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Worldwide Marriage Encounter

Magazine

MarriageEnc unterC mmunity

June 2015

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100 Club WinnersCongratulations to

1st   £60 Bill & Joy Reilly,

2nd £40 Tony & June Hoefkens,

3rd  £20 Peter & Maureen Bowdler.

Let us begin with the greatnews that Charles and Krysia Gola-bek (right) have generously agreedto take over the leadership of Mar-riage Encounter for the next threeyears. It doesn’t take much knowl-edge of the movement or much im-agination to realise what a huge undertaking this isand we thank them for their stalwart and generousspirit!

There have been some disappointments and achallenge over the last couple of months - two M.E.weekends (Minsteracres and Yarnfield) have had tobe cancelled, not because of low bookings but be-cause of no bookings. This is a challenge not just tothe leadership and National Board but to the wholecommunity to see if it can do its bit towards makingsure that the last two weekends of the year (16 - 18Oct at St Claret’s and 27 - 29 Nov at the Ibis, Rugby)are full. This may be as simple as putting in a parishnewsletter a paragraph about the weekend when it issent to you, or dropping a casual reference to M.E.into the conversation in those after-Mass chats.

It is great to see some different names fromcontributors in this issue - thank you to everyone whosent in letters or snippets. We are also trying to get aclearer picture of where groups are in the country,and who is looking out for some company and sup-port. Even two couples meeting is better than nothing,if there is no one else near, so please take note ofpages 12 and 13. We have more photos of regionaldays this time which is great, although I (Elizabeth)have noticed the same outfits cropping up on me inthese and weekend photos! I’ll just have to trust peo-ple have memories as poor as mine!

Love to all, and God bless,Richard and Elizabeth

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Page:

3. Meeting with Bishop Doyle

4. From the Regions

7. Formation from Europe

12. Where are you now?

13. Lonely couples

14. From the Community

16. Save the Date!

17. Anniversaries

18. Free to Live Weekend

19. Dates

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The meeting with Bishop Peter Doyle, who is the Chairof the Bishop’s Committee for Marriage & Family Life was heldApril 25 at Bishops House, Northampton.

We were delighted to be invited together with Krysia Golabek to representWorldwide Marriage Encounter at a meeting with the Bishop and many otherrepresentatives of Marriage & Family Life organisations - this being the first meetingof this kind for many years. As it was the first meeting, each organisation was givena few minutes to explain the work they do, and to share any difficulties they may beexperiencing.

Bishop Peter is very supportive of all the work being carried out to support Marriage& Family Life, especially at this time with the forthcoming Bishops Synod in October,which he will be attending along with Cardinal Vincent Nicholls.

We then had time to talk over lunch with many of the representatives fromthe other organisations. It became apparent that we were all experiencing the samesort of difficulties with shrinking numbers. It is hoped that in the future we can findways to help each other.

Bishop Peter is hoping to make this an annual event.

Phil and Rita Jackson

Meeting with Bishop Peter Doyle

Bishop Peter with Eamon and Paola Mc Morrow atthe Diocesan Marriage Mass in Corby in February

Bishop Peter with his guests

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North WestWe were delighted in being

invited by Tony & Janet Smith andtheir sharing group to once againpresent some Formation to couplesin the North West Region. This wasour third annual visit and what hasbeen encouraging is that thenumbers attending each year hasslowly been increasing.

At this gathering we had 13couples and a widow attending withcouples travelling from around theRegion who normally experience “Community” in their own cell or enrichment groups. This is theonly time in the year where the opportunity to all meet together is possible and this is what wereally want to encourage in other parts the country. So when you read of a Regional Day in yourArea make a note in your diary and do all you can to attend, we are sure you will not bedisappointed in making the effort and meeting up with both old and new faces. It will also giveyour Regional Coordinators a real boost as much work is put into preparing for these days.

The Formation we presented was on “Change” which was quite appropriate for ourselvesas we are preparing to hand over the reins as National Leadership to Charles & Krysia Golabekon the 1st September.

Along with the dialogue and sharing time there was much fun and laughter together withthe wonderful lunch prepared by the sharing group in Ottley, we left enriched by our experienceand hope you will at your next Regional Day. (See letters page for more about this!)

Phil and Rita JacksonNorth East

The north east ME community met on Sat the 18th of April to say a sad farewell to Fr. Andyand to thank him for all he has given to the NE region over many years. We love him and willmiss him dearly. Our loss is the North West’s gain and we wish him all the best overthere and are glad he will still play an active part within Marriage Encounter.”

Simon and Janice Kendal

From the Regions:

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EastA very successful regional day was had by all - ten couples, a temporarily abandoned wife,Krysia, (Charles, flying to Malawi was no excuse for not coming!) and Tony and Tanya’s sonwho quietly got on with things while boring adults did lots of talking, and who kindly took thephoto for us! Thanks to Michel and Jacky for leading the day which was focused on Communityand to Krysia for leading us in discussion of where the ME community goes from here.

WestRegional Day 2015.Arranged for Saturday 3rd October at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Rednal.Enrichment.Rubery: Every third Sunday of the month at Phil and Rita’s – 8pm startLeamington Spa: Alternate 2nd Sunday of the month at St Peter’s Leamington Spa – 2pmstart. Next L/Spa 10th May 2015. Everyone is welcome to come and join us

Stratford upon Avon Parish Church Web Site.After much time and effort we have finally managed to get a link from our parish Church website to the ME/EE web site. Deanery Meeting.We are still chipping away at out Parish Priest regarding a presentation for Marriage &Engaged Encounter at a forthcoming deanery meeting and he has promised that this willhappen in the summer sometime. Watch this space.Free To Live Weekend.This weekend will be taking place at Yarnfield Park, Stone, Staffs. ST15 0NL. Friday 30th

October- Sunday 1st November 2015Tony and Ann Cronin

anthonycronin@hotmail.com

CentralDon’t forget the regional day at Southwell 10.30 – 4.00 on 20th June at Our Lady of VictoriesChurch hall. Please let us know if you plan to come, by 1st June; we don’t want to have tocancel because of lack of numbers!

Richard and Elizabeth Pooleeandrpoole@gmail.com

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South East

Ten couples at the Regional Day at the parish of Fr John Inglis, Effingham, Surrey:

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Four Pillars of Marriage EncounterEngland & Wales

Team Weekend Community Structure Concerns = Joys =

● 2 Deeper Weekends 2013 - 8 Couples. 2014 5 couples, 1 priest.

● Team Weekend Jan 2014- experience the Refreshed Outline 21 couples, 6Priests

● Existing team couples/Priests aging

Weekend● Weekends cancelled. 1 Engaged weekend & 2 Marriage weekends

● Focus on invitation but still low numbers for Marriage Encounter weekends.

● Web-site up dated with booking system a great success.

● Engaged Encounter weekends continue to be oversubscribed.

Community● Encouraging response to regional days

● Formation received well

● Enrichment groups well attended

Formation from the European Council

Holland 5th - 8th March 2015

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● Presence weekend well attended in 2014. Free to Live scheduled 2015

Structure● Regional Co-ordinators for 6 of 7 regions

● Strong resource groups

● Developing new ways of regional leadership with a cell groups agreeing tothis responsibility in one region & shared in another.

● Obtaining new Team priests.

When we held the council in Malvern in October 2013, one of the tasks we were asked to workon was our concerns around the four pillars of Marriage Encounter. At that time our main concernwas around presenting team as they were getting older, and building our community. The newEuropean Team To & Luisa & Fr Manuel looked at each countries concerns, and decided that themost important for all was shrinking communities and so decided to spend time focusing on thisissue.

We were asked to dialogue on the following Question: Looking at the concerns of thepillar of community what worries me the most, when I think about the future of ourMarriage Encounter community?

ANDY wrote: Dear Phil & Rita

I think the sadness that I feel about our experience of the pillar of communityis the same sadness that I feel about the Church in general. We lived throughexciting times in the seventies and eighties. There seemed to be so much promiseof new life and a new form of participation through various movements in theChurch. Lots of people got involved in different ways. Movements like MarriageEncounter grew up and flourished and people were really helped to live theirChristian commitment in a practical way. But at the same time, a new ethos of materialism andsecularism affected the way young people viewed life. Old assumptions about life and relationships,family values, rules and regulations were no longer valid. Things that we once took for granted areno longer accepted by many people, like the value of marriage as a stable and secure place to findhappiness and fulfilment and the only environment in which to bring up children well; and the valueof belonging to a Church community in order to build an enduring relationship with God, which givesmeaning and purpose to our lives.

So in some ways I feel a bit out of touch and sympathy with the modern worldas a believing and practising Christian. We seem to be ageing members ofsomething that has passed its sell by date. Our priests are getting older and fewerin number and our congregations share the same profile. The same goes also forour Marriage Encounter community. This could be a real ‘pity me’ gripe session.But we have faith and we believe that we are not in this simply to make us feelgood. We have a mission from Jesus to live his gospel and proclaim his truth

whether people listen or not. We have to light a flame and keep it burning and hope that others willbe attracted and discover something of what makes us tick. So we keep going. Wekeep on believing in the message we have to proclaim about marriage andrelationships; we keep on sharing our dream and inviting others to share it.

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We support one another in what we are doing and trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to keepus going and to draw others to what we want to share with them.

So it’s important to be aware of the reality in which we live, but not to allow it to pull us down andmake us negative. We might be saddened and discouraged by the fact of diminishment but we canstill find joy and hope in working together to build something we believe in.

Lots of love to you both, Andy xxx

Phil wrote: Dear Rita & Andy,My main concern is that the established network and ways of building community has over a

period of time broken down. This I believe has been a combination of long established couples andgroups getting older, together with fewer couples attending weekends and having no programmelike bridge or community to be involved with following their weekends.

There can be a reluctance of some cells to consider inviting someone new, no matter how oftenthey may have been asked and challenged to consider it. Also for new couples the prospect ofattending an enrichment group, is somewhat a daunting prospect not knowing anyone. This is whya local couple to take them under their wing and journey with them is so important. Without thislink after our weekend I am certain we wouldn’t have become as involved as we have.

It is the community aspect which is so important and an outlet to share with other couples wishingto enrich their relationship and promote our weekends to others. So, I do have a feeling of sadnessand disappointment in seeing where we are at the moment with the pillar of community. However,I don’t see it as a lost cause as we do know many couples do still meet in cells around the countryand have done so for many years and is now a lifestyle.

Our challenge and that of the leadership who follow, is to see how best we keep these involvedwith something new and for our new couples and team the prospect of a community to be welcomedinto. Love Phil. xx

Rita wrote: Dear Phil & Andy,For me the biggest fear is around our ageing community. That goes forpresenting team and others that are in positions as resources. Understandably,no one can go on forever- and there will be a time when they physically can’t goon anymore.

I would guess all three of us can identify couples who have been stalwarts to the movement.Our challenge still is to get couples on to weekends as a first step, the next step is to invite themto become part of the ME community- join enrichment groups, cells etc. I believe every couple whoattends our weekends comes away on a high- full of the joys of spring, but that soon fades awayonce back in the real world . So it becomes vitally important that the community around themwelcomes them and nurtures them. Without this support our community will really start to shrink.

In the future months we have an opportunity to put into place some of the ideas voiced at Teamday. It’s our responsibility to lead from the front with new initiatives, with the help of our NationalBoard.

I could feel sad at the prospect of losing team & Community, but on the other hand excitedand enthused about the challenge ahead. I realise that I must be prepared to embrace changerather than shy away from it.

All my love Rita. X

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But its not all doom & gloom!

We wrote later to the following question:Looking at the joys regarding the pillar of community, which is the one that gives me

the greatest hope for the future of our Marriage Encounter community? Why? What aremy feelings?

Rita wrote:Dear Phil & Andy,

For me it’s having new Team Couples helping us to present weekends as this is the areathat needed the biggest growth. It’s a delight to see our new couples beginning to write theirtalks and at the same time be integrated into sharing and enrichment groups. Being able tooffer all couples who come off our weekends a couple to introduce them into community seemsvitally important as without a support mechanism behind them many couples will flounder.

We do have a loving community who still meet at various cells, sharing and enrichmentgroups and it’s always a boost to see new faces attending. What saddens me is that we stillhave pockets and areas in the country where we have none or very little ME community. It’smy biggest wish to have these gaps filled.

Our community is the life blood of the movement, the future, and so it goes without sayingwill have an influence in the Church in general and building up the Church as well as ourcommunity. It’s a time to all pull together and make these thingshappen.Love, Rita. Xxxx

Phil wrote: Dear Rita & Andy,

I know and believe from our own personal experience how important being part ofcommunity has been for us. Starting with local Sharing Groups, Bridge, Cells andEnrichments, what a blessing they have been. All have provided us with a means to share andto listen with others. Regional Days, Formation Weekends and Conventions have all filled mewith joy and enriched me and us for the better.

Our recent Presence Weekend was both challenging and fun, a really good mix and all whoattended I believe came away wanting more. This is my dream for this years “Free to Live”weekend but with many more couples attending. I believe that once people experience thispillar of community they will appreciate what we have been fortunate to have had in our lives.The challenge is in the invitation and for couples to take the next step to trust and book.

Team Day also when we looked at this area was extremely positive and filled me with hopefor the future with many good ideas on how we might bring couples off weekends to havesomething waiting for them should they wish to be part of community.The why? Is that this is vital for the ongoing life of the movement and recognising that couplesare missing out on this element of Marriage Encounter. I am feeling much more hopeful,determined and excited at the prospect of really trying to make my dream a reality and to useour remaining months of leadership focused on Community.

All my love, Phil. xxx

Team Weekend Community Structure

Q. Looking at the pillar of community, what worries me themost when I think about the future of our Marriage Encounter

Community?

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Andy wrote: Dear Phil and Rita,

At the EC in Malvern, we identified certain joys regarding the pillar of community. These seemto centre round the response of the community to the things we offer: regional days, enrichmentgroups, formation. For those who are involved in the community, there is a hunger for whateverwill help them deepen their relationships. So I don’t think that I can isolate one of these to say itis more important than another. Wherever there are enrichment groups, cells, regional days, ourformation has filtered down from European Council through National Board, to reach the regionaland local communities. And that makes me feel very happy and reassured that we are doingsomething that is worthwhile for the ongoing health of the community at large.

We have always known that we have a good product that works well for the couples who areable to access it, and so our focus as a National Team has been on inviting as many couples aspossible to experience the weekend. It remains a sadness that the response is so small.

Nevertheless we are having some measure of success in building our Presenting Team,developing new workshoppers and presenters of further weekends (us!). At the same time, weare looking to presenting the refreshed outline at all our weekends this year, including a pilotnon-residential weekend. We are also finding new ways in which our regions can be representedat National Board. So, in fact, we are giving attention to all four of the pillars of Marriage Encounter,and, by involving more couples at different levels, we are building the community.

All of this, then, gives me hope for the future of our movement. The signs of life may be small,but they remind us of the importance of what we are doing both for couples and for the life of theChurch. So while I am not ecstatic and jumping for joy at what we are achieving, I have a quietsense of satisfaction about all that we have managed to do. We are handing on something thatis working well and, so long as everyone keeps playing their part, it will continue to develop andwork well into the future.

Lots of love, Andy.

Q. Looking at the joys regarding the pillar of community,whichis the one that gives me the greatest hope for the future of ourMarriage Encounter community? Why? What are my feelings?

From Phil and Rita:We are looking for a French speaking couple to consider

attending a new "Seniors Weekend" aimed at the over 55’s

which is now being presented in Belgium.  They are holding

the next one the 9th-11th October 2015 in Banneux . The

movement will of course meet all the couple’s expenses.

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Where are you

now?

We are taking a census of all community

groups - (cells/sharing groups etc) and

would like to know about yours! It would

help to have a contact name and number,

and your area. Don’t just leave it to

someone else in the group - we don’t

mind hearing more than once!

Please reply to us, Elizabeth and Richard at

eandrpoole@gmail.com or to Phil and Rita at

wackojacko456@hotmail.com

See following page.......

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Are you a lone couple with no one to share with? Justoff a weekend or encountered a while with no groupwithin easy distance? Or widowed?We can’t promise miracles, but if you let your regionalcoordinator know, they will do their best! As you cansee from the previous page, we are trying to establishthe whereabouts of all groups, and if there is one nearenough to you we will try and put you in touch.

Extract from an Article by Satish Kumar, a Janist Monk now resident in Cornwalland founder of the Resergence & Ecologist Magazine:

'Love is to accept bitter with the sweet, all with the light, pain with the pleasure, allwith equanimity. The moment we bring love into play, we transform illusion intoimagination, and duality into unity.'

He also quotes  the Sufi poet, Al Jalal ad-Din Rumi

" By love, the bitter becomes sweet;  By love, copper becomes gold;

  By love, the dregs become clear;  By love, pain becomes bearable. "

Thank you to Pat and Judy Rogers for sending these in!

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The North West regional day was ahighly successful day held in Otley Parish Centre,with more than 28 people attending.    We wereprivileged to have the day led by Rita, Phil andFather Andy, and the venue was researched andthe meeting planned by members of the localSharing Group, excellent food also being providedFREE  at lunchtime by members of the same Group.                         The subject was “Change” and wasdiscussed at various levels – our own response tochange in our lives, change at Global level andchange in the Church.  One-of the participants hadstrong feelings about the need for change in theMarriage Encounter Movement, and its lack of helpand support for widows, widowers and those whofor some other reason or other had been refused theopportunity of attending a second weekend simplybecause they were now “half a couple”.                      Continuing from this discussion, it wasexplained that the local group was a mixture ofCatholics and non-Catholics.   Two of the latter wereresponsible for asking the rest of us to write lettersto those who were booked on a non-Catholic M/EWeekend.  Their magazine is called “Encounter” andwhilst the non-Catholics were given notice of thismeeting and were asked to pray for it, no mention isever given of their Weekends in “The Spirit”.  As theaims of all those connected with M/E are surely thesame, why are we all kept separate?               I have several problems, but “Change”seems to be an apt title to address some of them.  Ibelieve that one of the European countries does holdwhat they call “A Senior’s Day”, perhaps we couldhear something about that in a future edition of the“Spirit”.

Marie Caltieri.

Thought you might like this - it's from"Pope Francis - Untying The Knots"by Paul Vallely.  Although PopeFrancis is talking to a friend, whohappend to be a Jewish Rabbi, aboutdialogue between different religions,it is also relevant to what dialoguemeans to us encountered couples.

The words in italics, in brackets, are ours and do notappear in the book.

"Dialogue is born from a respectful attitude towardsthe other person, from a conviction that the other

person has something to say. It supposes that wecan make room in our heart for their point of view,their opinion and their proposals (here, as dialoguingcouples we could add their feelings). Dialogueentails a warm reception and not pre-emptivecondemnation. To dialogue, one must know how tolower the defences, to open the door of one's home(heart) and to offer warmth (love)."

Ian & Tessa MacCallum

ME COMMUNITY INBAMBER BRIDGE

We have had an MEcommunity in Bamber Bridgesince the 1970s.We made our weekend in

1981 having been encouraged to do so by anotherME couple in the parish. We are mostly a parishbased ME community.We have become firm friends over the years and ourmonthly meetings have seen us share on manythings and we have always felt very supported bythe group.We know that whatever we say or do we can counton our group to help us. This has meant we couldreach out and take on other roles in our parish.We are all actively involved in other areas of parishwork. We have run engaged couple courses, severalof us are Eucharistic Ministers, some couples runthe Cafod group and one special person has run theSacramental programme for the last 25 years.As we have grown older and our health hasdeteriorated we have been able to offer each otherpractical and spiritual support. Life would be muchharder if we did not have our group to depend on.Latterly the wider ME community in the North Westhas not been as evident but we have continued ourmonthly get together and sharing (currently wenumber six couples). We gain great support,encouragement and pleasure from being in an MEcommunity.

Pat & Mike BaileyMay 2015

From the Community:

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Many of our community will remember the Hayes Retreat Centre, used for the 2007Convention among other events.

The Hayes was built in the 1860s by Francis Wrightas a wedding present for his son Fitzherbert andduring World War One it housed girls from twoevacuated London schools

The Hayes, in Derbyshire, was the scene of one ofthe most famous German escape bids.

Ace fighter-plane flyer Franz von Werrasuccessfully tunnelled out with four other prisoners,the noise of their efforts masked by a performanceof the POW choir.

Posing as a downed Dutch pilot he then managed to get into the cockpit of a Hurricane and waspreparing to fly home when he was discovered.

Hayes archivist John Tranter said the entrance to the 50-yard tunnel Von Werra and his co-conspiratorsdug was only discovered in 1980 behind a fireplace in room 102.

Built as a house in the 1860s, the Hayes in Swanwick became a Christian Conference Centre in 1911, arole to which it reverted after being requisitioned as a POW camp.

Today, it is one of three conference and event centres run by the Christian ConferenceTrust, a charity which hosts gatherings and meetings for Christian organisations, charitiesand businesses. Thank you to Stephen & Barbara Dunn for this.

The N.W. regional day was a very goodevent for us and our ME community here inYorkshire. It was good to meet couples fromfurther afield and we believe it’s important tohave these events from time to time.  Our thanksto the organisers and all who made it asuccessful day. We made our weekend about25 years ago and  ME has been an importantpart of our married life since.  We valuebelonging to a sharing group and cell and havebenefitted enormously from the experience andfriendship of others in our ME community. Andrew & Gemma McKeon

Being part of Marriage Encounter has helpedus enormously over the years. We went on ourfirst weekend in October 1980 when we hadbeen married only 2 years 5 months. It helpedus deal with problems that were alreadybeginning to show, such as not trusting eachother enough and putting each other down andalso being rivals rather than cooperators. About2 weeks after that weekend, Mollie's father

suddenly died and we had to take majordecisions fairly soon after as to where we wouldlive (his house had become available) and wewere expecting our second child in 2 months.We coped with all of this because we loved andtrusted each other much more deeply than wehad before the weekend and we kept dialoguingon a frequent basis as well as being part of awider ME group in our area. We have always been part of a ME group -currently we are 3 couples in a cell group thatmeets every 6 weeks to listen to dialogues wehave recently had and share afterwards. Werarely take part in the wider ME activity, but wekeep alive the techniques and attitudesdeveloped from that first weekend andconsolidated at 2 subsequent weekends overthe years. We do daily dialogues in Advent andLent. We are now both retired and living happilytogether in a flat so we experience every daythe benefits of Marriage Encounter!

David and Mollie Somerville

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Marriage Encounter England & Wales

Save the Date!

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Significant Anniversaries June, July, August 2015

Golden Wedding7.8.15 John and Bridget Green

Ruby Wedding6.6.15 Andrew & Kathy Rzysko

7.6.15 Phil & Rita Jackson

3.7.15 William & Kathleen Pilkiewicz

19.7.15 Sean and Joan Cunnane

26.7.15 Frank & Ann Game

2.8.15 John & Maria Price

Silver Wedding15.6.15 Fermi & Remi Ladega

16.6.15 Hugh & Wendy Lobo

30.6.15 Paul & Marie-Clare Davies

21.7.15 Martin & Carmel Warrillow

Congratulations and very best

wishes to everyone with a special

anniversary at this time

Golden JubileeRev Canon John Naughton 6.6.15

Rev Michael Kelly 12.6.15

Rev Aidan Sharratt 1.7.15

Rev John Murray 31.7.15

Ruby Jubilee29.6.15 Rev Graham Gillman

Silver Jubilee7.7.15 Rev Jon Bielwalsh

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Free to Live Weekend.Friday 30th October – Sunday 1st

November 2015Yarnfield Park Training & Conference Centre, Yarnfield, Stone,

Staffs, ST15 0NL.

We are delighted to tell everyone that following the success of the Presence Weekend held at YarnfieldPark last year, where we were all looked after so well, we will now be arranging a Free to Live weekendfor later this year. John & Brenda Levesley with Fr Teddy O’Brien will again be presenting the weekend.

Do you allow the pressures of life control you? Do you ever dream of being more aware of the issuesthat tie you down? If you want to be “Free to Live” then this is a weekend not to be missed.

The weekend looks at relationship in the light of aspects of our lives that most often cause frustration,or give most life. The format of this weekend is slightly different from the original weekend in that, afterthe dialogue times, couples and priests share together in small groups and presentations include music,pictures, scripture and paintings. The weekend is open to all couples, priests and religious who haveexperienced the original ME weekend.

We want this weekend to be an experience of Community which as you will have seen from the AdventEdition of the Spirit everyone came together and enjoyed at last year’s Presence Weekend. So if you areinterested please complete the Booking Form and return it to us and don’t forget to put the date in yourdiary.

Should you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

Booking Form for the Free to Live WeekendContact details

NameAddress

Telephone Number MobileE-mail address

Special Requirements

Disability, Access requirements / If yes, please specify:

Dietary requirements / If yes, please specify:

Please return completed form to:

Phil and Rita Jackson,76 Leach Heath Lane,Rubery,Birmingham,B45 9DF01212447762 wackojacko456@hotmail.com

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Summary of 2015 dates.

Marriage Encounter: 19th - 21st June Park Place, Wickham, Hants 16th -18th Oct St Claret’s, Cambridgeshire 27th - 29th Nov Ibis, Rugby Engaged Encounter.

Engaged Encounter 4th - 5th July Our Lady’s, Hemel Hempstead (New Venue) 12th - 13th Sept St Joseph’s, Hendon. 10th - 11th Oct St Peter’s Leamington Spa 21st – 22nd Nov Hallam Sheffield

25 - 27th Sept Pilot non-res Marriage Encounter weekend in St Austin’sParish Centre Wakefield (New Venue)

Other Dates:

11th -14th June European Council, Maria Bistrica, Croatia 20th June Central Regional Day 11th - 12th July National Board 18th July SW Regional Day 4-6th September – Deeper Weekend 17th October West Regional Day, Rubery 22nd - 25th Oct European Council, Leipzig, Germany30th Oct - 1st Nov Free to Live Weekend8th Nov East Regional Day Hemel14th - 15th Nov National Board

Deadline for next Spirit: 18th July

Theme: Being Called

*NB If a weekend is ‘FULL’

further places can always be

requested!