Creed, Code & Cult - Session One

Today was the first session of the Creed, Code & Cult talks which I hope will take place monthly between now and next June. Alan is going to write a post summarising his talks later. This is just my brief record of the event.

Between 8.30 and 9.30am I got two or three phone calls from people saying that, although they'd put their names down to attend, something had cropped up and they weren't able to come after all. I wondered: how many more will fail to show?

Thankfully I needn't have worried. In the ten minutes before Mass started the car park began to fill up.

Deacon John Carter from Our Lady's parish in Ruthin was among the participants and he joined me on the sanctuary.

Others arrived at the end of Mass as I was welcoming everyone to the talks. I counted 32 people by the time we started.

I introduced Alan and Angeline with a few remarks about their previous catechetical work in parishes and schools, and at the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham, and began with a prayer.

Alan followed with a prayer of his own and then dived into the subject matter: "Back to Virtue: Christian values in an age of chaos".

At the end of the first talk we all had a break for tea and biscuits.

After half an hour we reconvened in church and Alan delivered his second talk. We broke for lunch around 1.00pm, mindful of what Alan had said about the deadly sin of gluttony!

There was still an opportunity for serious discussion, though - at least between Rev. Carter and Alan:

Everyone made complimentary remarks about the quality of Alan's talks and hope to attend the next session in November. A good start!