About forty people gathered together for our conference United with Mary in Prayer: Ecumenism and the Mother of God at Kents’ medieval Carmelite priory and Marian shrine at Aylesford. Although fewer in number than in 2004 a great atmosphere of prayerful fellowship and ecumenical growth was experienced over the weekend.

We were welcomed on the Friday afternoon by the new prior of Aylesford, Fr Brendan Grady O.Carm, former Shrine Director at England’s National Shrine of St Jude at Faversham. He also spoke to us briefly about Blessed Titus Brandsma, whom the conference centre is named after. Blessed Titus was a remarkable Dutch Carmelite, an academic and mystic with a strong devotion to Our Lady. He was an ecumenist who worked tirelessly for reunion with the Churches of the East. He also worked closely with Protestant scholars on translating the works of St Teresa of Avila, and other projects.

Much ahead of his time, he saw the media as an important means of evangelisation and worked as a journalist and radio broadcaster, eventually becoming chaplain to the Dutch union of journalists and spearheading moral resistance to the Nazis before and after Hollands’ invasion. As a result he was arrested and sent to Dachau where he was martyred, having made an impression on people of all faiths and none in the concentration camp by his humility and kindliness.

Avuncular Prebendary Norman Wallwork got us off to a good start with his paper on Mary, Mother of all God’s Children, looking at Mary as Mother of all Christians and Mother of all other faiths, acknowledged or unacknowledged. She is,he said eternally present with all who have received the light of God within their own faith and culture and emphasised the importance of Mary in Islam and the only woman mentioned by name in the Koran.

Irish Carmelite theologian, Dr Chris O’Donnell was unable to stay the whole weekend with us as originally intended as he had to arrive and fly back to Dublin on the Friday. We are indebted to Fr.Chris for his efforts to come and deliver his incisive paper on Relating to Mary:An Ecumenical Impasse?. He looked at different ways of relating to Mary to enrich and support relationship with God. As a Carmelite he looked on Mary as Mother, Patroness and Sister always pointing towards God and suggested a new model of Mary as Friend accompanying them to God .This was discussed by different speakers later and seen as a helpful ecumenical model.

After supper Sr Judith Gray CSC, chaplain at Westminster Abbey gave us an excellent feminine perspective on Mary. Following her talk we viewed a video that our general secretar,y Fr Bill Mccloughlin had sent with a message to us all about the work of the ESBVM as he was unable to attend because of poor health and the PAMI conference at Lourdes.

All of our speakers’ papers stimulated further discussion and rewarding debate. An important part of any ESBVM conference is liturgy and we celebrated the society Morning and Evening Prayer in the beautiful St Joseph’s chapel with wonderful ceramics by Adam Kossowski depicting the life of Mary and also that of Elijah. There is also a magnificent contemporary carved statue of a vigourous St Joseph behind the altar.

Norman Wallwork celebrated a Methodist Eucharisitc liturgy in the chapel on Saturday morning attended by our guest, Mgr Andrew Faley ,Assistant General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ conference for England and Wales, who attended for the day. He praised the work of the ESBVM and commended its influence on the deep spirituality at the heart of ARCIC. He felt that there was plenty of discussion on doctrine in ecumenical debate but what was lacking was an awareness of the need for a catechesis of ecumenism and led us in a reflective meditation. The new Carmelite novices attended this and also attended a couple of other lectures so hopefully the spirit of ecumenism will be nurtured in their vocation!

We were greatly privileged to have HE Metropolitan Kallistos Ware with us for two days before he led a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He gave a riveting paper on The Burning Bush :The Teaching of Fr Sergei Bulgakov and The Mother of God and took part in a panel discussion with Mgr Faley and other speakers to good effect. Fr Bulgakov was Arussian Orthodox theologian of great spiritual insight and Marian devotion. Picking up on Fr Chis O’Donnell’s words on Mary as sister he said that this concept was explored by Fr Bulgakov, Bishop Kallistios lamented the fact that St. John the Baptist was overlooked in Western iconography and particularly Roman Catholicism. I was able to point out that the Baptist was present in the conference Centre in a painting and in other representations of him around the Priory.

The weather was atrocious for most of the time and the heavy rain prevented the Carmelites celebrating Saturday night compline around the statue at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Assumption which was disappointing for those not familiar with the tradition.

Following compline in the Community choir chapel attended by most of our conference there was a reflection in words and music on Mary. Thanks to professional organist Andrew Cesana * for his soloist performance at short notice, and to Fr Brendan who accompanied me in the recitation of some Marian poetry.

Each evening the bar was open which allowed space for socialisng and more informal discussion of topics raised during the day. Sunday we joined the main Mass of the day celebrated by Carmelite Fr Piet Wijngaard as a Mass for Christian Unity in the Relic Chapel. More of Kossowski’s splendid ceramics adorn this chapel too,including stations of the cross which has a fifteenth station depicting the Resurrection over the main altar.To the left is a side chapel dedicated to the Martyrs,where the sacrament is reserved and to the right are ceramics of all the Carmelite saints behind a side altar

All ordained clergy took part in the procession by kind invitation of the prior and processed across the shrine to the chapel. Our banner was also carried in procession by Sr Coronata, recovered from her ordeal of missing the plane from Dublin on the Friday, and Amanda Hill. Other members read the readings and took the gifts up to the altar at the Offertory procession.

David Carter & Fr Robert Norwood read the bidding prayers and Dr Cornick, General Secretary of Churches Together concluded these with the prayer for Christian Unity from the little booklet on Carmel at Aylesford by the former prior, Fr Francis Kemsley. It was a very prayerful and memorable celebration and Dr Cornick and others remarked how moved they were by the ecumenical hospitality shown to them.

Afterwards a coach took most of our number to Rochester and a few travelled by car. There was a slight delay as we temporarily lost Frank,our society Treasurer, so that a few of us then missed being greeted by the Dean at Rochester Cathedral. However,we were also greeted by the very personable Canon Pastor before splitting into two groups for a guided tour. The Cathedral is England’s second oldest and dates back to 604 being founded by bishop Justus in the reign of King Ethelbert.

A magnificent fresco by Russian artist, Sergei Fyodorov depicts Augustine baptising Ethelbert in Canterbury and Saxon converts subsequently being baptised. It was painted in 2004 and dedicated on the feast of John the Baptist and was the first fresco to be painted in an English Cathedral for 800 years. There are also wonderful representations of the baptism of Christ and of Elijah, closely linked with John the Baptist in religious iconography, and of Jonah and the whale.

It really is quite breathtaking and hopefully will soon be included in the virtual tour on the Cathedral’s website,which you can visit to make another tour of the Cathedral to refresh your memory on www.rochestercathedral.org/virtualtour.

Organist Andrew Cesana met us in Rochester for the tour and joined us for a celebratory lunch at Restaurant Elizabeth which features as Uncle Pumblechook’s home in Dickens’ Great Expectations. The restaurant had great character and everyone enjoyed the excellent lunch.
Afterwards we had some free time. I decided to explore the Dickens’ Centre opposite the restaurant and see the panoramic views from the castle.

ESBVM evening prayer was celebrated in the Cathedral Lady Chapel led by Rev.Marianne Atkinson,whose husband Bob was ordained there fifty years ago. We then returned to Aylesford for supper. Oxford University lecturer and Vice Principal of Ripon College, Cuddesdon, the Rev’s Dr Mark Chapman, spoke to us in the evening about Mary ,Dr Pusey, and Reunion. He included material about Newman too which was of particular interest., especially contrasting their views. His lecture was drawn from material he is researching for a book. We were particularly grateful to him for altering previous arrangements in order to be with us for the weekend. He expressed great interest in the work of our society and hopefully will be joining the Oxford branch. He also kindly suggested that we held a future conference at his college.

Our final day was Our Lady’s birthday and following ESBVM morning prayer, Dr David Cornick gave our last paper about the Reformed and Mary concentrating particularly on Agnes Lewis Smith,an extraordinary Victorian who became the first woman biblical scholar. A Presbyterian,she travelled throughout the Middle East, learnt Syriac, befriended the Metropolitan Archbishoop of Sinai and stayed at St Catherine’s monastery researching ancient texts and discovered the earliest known Syriac text of the Gospel. She also visited the Catholic shrine of Lourdes.

Dr Cornick, comes from the United Reformed tradition and became General Secretary of Churches Together for England earlier this year and said he was delighted that the ESBVM had recently joined the organisation He revealed that he always kept a statue of Mary on his desk and that ours was the first Marian conference he had attended. We learnt much from his amiable and gentle spirituality throughout the weekend.

Our conference concluded with Anglican eucharist celebtrated by Dr.Chapman, assisted by Rev. Marianne Atkinson acting as deacon .It was a moving moment when delegates from other traditions went up to receive a blessing from both of them.

Following lunch we made our separate ways home inspired by a prayerful and theologically challenging and ecumenically rewarding weekend.

It is hoped that papers will be published and some discussions and photographs will be available on our website esbvm.org.uk.

Grateful thanks to Rev. Marianne Atkinson for the loan of the Pentecost icon depicting Mary and the disciples united in prayer, waiting for the Holy Spirit which provided the perfect visual focus throughout the conference and to Kit Hafner for the loan beautiful carved wooden statue of Our Lady which came from Germany and graced the conference centre for the weekend.

The Prior of Aylesford has launched an urgent appeal for the restoration of the historic Watergate ,which leads to the river and is links the old accomodation block to the Pilgrims’ Hall.Over two million is needed to restore this listed medieval gateway,an integral part of Aylesford’s structure.

I know there are many calls on one’s generosity and in the finacial difficulties our country is experiencing it is hard to find spare cash.Any donation, however small ,will be gratefully and prayerfully received by the Carmelites, so do remember this wonderful Marian Shrine along with other Christmas appeals and help preserve this oasis of calm for future generations.