And I'm Back Home...

The Symposium was really great, and I'm extremely glad I went. Now, however, reality is setting in: I ache all over from the rather steep slopes (well, steep for someone with a dodgy ankle and two wrecked knees!) as well as suffering from the cold, damp weather. When the abbey wasn't shrouded in mist and fog, it was obscured by sheet rain. To add insult to injury, glorious sunshine made an appearance just as we were all preparing to leave...

I did succeed in obtaining photographic evidence that the sun does actually shine in Yorkshire...

The return of the abbey to its term-time routine meant that many of the activities were relocated or rescheduled - though, as I haven't managed to get to the symposium regularly, I wasn't affected by the change in arrangements. We had a holy hour in the evenings in the chapel in Alban Roe House as a result of these changes, and I got to see an altar by Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson - his work is, apparently, famous... or maybe famouse might be a better description...

I gather that all his work had a little mouse incorporated into the design somewhere... I should have been focussing on Our Lord, but I'm afraid that the little mouse caught my eye... Photoshop has allowed me to get a close-up, but it isn't a very good one...

I didn't manage to get many photos. There is a limit to the number of photos one can take of people attending a lecture. I'd have loved to walk round and take more photos of the abbey, but there just wasn't time - the afternoon break (which would have been the best time for me to go looking for photo opportunities) was spent updating my blog and checking my emails.

 I did manage to get a few photos of the speakers. Fr. Stephen Boyle gave an excellent overview of John Paul II's Theology of the Body - I mentioned in a previous post that he's Fr. John Boyle's brother... Fr. John's presence at the symposium was sorely missed. Fr. Stephen was responsible for introducing me to the Faith Movement when I was a parishioner in Camberwell, and he was the Assistant Priest. It was a bit of a shock to realise that this was more than 16 years ago! Tempus fugit and all that...

Fr. David Barrett gave two talks, on different aspects of the writings of St. Hilary - I understand that this is the subject of Fr. David's doctoral thesis, which should be finished some time in the summer.

Fr. David Standen (standing in the centre of the photo) was responsible for the organisation of the symposium, which ran like clockwork... Having organised quite a few retreats in the past, I recognise that such smooth running is due to a great deal of hard work behind the scenes, and he managed it all with patience and good humour... In this photo he's introducing Fr. Dylan James (to the right), who spoke on the meaning of sex and the difference between contraception and natural family planning.

Fr. Hugh MacKenzie (seen in the foreground on the right of the photo) and Fr. Stephen Dingley both eluded my photographic endeavours - Fr. Hugh because his was the first talk, and it hadn't occurred to me that getting photos of all the speakers might be a good idea, and Fr. Stephen because his was the last talk, and I'd packed my camera away, thinking I already had a photo of him...

Oh well. I shall try to put that right in the summer...