Letter to the De La Salle Brothers, September, 2003

LAMB – WHERE ARE WE AT AND WHERE ARE WE GOING?

If “The un-reflected life has not been fully lived,” then perhaps now is as good a time as any to offer a personal reflection on where the Lasallian Association for Mission in Bristol (LAMB) is “at” and where it may be “going.” What has it achieved and what directions might it move in?

LAMB came about as the result of the meetings of former retreat team members in St Cassian’s. These meetings in 2001 indicated that a number of people felt that their connection with both St Cassian’s and the de la Salle Brothers were not simply distant memories but important to them now. There was a mood of expectation and a sense of excitement that we should do something. What should be done however was not clear and neither was who should be doing it! What did emerge though was the idea that this might be better tackled on a regional basis rather than as a large St Cassian’s group.

In Bristol several of us, including some who had never worked at St Cassian’s on the “team,” met in November 2001 at the Elsie Briggs House of Prayer in Westbury-on-Trym to discuss what Lasallian Mission in Bristol might mean. We felt that there were basically two important elements. Firstly, that we wanted to be a community based around the spirituality of John Baptiste de la Salle. Secondly, that we wanted to do something. Most of us worked with young people in school so that became the focus of our attentions.

We did not meet again until June 2002. Perhaps we needed that time to reflect and gather confidence. There had been other “Lasallian” meetings both at Oxford and again at Kintbury. These had given us a sense of the other Lasallian communities who were equally beginning to “awaken,” and, very importantly, a mission statement. We resolved to meet again and to meet regularly.

Where to meet? In July the Movement for Justice and Peace at 1B Sydenham Road offered us their facilities and their support. We were allowed to use the downstairs facilities at 1B, which included a suite of four rooms and a kitchen and bathroom. Following the September meeting of the Kintbury group we decided to turn this area into a Quiet Room and meetings/activities rooms for the use of young people.

What to do? We wished for young people at our catholic schools to join our community, which was beginning to meet every couple of weeks. How or why they would join us was not clear. What did seem clearer however was a belief that we could provide some sort of “follow up” to the experience of many of the young people from our schools at St Cassian’s.

Why do this? We perceived a strong need in the Bristol and Bath area for greater chaplaincy provision within our schools and colleges. As a group we went on retreat together to Ammerdown near Bath in November 2002. We came up with our own mission statement over the course of that weekend based upon the Mission Statement from the Lasallian group at Kintbury. We also decided to proceed with our first Youth Day on the first weekend of Advent.

It wasn’t so much a youth day as a painting and decorating day! Our Quiet Room and an activity room were stripped and painted. A small number of young people from two of our schools came along to help. We prayed together. We ate together. We celebrated mass together. We went home happy and resolved to have another youth day. We have had two more since then.

We were approached by Fr Bob Rainbow, the chaplain to the University of the West of England, and asked if we could provide some spiritual input for a group of students on a retreat at Dulverton on Exmoor. We eventually provided the programme and input for the whole retreat. Between December and April LAMB worked very hard to provide the programmes, input and personnel for three youth days and one full weekend retreat. Of special importance has been the increasing role of the young people themselves within our youth days and their own developing sense of peer ministry.

All this has happened relatively quickly. Reflecting on what has happened I think it is very easy to be drawn into the work of the Lasallian community and to forget its other equally important dimension of being a Lasallian community.

What is our future? Are we a “will-o-the-wisp” that will disappear when the sun comes up, or are we a growing, evolving community as our mission statement makes reference to? What sort of work should we be doing in the future and what sort of community will we continue to grow into? I believe these are crucial questions which I will endeavour to answer.

Central to our community has been our link to the brothers. Both Owen and Sean have been regular members of our meetings, and other brothers have visited us and expressed both interest and support for our work. What will be the nature of this link in the future? What sort of support does LAMB need from the brothers? In many ways the support of the brothers is not crucial to the work of LAMB. It could continue to provide retreats and youth days without the brothers. On only one of the youth days have we had a “brother’s presence”. In some ways this is comparable to the diminishing role the brothers are playing in the classroom as less and less brothers are to be found teaching. Nevertheless from a community point of view the brothers are essential as they keep us firmly rooted in the charism and work of De La Salle. LAMB would probably not be where it already is if the brothers, in particular Owen and Sean, were not involved in the thinking, decisions and spirituality of the group. I believe LAMB must continue to be not simply “allowed” to work by the brothers but to be an extension of the very evangelisation and outreach of the brothers in the twenty-first century. In this sense “Association” is not simply about remembering a past link with the brothers or with Kintbury, but is actually a vehicle by which the brothers continue their work and mission in the new millennium.

What should that work be? There are as many vocations within the Church as there are Christians in it. Perhaps we could observe the same within the De La Salle family? In Bristol that vocation has so far been expressed through work with young people. This has been principally in and through the Catholic Schools, most especially with those young people who are already well disposed towards the “Kintbury Experience”. Nevertheless this work has broadened to include a weekend retreat at Dulverton for university students as well as the ongoing formation and spiritual development of the LAMB group that meets regularly at 1B. What exactly is this work? Quite simply we are about building community, community within our schools, university and as a group in prayer. The engaging of young people in this community building, both as retreatants and in peer ministry, has been the obvious and outward sign of the work of LAMB so far.

It is the nature of that community that provides us with the challenges for the future. Should LAMB continue as it is now or is there a need for it to develop and change? This is not easy to answer because to some extent this is not “our” work but the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit moves where He will, and therefore we cannot presume to decide what he wishes, but discerning what the Spirit is calling us to do is the task that all of us have to be engaged in. For my part I believe the Holy Spirit is calling us to answer more fully a need in Bristol and He is drawing the brothers into that answer.

The work of LAMB is based first and fore most upon building community, with each other and with young people. It is not just about providing a service for the young people, although that may be how we go about the work. Instead it is about enabling young people, wherever they are to be found, to become part of the Lasallian family, to “empower” them so that they might more readily answer the call of Christ. I do not think it is just about providing “fun days” or merely supplementing the work of the Youth Service. Instead I believe it is trying to get young people to minister to each other so that they have a proper sense of belonging to and working for the Lasallian community.

At the moment this is done mainly through the work of teachers and chaplains in our Catholic schools, principally at St Brendan’s, St Thomas More’s and at St Bernadette’s. This is already beginning to bear fruit in the enthusiasm and efforts of our young people, most obviously those that came to the Palm Sunday gathering at St Cassian’s and who provided night prayer for the whole group. All of us are agreed that at the moment LAMB cannot do all the work that it sees as desirable in the Bristol area. As a teacher myself, and as a married person, I do not think that I can continue to commit more and more time to the building up and maintenance of Lasallian community. As the thoughts and wishes of our young people have been expressed to us they want to be involved more in the mission of LAMB. They want to build community with young people in other schools and they want to lead as well as participate in spiritual activities of the kind they have experienced through St Cassian’s and LAMB. I therefore think if LAMB is to continue to move forward and grow it must do so in a manner that taps into and fosters the desire of our young people to minister.

I believe the time is rapidly approaching when there will need to be some more permanent expression of the Lasallian community in Bristol, a community composed of and ministering to young people. This has been our vision from the start, but it is only through our work that we have come to see the necessity of this permanent community.

Why now? Partly because the nature of the work is beginning to demand a greater involvement which I know I, and others, are finding more difficult to meet. Partly because the opportunities for this sort of development to happen may be here now but might not be here in the near future:-

• There are teachers in place in our Catholic schools who are not just sympathetic to the work of LAMB but are already members of the community. There is no reason to assume they will be there indefinitely
• The Bishop of Clifton is well disposed and interested in the work that LAMB is and could be doing. In particular he is impressed with the clarity and focus of the work that LAMB is engaged in;
• The Youth Service in the diocese is keen to integrate the work of LAMB with its own efforts. This could include providing resources, accommodation and money for the work of a community. Members of LAMB will be helping to shape the future ministry of the Youth Service
• There are young people in Bristol who would be very interested in being part of such a community

What then should we look to as a model for a community in Bristol, indeed do we need a model? I think it is wise and prudent to look at what works elsewhere before attempting something which could be both costly and radical. We wish this community to work with young people in our schools and colleges. We would like it to be based somewhere that can offer retreat facilities for youth retreats and youth days. This community must contain young people if it is to be true to the principle of peer ministry. It has to have individuals within it who will give witness to Lasallian values of prayer and community by the work they do, not simply by being co-ordinators or administrators. Are there models for this sort of community already “out there”? A community that integrates the work of older and younger members so as to share the gifts of both? A community of prayer that shares values that Lasallians hold dear? I believe there is already one such community run by the brothers even if its work is different.

The LAMB community will need the link with the brothers if it is to remain firmly rooted in the Lasallian family. I believe Brother Owen would be ideal for this role as he already has considerable experience of living in and forming community. Ideally it would need somebody else as a more experienced “team member” to help provide stability within the community and share the load. Obviously in looking at this issue, cost will be a major consideration. I am hoping that the diocese of Clifton might meet some of the costs of this. I am also aware that the brothers need more than one brother to start a community.

It must have some young “team members” who will be formed by the work they do in our schools and colleges. They will be the leaders of the future but also the ministers of the present. There will need to be enough younger members of the community to go the schools and college. The obvious schools to start in are St Brendan’s, St Bernadette’s and St Thomas More’s, and we would therefore need about four younger community members at least initially.

There are already several persons who support the work of LAMB in various ways and who come along to its meetings as and when they can. At the last count this was some sixteen or so people. Several of these already work within the schools as teachers, heads of RE or as chaplains. They are therefore in a position already to facilitate the work of LAMB in our catholic schools. Many of these members of the community already contribute or have contributed to the finances of the group, and there have already been meetings with Bro Anthony about the financial future of the community.

I would like to see therefore a core community of at least two experienced members of the community and four younger team members, preferably people who have been to our Catholic schools and are looking for some sort of “gap” year.

They would be keen to live in community and to build community with the young people in our catholic schools. The spirituality of this community would be “Lasallian.” This community would work within our catholic schools in a chaplain’s capacity and would work closely with the RE and Chaplaincy departments.

They would take seriously all aspects of the journey in faith: the “Head”, the “Heart” and the “Hands”. They could, if suitable accommodation were to be secured, provide retreat and youth days outside of school as part of this work of building community, and the place they live at would probably play a crucial role in this.

They would receive considerable support from, as well as giving support to, the LAMB community already here in Bristol and I would like to see the residential community as the visible expression of the community already here: in other words they are the same community they simply have a different role.

Why should the brothers commit resources and manpower to this venture? I have been reminded on more than one occasion that the brothers do not have a blank cheque book, and I am not asking the brothers to fund the whole project. I expect the Diocese of Clifton will provide some resources, such as a suitable house for a community to live in. The Youth Service might well be persuaded to help with some of the running costs of the community too. Nevertheless the brothers would have to free up somebody, perhaps even two, to come and live in this community, and I would presume that they would continue to be looked after by the order. The rest of the necessary money to support this community would have to be found by LAMB, and we have already made tentative steps to see how such money could be raised, whether by grants, donations or charitable trusts.

We need however a commitment from the brothers. The Bishop of Clifton is keen, there are young people who are willing to do this and the need in our schools is great.

I therefore propose to the next Chapter of the Brothers that as part of their ongoing mission in this province they consider the opening of a new community in Bristol in September 2004. This community will have at least four young people and two older people, preferably Owen and one other, as its basis. It will be set up to be a community of prayer and Lasallian values. It will express these in its work in, initially, St Brendan’s Sixth Form College, St Thomas More School and St Bernadette School, but as time and circumstances permit also in St Bede’s School and St Gregory’s School in Bath. This community will be supported by the Lasallians (LAMB) who already live and work in this area, by the Diocese of Clifton and by the brothers themselves.

I would very much appreciate the opportunity to speak to the brothers about this proposal and to put forward the case for its going ahead.