Report on CPW 80 Anniversary Weekend 2025

Around 50 CPW members gathered at the Carmelite Priory outside Oxford to celebrate CPW’s 80th anniversary. On the Friday evening we had a beautiful service where we named former members who are no longer with us and lit candles which we placed round the CPW icon. The reading of names was interspersed with the Taize chant `Jesus Remember Me’ and the atmosphere was very gentle and loving.

On Saturday morning Mike Monaghan gave a fascinating talk interweaving CPW’s history with his own family’s not-always-positive involvement – and then Gabriela Todd lead a circle-time of memory sharing. A highlight was Mary Mather’s recollections of coming as a child and the joy of skating up and down highly-polished boarding room corridors in stockinged-feet – and the early child-care which seemed to involve nothing more organised than long trips to feed the ducks!

We want to collect these memories for our website - email Luke Todd if you have any to share.

John Bell of the Iona Community was our keynote speaker – he was with us from the Friday evening and seemed to really get the uniqueness of CPW and the community-building that goes on at our events.

His talk was entitled `At Odds with the Culture of Contentment’. While not dismissing contentment, he warned of how it can lead us to look towards the past in a way that romanticises it and ignores some of its shortcomings.

The talk was interspersed with short songs or hymns – a novel approach that was refreshing and helped build a sense of hope while delivering a sometimes difficult message. He talked of young people and their worries for the future – including some he had met who have decided not to have children because the world is not a safe place for them.

He challenged those present to persuade young people to believe that hope is possible and that they can find a way to tackle the world’s problems, that we have faith in them. Hope is not wishful. As he memorably put it: `Unlike optimism, hope is a verb’.

Listen to an audio recording of John’s talk here.

We had a concert on the Saturday evening with lots of musical and spoken contributions – as always we proved ourselves a talented group. Luke Todd was our compere – he had promised sparkles and he didn’t disappoint.

On the Sunday morning we split into small groups and looked at the challenges CPW is facing and what we might do.

Among our thoughts – the name Catholic People’s Weeks can be off-putting. While there was wasn’t a strong feeling that we should change it people did feel we need more explanation (a strapline?) immediately underneath – that we’re catholic in the universal sense and welcome all people. At our summer week in Thornbridge last year we adopted this statement: Whether you are young or old, married, single or divorced, whatever your race, gender or sexuality, you are welcome at CPW. So perhaps we need to put something like this on our website and any leaflets etc.

There was the usual discussion about young adults who, once they stop being helpers, are usually absent from our weeks. Many of us have young adult children who are still very involved in Christian churches – but just not the catholic one. And for many, CPW has played a big role in nurturing that Christian faith.

We considered whether we could run cheaper weeks – perhaps a camping one – and whether it’s possible to run a family week that recreates the dormitory experience for children.

We discussed producing a printed newsletter once a year and Mari Girling has volunteered to take this on. Thank you Mari.

Thank you to all who came – as always, the conversations over meals, cups of coffee and glasses of wine added enormously to the event. And a huge thank you to the organisers – in particular Anna Gibson and Vin Allerton – and to Rosie Heenan and Breideen Murtagh who, along with Anna, helped get the centre ready for our weekend.

~ Brid.