Bishop Bosco warmly invites you to join him on Saturday 19 July for our Diocesan Jubilee Celebration of Hope at Downside School & Abbey. We will have three keynote speakers for our adult programme, as well as a children’s & young people’s programme throughout the day.
Our keynote speakers are:
Jane Livesey CJ - Sister Jane is a member of the apostolic religious order known as the Congregation of Jesus. Sister Jane’s professional background was in education, and she was Headmistress of St Mary’s School Shaftesbury, in the Clifton Diocese, from 1985 to 1998. In January 2003 she began a nine-year term as Provincial Superior of the English Province of the CJ and held this role until her election as General Superior of the CJ worldwide in October 2011, a role she held until August 2022. Now back in England, any chance of a more peaceful existence has given way to taking on several part-time ministries, both within the order and externally.
Eddie Gilmore - Eddie grew up in an Irish family in Coventry and later moved to Canterbury where he was part of the L’Arche Kent community for twenty-eight years. It was at L’Arche where he met his wife Yim Soon. They have three grown up children. Eddie spent the next seven years as CEO of a wonderful London-based charity called the Irish Chaplaincy whose main areas of work are with prisoners, Travellers and seniors. Eddie is a dedicated walker, having walked the whole of the 800km of the Camino Frances in Spain and the Portuguese Coastal Camino and lays claim to having completed many other pilgrimage walks. As well as being a walker, Eddie is a writer (with several books to his name), a musician and regularly contributing to BBC Radio 2’s ‘Pause for Thought’.
Simon Uttley - Simon is a Catholic school headmaster with 20 years’ experience; full professor at the University of Notre Dame (USA) London and Visiting Professor at St Mary's University in London. Simon specialises in making difficult subjects easy - and funny - particularly philosophy, law, economics and politics. Any subjects! A commentator on life and culture, a licensed inspector of Catholic schools and an advocate for character education, he believes that children only get one chance, and that our schools are both wonderful and problematic. Born in Manchester, Simon became a Catholic aged 18. Following his first degree, he was a police officer in the West Midlands, where he learnt "more than at any other time”. He left to spend several years training to be a priest before deciding against this and turning his attention to education. A headmaster after 7 years, he remains 'firmly in the vineyard of the young', while lecturing nationally and internationally on education.
Children and Teen-Age Jubilee Programme - A full programme of activities will be run by experienced group leaders for our children and young people ranging in age from 3-15. More details to follow so watch out for information coming out.
Programme for the Day - Arrivals and refreshments from 10am. Our programme of prayer and talks will commence at 10.30am.
Refreshments - In addition to coffee and tea breaks, a free hot two course lunch will be provided - this will be by ticket only (a lunch box is provided for children under 11). There will be a maximum of 300 tickets for this including children.
Mass - Our Jubilee Celebration of Mass will take place in the Abbey Church at 3pm. Principal Celebrant Bishop Bosco MacDonald and the Abbot of Downside Dom Nicholas Wetz OSB.
Booking - If you would like to join us for the day, booking through Eventbrite is essential. Please register via this link: https://jubileedayofhope.eventbrite.co.uk for your free ticket. For the purpose of catering to the right numbers, a printed or mobile ticket from Eventbrite is required for the day. If you have difficulty accessing Eventbrite, please contact our office (email: adult.education@cliftondiocese.com) and we will help you with this. The closing date for tickets is 7 July.
All are most welcome; we look forward to seeing you!