Today was the Catholic Diocese of Arundel & Brighton's 50th Jubilee, and it was held at the American Express Community Stadium, located at Falmer, five miles north of Brighton & Hove. The Amex stadium is the home of local football team, Brighton & Hove Albion, also known as the Seagulls.
It was a long day - and I'm exhausted! - so I'll just try and give you a brief impression of the day with a few photographs.
The last few days have been very warm with temperatures in the high-20s Celsius (upper 80s Farenheit). I was rather concerned that many of our elderly attendees might have struggled with the heat today..
...No problem. Today at 8.00am a torrential rain began to fall on the city and continued for several hours. As we walked the ten-minute walk from the car park to the stadium we were absolutely soaked, our shoes waterlogged, our trousers wet and flapping, our hats stuck to our heads and a cold wet trickle working its way down our necks. Quite a start to the day!
After an 8.30am briefing, we scattered to our separate assigned posts. Mine was photography in the West Side area of the stadium, ably assisted by Mrs R.
It was early and the 200+ coaches still had to arrive. Our new Bishop Richard was already at work, welcoming the early comers (and exchanging 'high fives').
Our area contained the majority of the exhibitors' stalls, 39 out of 50, and they soon attracted a steady stream of browsers from 9.30am when the coaches began arriving. Popular stalls included Chemin Neuf...
The CTS...
and Taize, an ecumenical monastic order founded in France in 1940 and popular with young pilgrims who value its focus on prayer, devout music, Bible study, sharing and communal work.
By late morning the area was packed...
At the West reception were a couple of exhibitions, first the treasures and vestments of the Diocese...
And on the other side of the entranceway, the history of the Diocese ( - well, the 50 years of it!).
The Bishop mentioned that as many as 1,500 people had volunteered to help organise the Jubilee. I know for sure that the staff of DABCEC (the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton Christian Education Centre) had put in a phenomenal amount of work, planning, organising, preparing, printing, producing, directing and enabling. A small proof of it was the care given to crafts and flowers. This was one of the beautiful flower arrangements lurking in just one small corner of the West corridors. (Well done St Teresa's of Southwick with Portslade).
One of my assignments was to capture activity in the theatre areas. Much of the activity involved school choirs. However, the performing spaces tended to be just three or four feet from the audience - and proud parents wielding cameras and mobile phones were in the front rows so that it was virtually impossible to get a photograph that did not include a stray hand holding a phone....
For a while I even tried photographing from the side or the back....
However, even with all the distractions, there were some super performances...
There was even a play, RISE Theatre's 'Soldier to Saint' but - confession time - we were so busy trying to cover everything that we only got to it as the cast took a bow. The applause suggested it was a successful showing.
There was no doubt about the success of the Filipina Choir's performance. Again, sadly, I reached it as they were concluding their brief session but (maybe in gratitude for having earlier explained to them exactly where the Theatre was in the rabbit warren that is the Amex stadium) they posed for a photo.
Similarly, the Polish group (from Eastbourne I think) had everyone clapping, stamping and swaying...
As usual the Redshirts (the Youth Service Pilgrimage for Lourdes, school years 10 or 11) sang with passion and joy, led by John Watts, guitar maestro.
But, if there has to be a winner, my money would be on this group...I think they may be the Mauritian Blue Sash Choir.
If only because they actually got a couple dancing!
The highlight of the day was - of course - the Jubilee Celebration Mass. I made my way to the venue, the football pitch, passing the A&B Deaf and Hard of Hearing group, their usual sunny selves...
The stadium, which has a capacity of 30,750 was just over one-third full, with an estimated 11,000-plus people.
The rain had stopped by midday, it was comfortably warm and the skies were blue. The procession of altar servers, priests, deacons, bishops, archbishop and Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor slowly made their way round the field to the North side where an altar had been erected among the stands. (The celebrants included Bishop Dan Turley of Chulucanas Diocese in Peru, who I had the honour of greeting briefly last night just before he celebrated Mass at the Sacred Heart, Hove, with our own Fr Kevin).
And the altar...
As always, the music was wonderful, from Newman's rousing 'Praise to the Holiest in the height' to the Going Forth with text by Sylvia Dunstan and much from Paul Inwood, including the Penitential Act, Gloria and Gospel Acclamation. The acoustics were excellent - but there was one unscripted event...
During Bishop Richard's homily - on mercy and mission - a seagull circled the North end of the ground, swooped down until it was yards above our heads and then soared to the stadium roof, only to circle down again and again...and again. I even caught it on camera (see below)...
After the Consecration, the priests and deacons, over 100 of them, moved among the crowd to distribute communion...
And then it was over, and the participants processed out of the ground (the senior clergy being closely shadowed by the official photographer, Mazin!)
Outside, the children's funfair was in full swing, the children making up for time lost earlier when it was pouring with rain.
Deo gratias, another memorable day.
