SHEEPDIP!
Every year in the Autumn, Forward in Faith hold the national Youth Festival Sheepdip. We take over a whole school in central Birmingham for the first weekend of October. If the accommodation is - well basic (!) the weekend is also lots of fun!
Young People aged 11 to 18 years descend on England’s second city from all parts. Everyone pays £30, brings an Air-Bed and Sleeping Bag, and Birmingham’s Saint Alban’s Voluntary Aided Church Secondary School becomes the Sheepdip venue once again. Classrooms become dormitories, Kay the school cook provides excellent food, Brenda the Caretaker takes care of everything, and the Sheepdip Leaders make sure everyone has a good time.
Starting with supper and a chance to "get to know" everyone on the Friday evening, Night Prayer sends us all to bed. Workshops on various themes fill Saturday and Mass is celebrated in the main hall. Saturday tea-time is the time when we have the opportunity to learn something more about our Faith, before enjoying Birmingham’s Premier Disco.
Sunday morning sees another Workshop before the great Sunday Sung Mass. Lunch over it is time to pack and after Benediction say our "goodbyes" and head for home with our address books filled with new e-mail ads and phone numbers.
Many churches struggle to attract more than one or two teenagers, and they can be isolated both at church and at school. The idea of Sheepdip is that these one or two teenagers in their scattered churches come together for the weekend and find other teenagers from other churches. Churches who attract just one or two young people send them to Sheepdip to find strength in numbers and encouragement in the Faith.
For more information about Sheepdip just ring 0121 373 8348 or write to the Sheepdip Office, 6 Saint Hugh’s Close, Bicester, Oxon, OX26 4UT. You may, of course, contact the Forward in Faith Office in London.
Handbills are available from the Forward in Faith Diocesan Chairmen and your Regional Dean.
Click here to download a POSTER
Click here to download an APPLICATION FORM
Ronald E. Crane SSC
