The conference was opened by Bishop John Hine, Chair of the Committee on Marriage and Family Life, facilitated by Paul Farmer Director of MIND and there were contributions from Chris Danes writer and campaigner; Julia Head Chaplain at the Maudsley hospital; Edna Hunneysett mother, writer and campaigner as well as several workshops run by experts in their field.

(Photo from left: Elizabeth Davies, Bishop John Hine, Janette Davidson from Australia)

Statistics are notoriously difficult to work with and the ones we heard this weekend ranged from 1 in 6 of the general population as coming to the attention of the caring services with a mental health difficulty (“that’s an awful lot of Catholics” as one contributor put it) to 1:1 as suggested by Peter Gilbert, Professor of Social Work and Spirituality at Staffordshire University. Seventy per cent of suicides are not in contact with any of the mental health or caring agencies.

(Photo: organisers and some speakers)

Whatever the statistics appear to say it is a fact not universally acknowledged that mental health affects us all. Our mental health is the prism with which we interpret and react to both ourselves and the world around us. Like physical health we can develop good mental health habits. Like physical health sometimes we cannot cope and need specialist help to cope with mental distress and illnesses of varying degrees and intensities.

(Photo: Group orientation)

It was very distressing to hear first hand witness of how we as church have turned away from people in real mental distress. It was heartening to hear first hand accounts of how we as church have been courageous enough to be with people in their illness. Courage might seem like a strange word to use but what we learned this weekend is that in the media mental illness is so often twinned with violence that many people have an almost automatic association between mental health and violence and are as fearful of those with mental illness as people of Jesus’ day were fearful of lepers.

A stark warning emerged – if we do not embrace our mentally ill and minister to their spiritual needs they may turn to all kinds of fanciful and even dangerous practices in desperation. Clearly where people need a physician they should have one but mental health needs should not stop us as a local church offering shelter for individuals and their carers and families who suffer needlessly from stigma and marginalisation.

Families are the source from which our life on earth is nourished and the need of families to be valued in all the daily delights and griefs we suffer was also a theme this weekend. We had a preview of a new resource for individuals, schools and parishes, to encourage families to recognise the holiness present in our everyday lives.

Look out for what promises to be a lovely, easy to use, DVD at a school or parish near you in the near future. Contact Elizabeth Davies, Project Manager for Celebrating Family at elizabeth.davies@cbcew.org.uk Tel: 01902 621594to find out more and to be added to the mailing list.

To close the weekend Janette Davidson from Broken Bay Australia shared how local relationships were being developed in parishes where she lives through initiatives like family friendly Masses and networking in high-rise housing developments. Janette has been encouraged by our own experience in England and Wales, where we began, as Janette does in Sydney, with finding out where people are, listening to them and their needs. We did this in 2004 when the Bishops of England and Wales launched Listening 2004 to find out what the reality of family life was like for ordinary Catholics and how the church could serve them. ‘Celebrating Family: Blessed Broken Living Love’ is the Bishops' response to what people said.

As we left it seemed to me fitting that the hotel was abuzz with families and children excitedly preparing for a day out at Cadbury World. Ah, the delights of family life!

www.listening2004.org.uk

www.celebratingfamily.org.uk

www.homeisaholyplace.org.uk

www.passingonthefaith.org.uk