Anniversary day of celebration.

Dr Ally Kateusz spoke on art in the early church showing church congregations with women on the right and men on the left, right up to the altar. Jean Paul de Quay of Journey to 2030 spoke on environmental action.

Keynote speaker David Wells on the final day addressed joy and the teaching of Pope Francis. He spoke very entertainingly on the teaching of Pope Francis and warned CPW of the danger of being robbed of our joy when taking on the big issues - "Do not be robbed of your enthusiasm." Pope Francis frequently talks about 'the thief in the night' and warns of empty rhetoric, objectives more ideal than real (Evangelii Gaudium 231). There were three celebratory liturgies on the day of celebration taking the following themes:

REFLECT about people, places and events in CPW's first 75 years;

REJOICE in which we celebrated CPW today and prayed for each other in the tasks ahead;

RETHINK prepared and presented by the teens, who challenged us to take individual and collective action to tackle the climate emergency.

So, how did this compare with a regular CPW when we are all in the same building? Well, we missed the chats over the washing-up, being able to attend Mass and being together with a wonderful group of people. But by meeting online we were able to connect with each other in a different way. We prayed together, bounced ideas about, laughed a lot and felt energised for the tasks ahead.

The week ended with a joyous concert, with marvellous sharing songs, jokes, stories and music, followed by a peaceful time of night prayer as we said reluctant farewells after a wonderful, challenging, joyful week.

The theme of the final day was 'This is the Day that the Lord has made - Rejoice'

David Wells encapsulated this theme saying:

"First cheer up

Second tell your face"

Happy 75th Birthday CPW!

See more reports, speaker feedback and blogs at: https://catholicpeoplesweeks.org/blog

Video Message of Cardinal Vincent Nichols: https://we.tl/t-h3hOyU5eR2