Christianity is a faith anchored in the community - a community made up of families. And in this country, until recently, it was easy for people to find like-minded families to pray and worship together. However, this has changed: fewer people identify as Christian and even fewer go to church. For those families wanting to live the Christian life, it has become harder to maintain this sense of community.

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It is against this backdrop that CELEBRATE was established in 1994, having recognised a lack of support for Catholic families in the UK who wanted to come together as Christians. Whilst there existed plenty of opportunities for adults, there were, at the time, no conferences that catered to people with young children. Realising this, they set up a holiday camp in Ilfracombe, Devon, which has turned into a hugely successful annual family-focused event. At these events, families worship and pray together. From 2008, regional events were organised, modelled on the original Ilfracombe conference.

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Out of the initial idea of organising residential conferences where families could encounter the Lord together, other initiatives have come. From 2010, the Trust began training young people to serve the conferences. Four groups graduated through their RELEASE programme, which has empowered and formed a younger generation of Catholics to support their communities.

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One of the most significant things to come out of CELEBRATE Trust is their young adult ministry called Joel’s Bar, supported by the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom. It is often as a young adult that keeping faith alive becomes challenging, as those raised in Catholic families venture out to the world to study and work. Joel’s Bar runs a week-long residential and has recently organised a new event called IMMERSE aimed at young adults aged 18 to 28, which brought together 130 young adults for its first parish event at Our Lady of Hal in Camden. It included people from all backgrounds: youth groups, post Confirmation groups, new Catholics and people discerning the Catholic faith.

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It is these experiences which strengthen a person’s faith since it is through community that we often experience the Holy Spirit. One person who has experienced this first hand is Holly, who went along to the family conferences and is now leading Joel’s Bar. “Many young people arrive at the conference either not having given their faith much thought before or even actively struggling with it,” she explains. “By the end they have had an experience which has changed them forever, leaving them totally fired up in faith.” And, as Holly points out, these people are then inspired to go out to spread the Good News themselves, either by setting up Bible study groups or other conferences.

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If someone is looking for evidence that the Holy Spirit is active in our world, CELEBRATE Trust provides ample. From a prayerful reflection in 1994, a family ministry was born that has genuinely and authentically transformed the lives of hundreds of people. And with a greater focus on supporting and firing up parish communities through the creation of online resources and a series of Bible-focused activities across the country and a new National event taking place this year, it is clear that their work is far from done.

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