Caister @ Pakefield Retreat
I was a member of St.Mary the Virgin Swanley for 40 years and retired to a Suffolk village late 2005, which has an old country church but it is much “lower” than the mass to which I was accustomed.
When revisiting St. Mary’s, I was asked by the Treasurer (a Caister retreater) to go to the conference which was in a new venue at Pakefield. My Husband said he would take and collect me so I filled in the forms and sent them back to her to be included in ‘their party of 4.
As literature came from Bishop Lindsay’s office I couldn’t wait as I hadn’t been before as it meant being away for a week. It would be different from Walsingham Pilgrimage, the young children’s weekend and “camping” at the youth pilgrimage so I looked forward to seeing what the difference would be.
Monday finally came to go to Pakefield. The first person we met was Russell Stagg whom 1 knew until the ladies from St.Mary’s arrived. I was to share with St. Mary’s Pastoral Assistant,Dorothy Carr and we duly unpacked in our chalet overlooking the sea. Dorothy had been to Caister before so we studied the programme of “Continuing Wonder” and went to Evening Prayer and welcomes where I recognised people from neighbouring Parishes in Kent.
Tuesday dawned and we went for 7am swim before breakfast and Bible study. Bishop Lindsay discussed the 23 Psalm on the 3 mornings which was excellent. After a break we went back for the Keynote address which were all inspiring and humourous (who says Church is boring!) I must say the “Stardust Ballroom “ was transformed into a beautiful Church.
At noon daily, we attended Holy Hour (I used to find this hour difficult to focus on with only a few people present) but with so many people it went very quickly and was so silent and peaceful.
I attended at least I seminar each day, sometimes two ; even tried to learn some Zulu words with Fr. Thami.
The masses for me (having been away from the Mass on Sundays) were uplifting and the sermons were excellent; the Gospel Acclamation and the ritual of the Eucharist which I don,t have here made me tingle.
All in all, the Retreat itself coupled with the fellowship of many friends, the music and singing, liturgy, excellent food and hospitality was a beautiful experience and I haven’t stopped talking to people about it since.
Brenda Begg — Caister at Pakefield 2007
After attending Caister for five years, the thought of moving to a new venue filled me with anxiety and nervousness and a little fear; fear of the unknown and whether the Caister experience I had grown to love and look forward to would ever be the same again. Everything had the potential and opportunity of being different, the venue was different and a place I had never visited before, would this be the time to change the programme, would there be people attending that I knew or would I have to make new acquaintances from scratch. So many ifs and buts to cause me concern and being a traditionalist in most aspects of my life, I like things just the way they are because they feel comfortable and safe. My thinking is that change is fine as long as I am in control of it. Then I was reminded that change is inevitable for us to grow, develop and mature and without change we are in danger of standing still and stagnating. Working with homeless young people enables me to accept change as the young people I work with need to embrace change in their lives in order for then to grow, develop and mature into confident and competent adults. This acceptance of change is also true when it comes to our Christian life and journey and then I began to view the Pakefield experience as an opportunity to evaluate and address my faith and where God is calling me to be and go, as I have every year whilst attending Caister. So what really would be that different? Most things remained the same as at Caister; Mass was celebrated every day, there was the holy hour in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, a variety of afternoon seminars providing information on a variety of subjects and giving everyone the opportunity of learning something new and the opportunity for members to experience the sacraments of healing, renewal and confession. The initial difference was that of the venue with a slight difference to the living arrangements, gone were the living chalets but in their place were bedroom chalets. This resulted in there being no opportunity for chalet group bible study and a loss of intimacy found with small group sessions but having the opportunity of listening to Bishop Lindsay lead bible study to the whole group can never be a bad thing. This may lead to an opportunity for bible study to develop and evolve in the coming years. A further difference was that of the entertainment provided by the entertainment team based at the Pakefield Site, this team usually providing this entertainment for holidaymakers. This, along with the usual socialising enabled the fun loving Christian to emerge and show to the wider world that being a Christian does not have to be boring and that we can have fun and dance and sing along with the rest of the world. On reflection my anxiety, nerve and fear were unnecessary, as once again I was provided with the opportunity of placing God where he deserves to be in my life, at the centre, when I attended Mass and was part of the Caister family that I have grown to love, when I sat in silence before the Blessed Sacrament and was able to listen to God’s voice and call for my future, when I took advantage of the opportunities to learn something new, in my case learning to dance with our Zulu brothers, and taking advantage of the opportunity for healing and making my confession. In our busy world and busy lives, where God is not always placed where he deserves to be, at the centre, I give thanks for the Caister/Pakefield experience and the opportunity it continues to give me to evaluate my faith and spend time listening to God and his call for me and my future ministry. As I said at the beginning they say a change is as good as a rest and for me it makes no difference what name is used and what venue is used but the Caister/Pakefield experience is the change I need to rest and listen to God. Susan Way |
They say a change is as good as a rest but some people find change difficult and may become anxious and nervous. This could be said about me when the time of attending Pakefield 2007 came closer.