For the past 14 years, Easter time has meant the Celebrate Conference down at Ilfracombe in Devon. Fully booked each year, those who wanted to attend have had to be very quick to return their application forms. But this year, due to Easter falling when it did and a mismatch of term times at the school where Celebrate is traditionally held, it meant it was impossible for it to take place in its usual way.

Instead Charles and Sue Whitehead and the organising team decided to use the situation as an opportunity to try out the idea of having non-residential Celebrate Weekends round the country, using the same format and ethos but organised by local teams who had experience of the conference. The majority of these have now taken place - Joel’s Bar for young adults 25th-29th March at Worth Abbey; Guildford 29th-30th March; Manchester 12th-13th April; Heart of England 3rd-4th May; Southampton 3rd-4th May, St Albans 17th-18th May and Brighton 12th-13th July. Only the weekend near Bristol on 1st -2nd November remains to take place.

The weekends, which were all based at Catholic schools, have been an amazing success with over 3000 people having taken part altogether. Apart from Joel’s Bar, which attracted 108 young people for a week at Worth Abbey, the rest of the events attracted about 500 people per event. Vincent Turner, one of the organising team at St Albans commented, “We tried to make it as much like Ilfracombe as possible and the buzz and the atmosphere was terrific.” Even the caterers were touched he said, and were spotted not only staying on to listen to David Payne’s evening talk but going forward for personal prayer.

Celebrate will be back at Ilfracombe at Easter in 2009. Charles Whitehead says that as long as the local organising teams are up to doing them, the weekends will happen as well because many people are not able to spend a full week in Ilfracombe.

For about 30% of the participants at the weekends this was the first time they would have attended such an event, and regular Celebrate goers used the weekends as a way to encourage fellow parishioners and friends to give the Celebrate experience a try. Hallmarks of Celebrate are the strong emphasis on children and young people’s ministry, with activities appropriate to each age from 0-22. As well as the main talks, there are also a huge range of workshops looking at personal spirituality, offering training in creative and practical skills, and almost every area of Christian life as well as an encouragement for people to open themselves up to the Holy Spirit in their lives. The Southampton team, as a follow up to their conference, ran Life in the Spirit Seminars which attracted a good response.

The weekends tended to draw on the same speakers as the main Celebrate Conference. These included Charles and Sue Whitehead, David Payne, Jenny Baker, David Matthews, John Vaughan Neil, Michelle Moran, David Wells, Fr Chris Thomas, while using local talent for the workshops.(for more details see www.celebrateconference.org) The Celebrate banners too, which adorne the hall at Ilfracombe, appeared at the different weekend events, together with many of the same worship leaders and songs. The presence of mime artist Steve Murray, drama group RISE, Toni and Gerard Pomfret from Good News Books recommending good reads, and many regular Celebrate participants all helped to create the special Celebrate atmosphere.

A final striking ingredient was the high profile of young people and particularly young families at all the weekends. At St Albans, for example, 180 of the 480 participants were under 25. The children and young people also contributed a lot to the daily liturgies in very creative ways with songs and dramas. At Brighton, the main music ministry itself was made up of young people, both in the main tent and in the streams, showcasing the talent of the next generation of worship leaders. Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor showed his personal support, by celebrating the first Mass at the St Albans weekend and was effusive in his praise. Other bishops also sent their support and greetings and Bishop Declan Lang of Clifton will be celebrating Mass at the final weekend in Bristol in November (see coming events).

Charles Whitehead, the chairman of the Celebrate team, commented:- “We are delighted that the Celebrate Weekends have been so popular, as bringing the Celebrate experience into parishes has become an important part of our vision. Each weekend was different, but they all remained true to the Celebrate vision and values, and those who attended enjoyed a weekend full of fun, friendship, faith-building teaching and family celebrations. That’s what Celebrate is all about.”