The Commission was a project that came from a group of people with a passion for university mission in the UK. Originally piloted in Richmond 2016 (then Student Leadership Training), The Commission was a huge success among the seventy students who attended. They went away after three days with a new found enthusiasm and skill set for modern day discipleship on campus!
In 2017, it went to the next level. From the 9th until the 12th of July, the Commission was held in St Mary’s University in Twickenham, featuring speakers from the FOCUS college evangelisation team from the US.
FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) are a group inspired and conceived from Saint John Paul II’s call to “New Evangelisation”. Their mission is to simply live the great commission which Jesus instructed through student outreach on university campuses. Using tools they have developed specifically for the evangelisation of young people, FOCUS now have over 500 missionaries on 100 campuses in 36 of the United States of America.
I arrived on the 10th, because I was just back from settling in our volunteers into the Holy Family Centre in South Africa. The atmosphere was fantastic. The group was made up of young men and women who were passionate about their faith and were looking at new ways of reaching out and sharing it with others. Over the course of the few days we broke bread, shared laughs, met old friends, and made new ones. We heard inspirational speakers on topics like creating a culture of encounter, the challenge of relativism today, and new evangelisation on the college campus.
The Commission was followed by The Summit in Ireland. The work of groups like FOCUS, and other groups like NET Ministries, show us that the Church in Ireland and England is undergoing a change. We are no longer merely content to sit back and have our story told by others, many of whom who are hostile to our faith. There’s something of an awakening and we’re ready to give an account of the hope that is within us, but to do it with gentleness and compassion. Watch this space.
We can’t finish up without thanking Naz and his amazing team for all the work they did on the ground to make The Commission happen. Well done and keep it up!
Fr Alan Neville