Let Us dream

On Saturday 23rd September 2023, our Parish welcomed John Paul De Quay from The Ecological Conversion Group for a ‘Let us Dream’ deanery workshop.  The first of a planned series of talks to be organised by our LiveSimply team.  

The vision of Journey to 2030, inspired by Pope Francis,  is to ‘help communities to dream of, and build a better future for all’.

In Fratelli Tutti 8, Pope Francis wrote "...No one can face life in isolation… We need a community that supports and helps us, in which we can help one another to keep looking ahead. How important it is to dream together… By ourselves, we risk seeing mirages, things that are not there. Dreams, on the other hand, are built together."

The Let Us Dream workshop was attended by a number of Parishioners from Woking and Knaphill which began with a reflective Mass celebrated by Fr Rob. Having been treated to delicious refreshments baked by some of the LiveSimply hosts, the Let Us Dream workshop began.

John Paul is an inspiring speaker who asked us a challenging question:

What do we want our Parish to look like in 2030?

John Paul explained that we need to be aware that society and the environment are ‘bound in an integral ecology’ where a healthy society leads to a healthy environment but where a ‘dysfunctoinal society’ will also create a ‘dysfunctional environment’.  I think we can all see evidence that our ‘dysfunctional society’ is currently wreaking havoc on our environment and particularly its poorest.

What can we do as a parish to care for society, the environment and the poor to create a healthy integral ecology in our community?

With these thoughts in mind we were then asked to work in groups to ‘dream’ of our vision for our Parishes and produce a poster using colourful pens of this ‘dream’.

As someone who has always loved nature and is often moved by God’s creation, I found the workshop challenging in a number of ways. Firstly, it was overcoming the negative voices in my head and actually allowing myself to ‘dream big’. Secondly, it was the realisation of how much might need to be done to truly create an integral society. However, when our group began to list the work already being carried out and supported in Woking by our parish, it was wonderful to see how much is already being achieved that can be built on. Finally, it was the challenge of how to bring the ‘Dream’ about.

Laudate Deum

I left the workshop feeling inspired to try to make a difference and with many ideas swirling around in my head. There is much to feel positive about. As a member of the LiveSimply Cafod group, I am hopeful that our Parishes of Woking and Knaphill can begin to bring some of our recent ‘dreams’ for a caring, just and sustainable society to fruition.

Pope Francis has now written Laudate Deum in which he exhorts those in power to take real action to try to minimise the climate change now occurring. He asks us all to  “accompany this pilgrimage of reconciliation with the world that is our home and help to make it more beautiful.” (#69)

Let Us Dream and then work together and pray together to achieve these dreams.

For further information go to The Journey to 2030.