CPW Virtual Summer Week in Review - Day 1 | Chair's Opening Address
CPW Virtual Week – Opening Address
By Anne Dixon
Hello Everyone. As the current chair of CPW I have the privilege and pleasure of welcoming you all to our first online Catholic People’s Week, celebrated in our 75th Anniversary year. I’d also like to make a special welcome to all those joining CPW for the first time. We are so pleased to see you all. Pleased, excited and just a teeny bit apprehensive.
In a moment, I’m going to introduce you to our team for the week, but first I’d like to offer a few thoughts on where we thought we might be, what’s going to happen over the next seven days, and where we might be right now.
Let’s start with where we might be - this time last year two gifted and creative people agreed to chair separate CPW weeks, focussing on the theme of Prophesy, at Boar’s Hill and Kintbury. I would like to acknowledge straight away the generosity of those Chairs - Sue Williamson and Helen Floyd - because it is the fruit of their planning which we will be benefitting from over the course of this week.
Sue’s theme - ‘A People’s Theology for the 21st century’ focussed on the work and writing of Diarmuid O’Murchu. I am sure you will be hearing more from her tomorrow as she introduces Diarmuid’s input.
Helen’s Theme - ‘Wake up and preserve what remains…’ focussed on the prophetic voices available to us now, the urgency of the task and the opportunities for us as Church.
The two weeks were to come together in a final Day of Celebration to mark our 75th Anniversary to the day! Our theme was a thanksgiving for the wonder of Creation entitled “This is the Day…
I’m not going to say it’s been a funny year - we know that! I’m not going to speak about challenges - we’ve all had those and I’m sure we’ll be sharing a few stories this week.
When it became unavoidably obvious that we could no longer gather as a live community we began to explore the possibility of an online event and discovered that the three planned events had threads running through them, often inspired by Pope Francis Laudato Si, which could be woven into a cohesive whole - beginning with Diarmuid and moving into the complementary and focussed voices of Derek, Henrietta, Melanie and John Paul, before being led into rejoicing with David Wells. It is an extraordinarily rich programme and we hope you will be able to access as much of it as suits your needs and interests (I don’t want to miss anything!)
We are also hoping that the children and young people will enjoy, participate and enhance the week with their prayers photos and paintings - just like on the real thing. We’ve got a great team of helpers to make sure that happens.
So where are we right now? In our homes, in our gardens, on the beach, in a campsite, wherever the wonder that is the internet allows us to be connected - we are together.
Look at the faces on your screen. We are a wondrous bunch. And we’ve been coming together in faith, to seek understanding for 75 years. Imagine that! Right here, right now, we are CPW. This is the day the Lord has made We will rejoice and be glad. And we have so much to rejoice about, not least our Faith in a God who loves and cares for us so much more than we can hope or imagine.
So, over the next seven days let’s reflect that faith love and care, for one another and even perhaps through our 75 gifts appeal. CPW has a long tradition of concern for the needs of the developing world. our activities have been impacted by the onset of the Covid-19 virus. How much worse it would be if our resources were reduced. £75 + gift aid will pay for a hand-washing station in a poor community. This is their day too, let’s help them rejoice.
I wish you all a wonderful week - Hopefully 7 days from now we will wiser, better resourced, with smooth hands from applause and aching sides from shared laughter. Enjoy yourselves
This is the day the Lord has made… let us rejoice and be glad (Psalm 118:24).
Attendees dial in for Day 1 of the CPW virtual week - welcome and getting to know each other.
