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2005

SouthWest Conference 2005 at Brunel Manor, Torquay


‘Proclaim to the Peoples the message I have given you’

Approximately 80 people attended the SouthWest Conference 2005 which was held at Brunel Manor, a Christian conference centre situated on the outskirts of Torquay, Devon. The conference entitled ‘Proclaim to the peoples the message I have given you’ Jonah 3, commenced on evening of Friday 30th April and concluded at lunchtime on Monday 2nd May 2005.


Speakers included David Wells on Friday evening, Fr Pat Collins, who gave three
talks on aspects of evangelisation and led a healing service on Saturday and Sunday. Geoff and Gina Poulter from the Catholic Bible School ran a series of workshops over the weekend whilst Steve Murray provided a mime/drama aspect to the conference and also ran two mime related workshops.

An unusual activity for participants to sample was a ‘meditative drumming’ workshop run by Hy Cobb and Jacky. The original workshop on Saturday stimulated so much interest that an additional session was arranged for Sunday to ensure that everyone had an opportunity to participate. On Sunday evening a number of the ‘drummers’ demonstrated their newly acquired skills during part of the Praise and Worship session.



The conference was also blessed by a visit from Bishop Christopher Budd who celebrated the Sunday Conference Mass and enjoyed a brief drumming tutorial before joining participants for lunch.  Bishop Christopher expressed his thanks to all those involved in renewal who served the Church and diocese in a wide range of ministries.

On Sunday evening after a party style buffet meal there was a time of ‘Listening to God’ during which participants were invited to record words of prophecy and/or respond with a brief written prayer to particular things that had spoken to them during the weekend. At the end of the evening these were collected and prayed over by the DST and were integrated into a time of reflection, sharing and testimony on Monday. This proved to be a very powerful and uplifting time for the whole conference and was followed by a very heartfelt homily, full of humility and openness, by Fr Trevor Jordan during the celebration of the final Mass.


Many new friendships were made and existing ones renewed during the weekend, and participants left like Jonah, resolved to respond more positively the call to evangelise.
Tapes and CD’s of all the conference talks are available through Agape Ministries.

2006 2003