Here in a display cabinet at Ushaw College in County Durham is a reminder of cruelty associated with the demands of religion in this case my own religion, the Church of England. Even when O'Keefe came as a student in the 1950s, Latin was compulsory up to A-level and the life of the student academic enclosed.
Here I am with Brian my brother-in-law inside the main Chapel first completed by Augustus Pugin in 1847 then enlarged in 1879 to fit 350 to serve the burgeoning Roman Catholic community and its need for priests. Now there are 30, none under 21, many in their late 20s and 30s and some approaching 50. Tucked away on a wooded estate overlooking County Durham, it is a vast, rambling stone building that opens out endlessly into great halls, refectories, Pugin chapels, long corridors and inner courtyards, the nearest thing to Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. In the mid-1990s, he was a key member of the working party to the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales on cases where the sexual abuse of children involved priests. He believes that celibacy should be a choice, rather than compulsory, but he is very sure about the important role a celibate priest can play in contemporary society. Much of Ushaw's training style and class structure can be taken from these establishments, particularly that of Douai College, from which Ushaw was the descendant in northern England. Current seminarians include a former driving instructor, a prison visitor and an engineer, a computer programmer, a young man with a law degree, a former member of the merchant navy, a teacher, a gardener and a supermarket worker. The priest is no longer on a pedestal, and can be despised. graduation from Ushaw College, then a senior seminary in Durham, U.K. Ushaw College Established as a Catholic Seminary in 1808, Ushaw College represents the largest and most significant concentration of buildings, archives, books, art-works, and other artefacts related to the history of Catholicism in the North of England. These days students are required to go out into the world. I'm a Sussex based priest, ideas and people person, author and broadcaster. What can be the role of a celibate male priesthood in an age which has seen the triumph of secularism in Western democracies and left the Church in crisis, ripped apart by sexual scandal among its ordained, and with increasing non-attendance by its laity? In addition, 16,000 visitors passed through the college's conference centre last year. It now also offers public tours, and boasts a spectacularly well maintained garden alongside the exhibitions we have now opened. The annual gathering of the St Cuthbert's Society, an old boys' reunion, is open to all former seminarians, even those lost from the fold. Eerie photos show chilling scenes inside austere abandoned Catholic seminary haunted by allegations of sex abuse by priests. It can be a lonely, embattled existence. During their six-year formation they are sent out on extended placements into parishes or as hospital, school or university chaplains.
Since 2011 Ushaw has been without trainee priests but it remains open for worship and for visitors like ourselves. But the emphasis is just as much on spiritual and human development. A core academic curriculum remains - biblical studies, systemic theology, patristics, philosophy and religion, the study of New Testament Greek and elementary Hebrew. Ushaw College - some reflections by Canon John Twisleton.
Ushaw College, a seminary five miles outside Durham, has seen its numbers double this year.
Our team of volunteers has helped us rebuild Ushaw to it's former glory, and turned it into one of the most beautiful and spiritual places in England. He came back to Ushaw in 1977 to run its pastoral theology and communications department.
Here in a display cabinet at Ushaw College in County Durham is a reminder of cruelty associated with the demands of religion in this case my own religion, the Church of England. Even when O'Keefe came as a student in the 1950s, Latin was compulsory up to A-level and the life of the student academic enclosed.
Here I am with Brian my brother-in-law inside the main Chapel first completed by Augustus Pugin in 1847 then enlarged in 1879 to fit 350 to serve the burgeoning Roman Catholic community and its need for priests. Now there are 30, none under 21, many in their late 20s and 30s and some approaching 50. Tucked away on a wooded estate overlooking County Durham, it is a vast, rambling stone building that opens out endlessly into great halls, refectories, Pugin chapels, long corridors and inner courtyards, the nearest thing to Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. In the mid-1990s, he was a key member of the working party to the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales on cases where the sexual abuse of children involved priests. He believes that celibacy should be a choice, rather than compulsory, but he is very sure about the important role a celibate priest can play in contemporary society. Much of Ushaw's training style and class structure can be taken from these establishments, particularly that of Douai College, from which Ushaw was the descendant in northern England. Current seminarians include a former driving instructor, a prison visitor and an engineer, a computer programmer, a young man with a law degree, a former member of the merchant navy, a teacher, a gardener and a supermarket worker. The priest is no longer on a pedestal, and can be despised. graduation from Ushaw College, then a senior seminary in Durham, U.K. Ushaw College Established as a Catholic Seminary in 1808, Ushaw College represents the largest and most significant concentration of buildings, archives, books, art-works, and other artefacts related to the history of Catholicism in the North of England. These days students are required to go out into the world. I'm a Sussex based priest, ideas and people person, author and broadcaster. What can be the role of a celibate male priesthood in an age which has seen the triumph of secularism in Western democracies and left the Church in crisis, ripped apart by sexual scandal among its ordained, and with increasing non-attendance by its laity? In addition, 16,000 visitors passed through the college's conference centre last year. It now also offers public tours, and boasts a spectacularly well maintained garden alongside the exhibitions we have now opened. The annual gathering of the St Cuthbert's Society, an old boys' reunion, is open to all former seminarians, even those lost from the fold. Eerie photos show chilling scenes inside austere abandoned Catholic seminary haunted by allegations of sex abuse by priests. It can be a lonely, embattled existence. During their six-year formation they are sent out on extended placements into parishes or as hospital, school or university chaplains.
Since 2011 Ushaw has been without trainee priests but it remains open for worship and for visitors like ourselves. But the emphasis is just as much on spiritual and human development. A core academic curriculum remains - biblical studies, systemic theology, patristics, philosophy and religion, the study of New Testament Greek and elementary Hebrew. Ushaw College - some reflections by Canon John Twisleton.
Ushaw College, a seminary five miles outside Durham, has seen its numbers double this year.
Our team of volunteers has helped us rebuild Ushaw to it's former glory, and turned it into one of the most beautiful and spiritual places in England. He came back to Ushaw in 1977 to run its pastoral theology and communications department.
Here in a display cabinet at Ushaw College in County Durham is a reminder of cruelty associated with the demands of religion in this case my own religion, the Church of England. Even when O'Keefe came as a student in the 1950s, Latin was compulsory up to A-level and the life of the student academic enclosed.
Here I am with Brian my brother-in-law inside the main Chapel first completed by Augustus Pugin in 1847 then enlarged in 1879 to fit 350 to serve the burgeoning Roman Catholic community and its need for priests. Now there are 30, none under 21, many in their late 20s and 30s and some approaching 50. Tucked away on a wooded estate overlooking County Durham, it is a vast, rambling stone building that opens out endlessly into great halls, refectories, Pugin chapels, long corridors and inner courtyards, the nearest thing to Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. In the mid-1990s, he was a key member of the working party to the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales on cases where the sexual abuse of children involved priests. He believes that celibacy should be a choice, rather than compulsory, but he is very sure about the important role a celibate priest can play in contemporary society. Much of Ushaw's training style and class structure can be taken from these establishments, particularly that of Douai College, from which Ushaw was the descendant in northern England. Current seminarians include a former driving instructor, a prison visitor and an engineer, a computer programmer, a young man with a law degree, a former member of the merchant navy, a teacher, a gardener and a supermarket worker. The priest is no longer on a pedestal, and can be despised. graduation from Ushaw College, then a senior seminary in Durham, U.K. Ushaw College Established as a Catholic Seminary in 1808, Ushaw College represents the largest and most significant concentration of buildings, archives, books, art-works, and other artefacts related to the history of Catholicism in the North of England. These days students are required to go out into the world. I'm a Sussex based priest, ideas and people person, author and broadcaster. What can be the role of a celibate male priesthood in an age which has seen the triumph of secularism in Western democracies and left the Church in crisis, ripped apart by sexual scandal among its ordained, and with increasing non-attendance by its laity? In addition, 16,000 visitors passed through the college's conference centre last year. It now also offers public tours, and boasts a spectacularly well maintained garden alongside the exhibitions we have now opened. The annual gathering of the St Cuthbert's Society, an old boys' reunion, is open to all former seminarians, even those lost from the fold. Eerie photos show chilling scenes inside austere abandoned Catholic seminary haunted by allegations of sex abuse by priests. It can be a lonely, embattled existence. During their six-year formation they are sent out on extended placements into parishes or as hospital, school or university chaplains.
Since 2011 Ushaw has been without trainee priests but it remains open for worship and for visitors like ourselves. But the emphasis is just as much on spiritual and human development. A core academic curriculum remains - biblical studies, systemic theology, patristics, philosophy and religion, the study of New Testament Greek and elementary Hebrew. Ushaw College - some reflections by Canon John Twisleton.
Ushaw College, a seminary five miles outside Durham, has seen its numbers double this year.
Our team of volunteers has helped us rebuild Ushaw to it's former glory, and turned it into one of the most beautiful and spiritual places in England. He came back to Ushaw in 1977 to run its pastoral theology and communications department.
Father Jim O'Keefe, the president of Ushaw, feels constantly challenged on this subject, and as the recipient of many personal letters from priests over the years, is well aware of the difficulties they face. But before we start to see signs of a religious resurgence at the dawn of a new millennium, let's be clear about the figures. Things have certainly changed dramatically since those first decades at Ushaw, when the formation was largely academic and the staple teaching method was dictation in Latin.
", O'Keefe takes this type of plea seriously. Since closure, Ushaw has been transformed into a centre for heritage and culture in the North-East, with a selection of performances and religious events taking place here. He obtained a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology from Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, U.S.A., in 2001 and a Postgraduate Certificate in Behavioural Forensic Psychology from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, U.K., in 2010.
Here in a display cabinet at Ushaw College in County Durham is a reminder of cruelty associated with the demands of religion in this case my own religion, the Church of England. Even when O'Keefe came as a student in the 1950s, Latin was compulsory up to A-level and the life of the student academic enclosed.
Here I am with Brian my brother-in-law inside the main Chapel first completed by Augustus Pugin in 1847 then enlarged in 1879 to fit 350 to serve the burgeoning Roman Catholic community and its need for priests. Now there are 30, none under 21, many in their late 20s and 30s and some approaching 50. Tucked away on a wooded estate overlooking County Durham, it is a vast, rambling stone building that opens out endlessly into great halls, refectories, Pugin chapels, long corridors and inner courtyards, the nearest thing to Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. In the mid-1990s, he was a key member of the working party to the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales on cases where the sexual abuse of children involved priests. He believes that celibacy should be a choice, rather than compulsory, but he is very sure about the important role a celibate priest can play in contemporary society. Much of Ushaw's training style and class structure can be taken from these establishments, particularly that of Douai College, from which Ushaw was the descendant in northern England. Current seminarians include a former driving instructor, a prison visitor and an engineer, a computer programmer, a young man with a law degree, a former member of the merchant navy, a teacher, a gardener and a supermarket worker. The priest is no longer on a pedestal, and can be despised. graduation from Ushaw College, then a senior seminary in Durham, U.K. Ushaw College Established as a Catholic Seminary in 1808, Ushaw College represents the largest and most significant concentration of buildings, archives, books, art-works, and other artefacts related to the history of Catholicism in the North of England. These days students are required to go out into the world. I'm a Sussex based priest, ideas and people person, author and broadcaster. What can be the role of a celibate male priesthood in an age which has seen the triumph of secularism in Western democracies and left the Church in crisis, ripped apart by sexual scandal among its ordained, and with increasing non-attendance by its laity? In addition, 16,000 visitors passed through the college's conference centre last year. It now also offers public tours, and boasts a spectacularly well maintained garden alongside the exhibitions we have now opened. The annual gathering of the St Cuthbert's Society, an old boys' reunion, is open to all former seminarians, even those lost from the fold. Eerie photos show chilling scenes inside austere abandoned Catholic seminary haunted by allegations of sex abuse by priests. It can be a lonely, embattled existence. During their six-year formation they are sent out on extended placements into parishes or as hospital, school or university chaplains.
Since 2011 Ushaw has been without trainee priests but it remains open for worship and for visitors like ourselves. But the emphasis is just as much on spiritual and human development. A core academic curriculum remains - biblical studies, systemic theology, patristics, philosophy and religion, the study of New Testament Greek and elementary Hebrew. Ushaw College - some reflections by Canon John Twisleton.
Ushaw College, a seminary five miles outside Durham, has seen its numbers double this year.
Our team of volunteers has helped us rebuild Ushaw to it's former glory, and turned it into one of the most beautiful and spiritual places in England. He came back to Ushaw in 1977 to run its pastoral theology and communications department.
