Wednesday 16 May 2018

Grand Priory of Great Britain sponsors Summer Conference


Europe and the Faith : 
an inter-disciplinary Catholic conference
30th July to 3rd August 2018

The Grand Priory of Great Britain is sponsoring the Summer Conference in Chavagnes International College and Studium this year, where Order Chaplain Fr Mark Lawler is the Chaplain and also one of the speakers (G K Chesterton as his subject).

Although set in the beautiful and historic Vendée in the west of France, the College classes are taught in English (for boys of secondary age and now also at degree level at the Studium there). The Conference is also in English.

The Grand Priory is sponsoring the College Conference because it is a place of truly Christian education, where the Faith is an integral part of daily life and the boys are taught to embrace the Faith with  both joy and courage. It is also hoped that those attending the Conference might be a good audience among which to promote the work of the Order - approaching people already interested in their Faith. The Order will have an active presence at the Conference, with our Grand Prior, Chaplain General and at several other members - and prospective members -  hoping to be present.


Joseph Pearce will be the Keynote Speaker  -  “The Catholic vision of JRR Tolkien”  -  at the Summer Conference in Chavagnes, France, this year. Now in its third year, the Conference has proved to be a lively and interesting event in a convivial atmosphere, with daily Mass and visits to local places of Catholic interest.

Although in France (Nantes is the nearest airport) the Conference talks take place in English (which is also the language in which the College and Studium teach their secondary and tertiary students.)

JOSEPH PEARCE is a senior fellow at The Cardinal Newman Society and editor of its journal. He is a senior contributor at The Imaginative Conservative and senior editor at the Augustine Institute. Up until recently, Director of the Center for Faith and Culture at Aquinas College in Nashville, Tennessee he was previously on the staff of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire,  Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan and at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida. His books include biographical works on C.S. Lewis, Shakespeare, Tolkien, Chesterton, Wilde, Solzhenitsyn and Belloc. He is a visiting professor for the Studium’s new Liberal Arts degree being launched in September 2018.


Pontifical High Mass from one of the previous Conferences.

"A man’s view of himself is not an “aspect:” it is a comprehension. Now then, so it is with us who are of the Faith and the great story of Europe. A Catholic as he reads that story does not grope at it from without, he understands it from within. He cannot understand it altogether because he is a finite being; but he is also that which he has to understand. The Faith is Europe and Europe is the Faith.”                                                                                                                                              Hilare Belloc

You can find out more about the Conference (which is very reasonably priced and will also provide transport to and from Nantes Airport) - as well as an online booking form at:

http://chavagnes.org/conferences/

The College is set in the beautiful countryside of the French Vendée.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider speaking at a previous Conference.

The Little Office of Our Lady being sung in the Baudouin Chapel.

A convivial evening in the gardens.