Quick Update From Stonyhurst...

Fr. Chris Findlay-Wilson emailed a brief report of the goings-on at the Faith Winter Conference. It felt really odd not being in the thick of things, but that's the way things go. I shall, however, pass on Fr. Chris' thoughts... (because I have a blog, and he doesn't, and it would be a shame for such a nice email to go to waste... )

He wrote:

Another extraordinary three days of great grace.

There were around 206 people not including all the day visitors: 31 priests, 2 deacons and 13 seminarians. But this year we ALSO had two bishops who celebrated Mass for us: newly ordained Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury and also Bishop Philip Tartaglia of Paisley diocese!

The excellent talks were all on prayer, building from our faith vision of God's plan for us as spiritual creatures, through the meaning of the Mass and the methods of prayer to Our Lady's role.

The conference ran extremely smoothly thanks to the efficiency and generosity of the organising team.

Finally, this morning we were able to congratulate Dan Cooper on his 70th birthday...

I would like to add my own congratulations to Sir Dan of the Nesbitry... ad multos annos! I find it hard to believe that he has reached his three score years and ten, and I can only pray that he gets allocated a few more years! Faith conferences just wouldn't be the same without Sir Dan to bully everyone into buying pamphlets, books DVDs and magazines... all of which are available through the website... The photo, by the way, was from the Towards Advent event at Westminster Cathedral Hall this November (Sir Dan is the one on the right...)

Two bishops has got to be a record. I really look forward to hearing the talks when they're published as MP3 files...