Chair's August Blog: How Many People Does it Take to Make a CPW Virtual Week?
How Many People does it take to make a CPW virtual week?
by Anne Dixon
As the last sounds of appreciation for the concert piece died away and we began to prepare for our final night prayer, one young girl turned to her mother and said, “Where are the Thank You’s?” When I heard this story I knew we needed to act. We did thank everyone, of course, and received appreciative emails from many of you, but for one young person this just wasn’t enough. Her expectation was that we would behave as if we were on a live CPW, where the last night is marked by much noise, laughter, applause, hugs and the exchange of appreciation for the work completed. So I’d like you to imagine we are all gathered in the lounge/hall of Malvern, Penmaenmawr, Kintbury or Hyning. We are all in high spirits. The week is ending, tomorrow we go home. I just have a few thank you’s to say…
Firstly, I would like to thank our speakers, who stayed with us, gave generously of their time and allowed themselves to be interrogated. They provided us with food for thought, challenge, purpose and direction. We are still discussing their input weeks later - Diarmuid O’Murchu, Ally Kateusz, Derek Reeve, Chenai Gondo (not her real name), Henrietta Cullinan, John Paul De Quay, Melanie Nazareth and David Wells. Thank you.
The speakers would not be with us were it not for the careful planning of our two summer week Chairs and their organisers - Sue Williamson, Teresa and Frank Monteiro, Helen Floyd and Mary Ring - thank you for their generosity in sharing their speakers' contacts and being available to introduce them. It was good to have you all with us.
Our sessions were not the only ones, a parallel week was continuing with the children and young people, ably managed, presented and invented by our wonderful team of helpers Tom O’Keeffe, Lorna Fitzpatrick, Jesil Levine-Boateng, Esther O’Keeffe, Nora Divver, Claire Levesley, Rachel Sweetman and James Teague. Guys, you were amazing - thank you
As we know a CPW is more than the sessions and from the very beginning our prayers and Liturgies enriched our work together allowing us never to lose sight of our shared belief in a wondrous Creator God who loves us beyond our imagination. So many people were involved that I may not be completely comprehensive here, but here goes;
Thank you to Bill Phillips for presenting and coordinating our early morning prayers. What a pleasure it was to see you and Helen Corcoran, Cathy Scott, Gill and Dave Meyer, Sue Williamson, Mary Huckfield, Gemma Stockford and Colin Close. You began our days with a quiet joy and reverence which centred us for whatever was to follow. Thank you for your creativity and alertness so early in the day. What a blessing you were.
Our evening prayers were equally essential, they reflected the concerns raised in the day, or by the day and brought us back to remember that God is always listening to us, however impossible the task. Thank you to Rebekah O’Keeffe, Mary Huckfield, Cathy Scott, Sue Williamson, Gill and David Meyer, Malcolm and Josie Green, Helen Floyd and Ann Payton. You held us and guided us when we needed time to reflect. You were pure gift to us all.
And the night prayer - “we’ll just see what people bring” Rebekah said. Would it work? Would there be anyone there? And you came, and you brought what you had on your bookshelf, in your bag or on your heart. Thank you to Rob Cook, Rita and Mick McManus, Christina Mottram, Rebekah O’Keeffe, Barbara Wilson, Teresa Saunders, Gemma Stockford, Colin Close, Sue Williamson, Cathy Scott and Bill Phillips. You brought us in to land each night, quieted our spirits and sent us off to rest. Your gentle ministry graced each day’s ending.
And speaking of Grace - what about those wonderful films of grace before meals provided by the Huckfield Family, Pointon Family, Dunlop Family, Cook Family, Van den Bergh family, ‘Culleacham’ family, Rita McManus, and Colin and Gemma? Thank you for reminding us of our good fortune, steering our thanks in the right direction and bringing a smile to our faces - you were super(man)!
In addition to our daily prayers we also celebrated several major liturgies during the week, the first of which was held on Sunday. The inclusion of 14 families in the liturgical ministry by our liturgist Rebekah was ambitious, inclusive and, in the words of our Tech wizard Mike, ‘challenging’, so thank you, for your patience and commitment, to Chris Dingle and all the Dingles, the Corcoran Family, Olive and Dave Yates, Malcolm and Josie Green, Gabriela and Seraphina ‘Culleacham’, Mike Wanless, Vin Allerton, Lala Winkley, Joy Wanless (Director) with lead roles played by James and George Jeffries and Chloe Mottram, Frank and Teresa Monteiro, Sue Williamson, the Cook family, the Huckfield Family and the Dunlop family. You gathered us around the table and formed us as community. Thank you for your faith in us as CPW and for making us present to one another.
Also made present were our past members who had ‘gone before us’ in the Memorial Prayer on Wednesday evening and the ‘Reflect’ liturgy on the Day of Celebration. Thank you to Rebekah O’Keeffe, Ted Monks, Ann Payton and Vin, Sue and Lizzy Allerton who worked so hard, with such beautiful results to ensure that all were remembered. The music, the reflections and the images wove an ongoing story around us and brought forward our own Communion of Saints. We could almost hear them cheering us on. Thank you for your loyal and loving remembrance.
We were back in the able hands of the Corcoran family for our ‘Rejoice’ liturgy which also celebrated the Feast of the Assumption, assisted by Rob and Harry Cook, Lala Winkley, Tom O’Keeffe, Louise Cook, Tim Redmond, Cathy Scott, Lizzy Allerton and Bill Phillips and Rebekah. It was beautifully crafted and utterly joyous. Thank you all for raising our hearts and our spirits to God in thanksgiving for all CPW has meant to us. We did indeed ‘go out with joy’ as we sang our way to lunch.
It was left to the young people to take the celebration forward and remind us that there is still much work to be done. The ‘Re-think’ liturgy presented by Rosie and Grace Huckfield, Mary and Clare Corcoran, Kitty and Grace Russell and Leo Cook rescued us from comfortable complacency and reminded us of the Ecological Crisis that is looming for us all. Thank you - we are listening.
In fact, ‘listening’ is our primary activity on a virtual CPW. Listening to the speakers, listening to each other, listening to the music (please don’t unmute!), but it wasn’t all serious, we had fun too, in the BYO Cheese and Wine Party (thank you for the conversations), the Poems and Pints (thank you for the poems, if not the pints), the Pictionary (thank you helpers) and the Quiz, cooly hosted by Brid Fitzpatrick with rounds supplied by Brid, Helen Corcoran (the Saints round), Mary Huckfield (the Children’s round) and Carmel and Dan Scanlon (who could forget those hilarious film titles?) Thank you all so much for the fun, laughter, frustration and brain teasing. You reinforced and strengthened our community with ties of friendship - the best prize possible.
The most ambitious evening entertainment of all, the Last Night Concert, approached. Who would be brave enough to step into the compere’s shoes? Enter Luke Todd, resplendent with pink bow tie and red cowboy hat introducing his star-studded cast: The Cooks (Leo & Harry), Rosie Huckfield, Josie Green, Rosie Russell (Grace, Kitty and John Joe), Helen & Mary Corcoran, Gemma Stockford, Mike & Rita McManus, Bill Phillips, Catherine Scott, Frank Monteiro, Ann Payton, Gill Meyer, Christine Cusack, James Teague, Nick Huckfield, Vin Allerton, Tim Redmond, and David Mottram. You were all simply wonderful. Thank you to Luke for holding us all together superbly despite late entrants and absent acts. You provided us with a masterclass in calmness and good-humour. And thank you to all the performers for providing a fitting finale to our entertainment programme. It’s not easy performing to a screen-full of muted faces, but you pulled it off with style. Thank you. And so, we come full circle back to Bill’s beautiful final Night Prayer and our last goodbyes. How difficult it was to close my laptop down after seeing all your smiling faces.
It wasn’t the end of course, the writers of reports then got to work and the fruit of their efforts is now on the website and linked to this month’s e-bulletin. Our report writers are Sam Corcoran, Christine Cusack, Bill Phillips, Mary Ring, Cathy Scott, Mike Monaghan, Rosie Huckfield, Catherine Pointon and Nicholas Postlethwaite. Thank you to all of you for agreeing to capture the message of each speaker, or a sense of the whole. You have provided us with a valuable aide memoire for the months to come.
My final thanks are reserved for a group of people for whom the task continues still, the team without whom the Virtual CPW week 2020 might well have ended on the cutting room floor way back in June: Mike Willcox, Rebekah O’Keeffe, Liz Dingle, Tim Redmond and Sarah Dixon, you kept your courage when tempted to give up, you prayed together, placing your trust not only in one another but primarily in the source of all our strength, our Creator, creative God. Thank you all.
So, how many people does it take to make a virtual CPW week? A Host? A Communion? A Multitude! It takes all of us.
Thank you CPW for being there.