OLK Spirituality Programme – report Holy Name Pastoral Committee meeting on
12/2/2014, presented by Maggie Jackson (on behalf of the OLK Spirituality Team : Anne
Waddington, Sr Bernadette Holmes, Teresa Todd, Miriam Parker)
The history.
The Spirituality Programme, which began at Holy Name in February 2009, offers Our Lady
of Kirkstall parishioners a variety of opportunities to explore and deepen our faith. It is aimed
at adults and is valued as a means of exploration and formation in faith in the company of
fellow parishioners. All are welcome.
The programme began with a series of reflective evenings (led by me/MJ) during Lent for
what was then Holy Name parish.
For the whole OLK parish, over the last 5 years we have held similar Lent meetings in 2010,
(again led by me/MJ), followed by day events with outside speakers primarily for Eucharistic
Ministers and Readers in 2011, 2012 and 2013. In Lent 2012 several parishioners led two
reflective evenings of music, scripture, poetry and prayer (The Turning Point) with similar
evenings that year during Advent (The Crossing Place).There have also been several
sequences of prayer meetings and meetings for Gospel study, facilitated by Fr Pat, Sr
Bernadette, Anne Waddington and myself. We have had stimulating talks on St Therese of
Lisieux, Oscar Romero, Mary Ward, The Jewish Sabbath and Chanukah, ‘Offending
Spirituality’, ‘The Devil’ and on ‘Purgatory’.
The ‘Words for the Soul’ Book Group began in 2010 and continues to meet 5 times each
year.
In March 2010 we began Retreat days at Myddelton Grange, beginning with a sequence of 4
days on ‘Seasons of the Spirit, followed by single days on ‘Ecce Homo’ (The humanity of
Jesus) and ‘In Search of the Beloved’, along with a half-day retreat (‘To put on love’) in
November 2011 held at the Assumption mainly for the CAFOD group there.
In March 2012 we began a sequence of 8 retreat days at Myddelton Grange exploring The
Lord’s Prayer – this sequence was completed in November 2013. These days were facilitated
by my colleagues Coral Spencer, Judith Pollock and myself, and we had outside speakers for
3 of these days – Fr Bede Leach, Fr Daniel O’Leary and Paul Sutherland (Sufi Poet).
The retreats have always received very positive evaluations and feedback. I estimate that we
have had 180 participants over the 8 ‘Lord’s Prayer’ retreats, with attendance varying from
16 to 33 on the various days. Parishioners from each OLK church have taken part, with the
majority being from Holy Name. A few people from outside the parish have also taken part.
Participation in the overall programme is estimated to be around 100 individuals, of which
the majority are women.
Except when we pay for outside speakers, the retreats and other events are run at very little
cost to the parish, with any expenses incurred by myself, Coral and Judith being minimal,
given the amount of work involved. Several parishioners are always generous and make
additional donations to the usual £15 or recently £20 we ask for a day retreat.
Current programme.
A new advisory and planning group has recently been convened which now has
representatives from each OLK church, all of whom have regularly taken part in the
spirituality programme of events.
We have arranged a Lenten day of reflection for Eucharistic Ministers and Readers to be led
by Fr Joe Smith (retired priest of the Leeds Diocese) on March 15th at Holy Name. Other
parishioners may attend if there is room. Fr Joe has just requested a donation from the parish.
A series of meetings for Gospel study and reflection during Lent will begin on March 6th
(10.15-11.45 a.m. in The Assumption Social Rooms). This will be led by Chris Jackson who
is an OLK parishioner and Altar Server at The Assumption..
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The Words for the Soul Book group will meet on Thursday March 6th 7.30-9pm in Holy
Name presbytery to discuss ‘Stations of the Cross’ by Sarah Maitland. This meeting will be
led by Anne Waddington. Further dates and books are to be confirmed.
There will be also be a CAFOD ‘Emmaus meal’ on March 29th at lunchtime at The
Assumption Social Rooms – and this could be counted as an additional aspect of the
spirituality programme.
We have booked Myddelton Grange for a retreat day on Saturday June 28th. This day will be
facilitated by members of the advisory group and will be a time for parishioners to reflect
upon and share (if they wish) their own faith journeys.
This autumn (2014) we hope to begin a sequence of 8 retreat days on The Beatitudes. These
will be held at Myddelton Grange and will be spread over 15-18 months. We envisage costs
to be similar to The Lord’s Prayer sequence.
Needs
We need more male parishioners to take part in the overall programme and are open to
suggestions about this. In 2013 the parish sponsored two OLK parishioners to attend a Men’s
retreat at Ampleforth with a view to making contacts and developing events or a programme
to meet men’s needs. This needs to be followed up. It would be helpful to have some men on
the advisory group or for our male parishioners to form their own group..
We will need some practical help at Holy Name for the day of reflection on March 15th (eg
setting the hall out with chairs, making drinks at lunchtime, clearing up at the end of the day,
as well as servers, Eucharistic Ministers, Readers and an organist for the mass in church at
noon).
The advisory group are aware of the need to involve younger members of the parish in the
spirituality programme, possibly with events for young families being offered in the future, or
with house groups for prayer and reflection being encouraged and supported.
We would also like the balance of participants from each OLK church to be more evenly
spread and would welcome suggestions about how to do this. When we began the Spirituality
programme at Holy Name in 2009, I spoke at our 3 masses one weekend in order to introduce
myself and the programme. This had a good response. Do we need to do something similar
across the parish ?
Should we make other parishes aware of our work and the ‘fruit’ it has produced for
individuals and the parish as a whole ?
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