Peter Hobbs (Speaker: Saturday):
Peter is a management consultant and executive coach living in Stratford upon Avon. Some will know him as regular delegate and contributor at the Celebrate and New Dawn conferences until 2004 when life took an unexpected turn that meant he had to give up his plans to become a deacon and focus on family life.
Since moving from Reading to Stratford in 2010, Peter has been an active member of St Gregory the Great Parish, serving on various committees and running several Confirmation Preparation, Life in the Spirit and Alpha programmes over the years. In 2021 he was asked to coordinate the parish response to Pope Francis’ ‘Walking Together’ consultation on synodality.
During Lockdown Peter was involved in a variety of initiatives reaching out to those struggling without the community of church and wrote a reflection on faith matters called ‘View from the Pew’ for the parish bulletin. In 2021 he became a governor of a local Catholic primary school and joined adolescent mental health charity Young Minds Matter, mentoring in a local high school one day a week. This work, principally with 13 –18-year-old boys, has exposed him to the complexities and very real challenges faced by young men navigating the journey towards adulthood today.
We have no doubt that Peter will use his long experience as a facilitator and coach to run interactive sessions that encourage participants to share experiences and support one another in applying ideas to their personal circumstances. He has experienced enough of life to know that everyone has a story and that nothing is certain except the love of God. He will use his time to help us reflect on the practicalities of living a life with hope in the power of the Holy Spirit at its centre.
Gerard Pomfret (Speaker: Sunday Morning)
Sunday Mass – Celebrant
Bishop David Oakley :
(13th Bishop of Northampton Diocese / Bishops Conference England & Wales – Responsible for Discipleship & Evangilisation ):
David James Oakley was born on 28 November 1955 in Stourbridge. He is the eldest of five children to Joyce and Fred Oakley.
The family moved to Birmingham when David was seven years old. After school, he worked in a well-known department store and entered Oscott in September 1974.
Fr Oakley was ordained priest on 5 July 1980 and has served in several parishes within the Archdiocese of Birmingham. He has always suggested that the parish is his natural habitat.
Fr Oakley studied catechetics at the Maryvale Institute and was awarded a MEd degree. He was appointed Pastoral Director and Procurator at Oscott in 1994. During this time he researched a PhD thesis in Pastoral Theology, which was later published.
As Parish Priest at Maryvale, Fr Oakley directed the diocesan Department for Parish and Family Catechesis, developing resources in collaboration with CaFE. At the same time, he undertook licentiate studies in the Pontifical University of St Patrick’s, Maynooth and was awarded the STL degree.
He served as the twenty-third Rector of St Mary’s College Oscott – a seminary in Birmingham for training priests for ministry in England and Wales.
He was ordained the thirteenth Bishop of Northampton in the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate and St Thomas of Canterbury on Thursday 19 March 2020.
Link – For a more detailed biography, visit the Diocese of Northampton’s website.
Fr Chris Thomas
Fr Chris Thomas’ present initiative is The Irenaeus Project supported by the Archdiocese of Liverpool. For nearly seven years Fr Chris worked part time at Sandymount House of Prayer in Blundellsands. The more he talked with people and prayed with them and shared their stories, the more aware he became of the desperate need there is within people to find meaning in life. In Christian language we could say that there is an overwhelming desire to search for God and to explore what it means to be fully alive. Prayer and reflection is vital in the process by which people become fully alive. We look forward to having Fr Chris share his experiences and stories with us at the Weekend, and unpack the Joy of The Gospel in his inimitable way, he is a much love friend and initiator of Harvesters
Praise and Worship
We will be led in worship by the talented and Spirit led worship leaders; Gerry Markland & Chris Power