Ebbsfleet Lay Congress 2017
Coventry Cathedral
Eight people including Fr Peter set off on Saturday 2nd September for Coventry Cathedral. We joined about 500 other people lay and clergy from traditional Anglo-Catholic parishes in the Ebbsfleet province.
Mass was celebrated by Bishop Jonathan in the Cathedral nave and this was followed by a talk from Bishop Philip North who as usual was an inspiring speaker.
We then split into groups for a short period of discussion. This gave opportunity to meet people from other parishes. The parishes varied from the rural to inner city and lots in between. We were asked to consider two questions during our discussions. Firstly ‘what have been the main changes seen in our country during the course of our lifetimes. Have these made it easier or harder to be a Christian? ‘
The second question was ‘if you were designing a community of missionary disciples from scratch, what would it look like? How would it be different from churches we know today?’
It was good to meet other people and listen to how traditional Anglo-Catholics cope in different situations.
The discussions were followed by a picnic lunch in the nave.
The afternoon began with a talk from Fr Damian Feeney and was followed by a question and answer session with Fr Damian and Bishop Philip (quite a double act!). Overall the day felt like a commissioning service and we were all asked to go out and beyond the walls of our churches and be missionaries with our families as well as communities.
The day ended with a short service of prayer and dismissal.
We would encourage anyone to attend next year.
For more pictures from the congress click here
Dilwen and Rosemary