CELEBRATE was started in 1994 by our wonderful founders Charles and Sue Whitehead, together with several others from Catholic charismatic renewal. Previously there had been an adult conference held at La Sainte Union College, Southampton but there was no provision for families. David Matthews, a speaker from Northern Ireland, had a prophetic word about starting a national family conference. After much prayer, Charles and Sue found a small holiday camp in Devon run by a Christian, with a large school nearby and CELEBRATE born! Catholic ministries from around the United kingdom were invited to serve together to cater for the children and youth for what became an annual family conference in Ilfracombe, Devon at Eastertide, so it united many groups from around the country.
In 2022, CELEBRATE became a registered charity and began to produce creative online resources to assist faith in the home. These have been shared with thousands of people as well as use in parishes and schools. More recently, we have launched innovative resources specifically designed for parish use. These are aimed at creating community and reaching out to those on the fringes of the church. CELEBRATE Trust contends for family faith through encouraging encounter with Jesus in everything we do and produce.
The support of the Guild has helped us deepen our commitment to seeing the lives of young people transformed by Christ through our Young Adults Ministry, Joel’s Bar. Most recently, we gathered 130 young people for the first Joel’s Bar parish event, ‘Immerse’. Our theme was Baptism in the Holy Spirit and it was a huge privilege to be able to minister to people from all different backgrounds: we had youth groups, post Confirmation groups, new Catholics and people discerning the Catholic faith. Many people attended who had never attended a Joel’s Bar event before as well as attracting returning attendees.
Testimonies from Immerse:
“It made me realise how much I need Jesus in my life and it made me rethink my whole life. It made me feel like I belong somewhere.”
“It was so beautiful to share the space with everybody and have time for such deep, profound worship. I also thought the speaker was amazing! Really immersive.”
“I felt God’s love and presence. I was so touched, I could really feel God was there with us all!”
One of the many fruits of Joel’s Bar is our new Joel’s Bar Lead, Holly. She grew up going to CELEBRATE and Joel’s Bar and has now undertaken our first ever lead position. She shares:
“Something that Joel’s Bar has always done wonderfully, is bringing people on a journey. Many young people arrive at the conference either not having given their faith much thought before or even actively struggling with it and by the end have had an experience which has changed them forever. We’ve seen so much fruit over the years of young adults who leave Joel’s Bar totally fired up in faith and have gone on to start conferences/Bible study groups of their own, join Catholic communities or commit to mission across the world.
When we talk of green shoots however, I personally think of the little ways in which Joel’s Bar makes a difference in people’s lives. I myself first attended Joel’s Bar as part of the larger Celebrate conference and had a deep experience with the Lord during prayer ministry. When I returned, I didn’t change my job or what I was doing day to day but instead felt new shoots of faith start popping up in smaller ways- the way I treated my colleagues, the way I chose to conduct myself amongst my friends, the choices I’d make in all the small decisions of my days.
I think this is something that is so beautiful about Joel’s Bar. It encourages you to begin and grow deeper in your own walk with the Lord, whatever that might look like. It helps you to make small shifts in your life which can lead to bigger changes but always lead you to a deeper relationship with Jesus and a path of discipleship.”
Holly now works as our first ever Joel’s Bar Lead, bringing her own experience of and passion for the ministry of Joel’s Bar to her work of proclaiming Christ to other Young Adults, creating community centred on Him and training up young leaders who are confident to go out and proclaim the Gospel in the communities and parishes where they are.
We desire to see more and more hearts on fire for Christ and we would love to see parishes throughout the UK thriving. We plan to launch our Bible Celebrations at our National Weekend in September, a resource aimed at bringing people of all ages together, and especially to attract families to a local event in the parish.
We hope to create community and relationships with the hope of encouraging non-parishioners towards attendance at church. We hope to equip and empower our young people to go back to their parishes and plan to create packs to specifically support them in this, forming intentional, missionary disciples. Our ultimate dream is that what our families and young people experience at CELEBRATE events will be the norm in parish life.
For more about the ministry of Celebrate Trust, head over to their website.
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