I thought I would write down some of the ideas I have had and share with you a possible vision for the future of this Association in Bristol. These thoughts are my own and yet I believe they are also some of the thoughts of others who work with young people in the schools of Bristol and Bath.

The recent meetings at Kintbury have highlighted several interesting things. Firstly that a lot of young people care sufficiently about the work they have done there to come back and offer their time to discuss their future involvement with Kintbury. Secondly, the De La Salle brothers have recognised that they stand at a crossroads of opportunity. The only direction they cannot go in is back to the past. I do not believe they will have the same circumstances or opportunities to teach in classrooms as they had even twenty years ago. Thirdly, there are several Lasallian activities which already indicate a way forward for the order. The last meeting at Kintbury indicated that the particular way forward of the embryonic Lasallian Association is on a regional basis. It was in the light of this that I began to consider the future of this in the Bristol area.

I believe the Lasallian Association is a possible future for the De La Salle order in this country. I also believe the direction of this should be working with young people. This has been the traditional charism of the order and I see no reason why this should change. In particular many of those who continue to offer their services to the order do so to work with young people especially those at school. What then are the needs of young people in the Bristol area and how might we meet them?

At present many young people from the West visit Kintbury each year. The five Catholic schools in Bristol and Bath between them visit more than ten times a year and therefore bring anywhere between a hundred and a hundred and fifty young people every year. Schools also come from South Wales, Gloucester, Dorset and Swindon. I’m sure their reasons for going on a retreat to St Cassians are as varied as they themselves are but all come looking for the wellspring that St Cassians provides. To allow our young people to continue to draw from that well even when they cannot go back to the source is a great need in this area.

We are often asked by our clergy where the young people who, they have to spend so much money on, actually are as they don’t seem to be at mass on Sundays. Well for five days of the week they are in our schools and are, to some extent, a captive audience. In my own school of St Bernadette I have, on average, about ten people who use my room each lunchtime to do chaplaincy type activities. On a Friday, when the school chaplain is in, there can be more than thirty pupils wanting to do creative activities, chat or discuss issues or see one of the chaplaincy team about a particular problem. This is a vast untapped reservoir of talent and ministry. As a teacher I do my best but I am unable to fulfil even a small fraction of those needs. I desperately need help.

Bristol also has all the familiar problems of any city in the UK today; homelessness, drugs, breakdown of family life, crime and depression. These are all issues that our young people have to face. Our parishes, which should be in the frontline of the crusade for Evangelisation, have increasingly become backwaters because the people needed for this work are not available or are too dispersed.

In the light of the desire for the Lasallian Association to do something I began to wonder what could be achieved in the area of Bristol and Bath. Would the living out of a Christian Community in the Bristol area with some sort of commitment to young people be worthwhile? Yes!

Firstly, it needs to be a community with the gospel values of De La Salle at its heart. More specifically, it needs to be a community of prayer that answers the needs of young people to come closer to Christ. As many of us have seen, this is a particular strength of the community at St Cassians and is one that many of those who have worked there miss when they have left. This praying community, however, doesn’t just exist to pray for and support itself. It must be outward looking, attempting all the time to add to its number from the young people who wish to join it. It must be a wellspring not only for the people who live in the community but also for those who would wish to join it for prayer and support. In this sense that elusive “follow up” which has been recognised as necessary by all team members both past and present could be achieved: a permanent reminder to young people that the Kintbury experience is not left in St Cassians but is to be found in their home city where they really can find the means to “become Good News.”

Secondly, this community must have an outreach; it must be a “doing” community. Our young people are in our schools for five out of seven days. That is where our community must find them. I would like the primary evangelical thrust of this community to be directed at our secondary schools. If at least one person could be visiting our schools every day the work this person could be doing for young people is incalculable. Our schools cannot afford the resources to employ suitable people in this work. Our community would provide liturgical support, counselling, peer ministry, affirmation to staff and pupils, resources for understanding our faith, links with the poor and the Developing World and have access to the rich experience of the Lasallian community both in this country and abroad. Above all it would tap into the massive pool of talent that resides in our schools to energize and transform our schools into places that reflect Christ fully alive and active in the world today.

Thirdly, it must look beyond our schools, to both the parish and the wider community of Bristol and Bath. There would always be opportunities for the wonderful resource, which this community would be to be used by our parishes especially for sacramental preparation, prayer and youth activities in parish or deanery youth groups. In the wider community the witness a community of young people would provide serving the homeless, for example, or feeding the hungry would be immense. There are two prisons in the immediate area as well as other events that happen in the world around us. In the Bristol/Bath area there would be no shortage of demands that could call upon our community’s time.

This community needs to operate at several levels. At the heart of this community are the permanent members who “live in” and do much of the active work. I see them as being a group of young people who perhaps wish to give up a year out to work in the same way that the young team do at St Cassians. Someone would need to be in charge to oversee this community in the same way that the older team do at present in St Cassians. This would obviously be a position of some responsibility and a careful choice needs to be made. Indeed the people who work in this community need to be carefully prepared and trained for the role they will play. Some sort of careful selection will be needed perhaps along the same lines as the Lasallian Projects and the experience of those responsible for the Lasallian Projects would be of great benefit to this process. At least initially I think the community would benefit from the presence of an experienced brother who could help set the right setting for the development of a Lasallian Community. Perhaps the presence of one or two others with a solid experience of community living would be desirable. In this perhaps the recruiting of ex-team members from St Cassians would be a good idea, if they were willing to give up another year of their lives to be involved.

Another important level of community is that of the “dwellers around” who would be involved with, but not be part of, the “live in” community. Such people, like myself and others in the Bristol area, would provide good contacts for the work of this community or would provide certain skills that the community might find useful. They would certainly be integral to the prayer and spiritual life of the community and would help to prevent the permanent community from becoming introverted or inward looking. I would like to think that these “dwellers around” would have a necessary input on many of the issues that would affect the community such as selection of personnel, decisions of priority and the ongoing reflection upon the vision of this community.

Perhaps the most crucial level of this community is the young people it attracts through its work. These people are the visible sign that this community is doing its job. So many pupils, staff and others go to St Cassians every year and need something to bind them together when they return. The outreach of this community into our schools hopefully will lead others who have never been to St Cassians to want to be part of a vibrant and dynamic community which witnesses to one simple fact: Jesus loves each person for what they are. Obviously this will be expressed in a multitude of ways and will be experienced at many different levels, but it is essential that this community is open to others to come and “make community” for however short a while they may be able to and in whatever manner they can.

Ultimately I see this sort of community as a potential future for the De La Salle order. I would hope that it attracts people to work for the sort projects that the order thinks are important and perhaps in the future to the religious life. Selfishly I would like to see it doing something for the area of Bristol and this being its prime concern rather than existing to maintain the future vocations of the De La Salle order, but I am indebted to the brothers for so much in my life and not just my schooling! If this helps to continue a suitable role for the brothers then I would be very happy.

This community will cost all of us. To merely get off the ground it will need enthusiasm and a lot of support from those who live in Bristol and Bath. It will require a house of some sorts even if this is shared with an existing agency. Buildings require a lot of upkeep even if people are prepared to “rough it” a little! I would suggest that an existing structure will need some alteration if it is to be suitable and “recognisable” to the young people who will treat it as a little piece of “Kintbury” come to Bristol. People will need financial support while working there, even if their wages are no better than “pocket money” and of course they will need food and basic requirements. To be effective anyone who works in the community will need some sort of training, however rudimentary, and Diocesan guidelines for working with young people as well as child protection guidelines have to be followed. Travel and transport are important issues in a city with widely dispersed schools. Ultimately the person or persons responsible for the work of the community will need to be paid properly. The ultimate responsibility for financial issues must be worked out beforehand if embarrassing financial problems are to be averted. Those of us who will be connected with this community will, I hope, give it all the support we can but ultimately this community will depend on the wider De La Salle community for resolution of these concerns.

In conclusion I would like to make the following points:-

1.Without a base this community cannot get off the ground. A house is therefore a priority.

2. It needs the support of the de la Salle order to happen. The order must want this to happen not merely tolerate it.

3. The support of the bishop of Clifton is also essential. This is not mere courtesy but a very real need to have someone smooth out some of the main difficulties a new community will face in Bristol. In order to get the ball rolling on this one we will have to approach the bishop and lay our plans before him.

4. The community must have at least one experienced person in the community to oversee and manage it. In actual fact two or three would be better and a mix of men and women ideal.

5. The whole thing needs careful planning. Perhaps a set of targets of what we aim to do over a set time frame? Perhaps something like a board of trustees to oversee and keep the community on track?

6. Adequate training for all those involved. Careful selection of those who will undertake the work.

7. Liaison between this project and other Lasallian projects already under way, especially the Lasallian Association.

8. Prayer and reflection are vital before we start any venture. Is this really in accord with the spirituality of de la Salle and have we discerned a real way forward for the future?

M.Quinn 6th January 2002