_________________________________________________________________
2005
SouthWest
Conference 2005 at Brunel Manor, Torquay
‘Proclaim to the
Peoples the message I have given you’
Approximately
80 people attended the SouthWest Conference 2005 which was
held at Brunel Manor, a Christian conference centre
situated on the outskirts of Torquay, Devon. The conference
entitled ‘Proclaim to the peoples the message I have given
you’
Jonah 3,
commenced on evening of Friday 30th
April and concluded at lunchtime on Monday 2nd May 2005.
Speakers
included David Wells on Friday evening, Fr Pat Collins, who
gave three
talks on aspects of evangelisation and led a healing
service on Saturday and Sunday. Geoff and Gina Poulter from
the Catholic Bible School ran a series of workshops over
the weekend whilst Steve Murray provided a mime/drama
aspect to the conference and also ran two mime related
workshops.
An
unusual activity for participants to sample was a
‘meditative drumming’ workshop run by Hy Cobb and Jacky.
The original workshop on Saturday stimulated so much
interest that an additional session was arranged for Sunday
to ensure that everyone had an opportunity to participate.
On Sunday evening a number of the ‘drummers’ demonstrated
their newly acquired skills during part of the Praise and
Worship session.
The
conference was also blessed by a visit from Bishop
Christopher Budd who celebrated the Sunday Conference Mass
and enjoyed a brief drumming tutorial before joining
participants for lunch. Bishop Christopher expressed
his thanks to all those involved in renewal who served the
Church and diocese in a wide range of ministries.
On Sunday evening after a party style buffet meal there was
a time of ‘Listening to God’ during which participants were
invited to record words of prophecy and/or respond with a
brief written prayer to particular things that had spoken
to them during the weekend. At the end of the evening these
were collected and prayed over by the DST and were
integrated into a time of reflection, sharing and testimony
on Monday. This proved to be a very powerful and uplifting
time for the whole conference and was followed by a very
heartfelt homily, full of humility and openness, by Fr
Trevor Jordan during the celebration of the final Mass.
Many new friendships were made and existing ones renewed
during the weekend, and participants left like Jonah,
resolved to respond more positively the call to evangelise.
Tapes and CD’s of all the conference talks are available
through Agape Ministries.
2006 2003
