Upcoming events at the House of the Open Door Community
The Community hosts many events throughout the year, using some of the facilities in our Retreat Centre; we list those coming up in a calendar below.
Our Tithe Barn is sometimes reserved for guest groups but is at other times is an ideal event space for meetings or conferences hosted by the community such as our Friday night Fellowship meetings, or those visiting for discipleship. Smaller meetings such as craft retreats take place in our Craft Studio.
If you are visiting for one of the events it may be possible for us to cater for you in our Dining Room; during your visit you are welcome to spend any spare time in our Retreat Centre Gardens.
To subscribe to this calendar click “Subscribe” bottom right and choose your calendar type e.g. Google Calendar
Jamie Price from Elim Limitless will be our speaker on 26th July, as part of our Gateway Summer Youth Conference 2023.
Jamie is the Director of Ministries for Limitless (Elim’s National Youth and Children’s ministry) and on the Limitless Pioneers team, helping churches with no youth ministries, start new youth ministries. He lives in Birmingham with his wife Debs and sons Jude and Ezekiel. In his spare time, he loves to run and read.
Allegra Mutanda will be our speaker on 27th July, as part of our Gateway Summer Youth Conference 2023.
Allegra is a lay woman in full time ministry in the Catholic Church. She is originally from the DR Congo and a native French speaker but has been living in the UK since 1995.
Allegra has extensive experience both in evangelisation and parish ministry having been involved in evangelisation since 2005. For 12 years, she was part of Sion Catholic Community for Evangelism whose charism is to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Her primary work there was in parish renewal and missions and in that time, worked with over a hundred Catholic parishes across the UK.
Since 2020, Allegra has been working for the Parish of St Peter and the Winchester Martyrs as their Director of Evangelisation and Leadership where she is helping the parish fulfil its vision of bringing people closer to Jesus Christ in hope and joy.
Allegra is passionate about evangelisation and helping people go deeper in their relationship with Jesus. She says, ‘my own faith grew and developed with the help of so many people along the way and still does. If I can play even a small part in another’s journey of faith, helping them fall in love with Jesus, grow closer to Him, and in their turn, start helping others along that road, then I am responding to my baptismal call’.
On Friday November 3 2023 our Friday Night Fellowship Meeting speaker will be Yoofi Clarke. Yoofi coordinates Praise Fest, a Catholic Charismatic Renewal prayer group in Milton Keynes, and is a member of the Charis service team (CDSC) for the diocese of Northampton.
Last time Yoofi spoke for our fellowship meeting he joined us remotely for an online meeting in 2021, so it will be a joy to welcome Yoofi in person this time.
Our fellowship meeting will be in the Tithe Barn at HOD for those who live locally. All welcome.
(We sometimes post recordings of our Friday night speakers afterwards on our YouTube channel).
See the Calendar of Events for Friday night speakers on other dates.
____
Yoofi Clarke serves the Lord as Coordinator of Praise Fest, a vibrant Catholic Charismatic Renewal prayer group in the cluster of St. Barnabas parishes in Milton Keynes.
He served as a member of the Diocesan Service Team for Northampton Diocese for over five years and was recently appointed as the Coordinator of the new Charismatic Diocesan Service of Communion for Northampton.
Yoofi has been involved in Catholic Charismatic Renewal for over 27 years and desires to see unity in the Body of Christ, and for us to live our faith outside the walls of the church building by developing a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit and being attentive to His voice in our daily activities.
He lives in Buckingham with his lovely wife Pep and their 2 amazing children.
Our First Friday Night Fellowship Meeting for December will have a speaker from the community.
Sr Hyacinthe Defos du Rau, O.P.
The speaker for our First Friday Fellowship Meeting for February 2024 will be Sr Hyacinthe Defos du Rau, O.P.
Sister Hyacinthe has known our community many years, since before she joined the Dominican Sisters of St. Joseph in 2000. She has spoken at Friday nights to our Fellowship before.
Sr Hyacinthe speaks and writes in catechesis, and leads the Dominican Sisters’ apostolate of Faith Formation lay adults and catechists, Light of Truth . She is a gifted communicator of the truths of Christian faith especially with the young, and uses the new media in her work (webinars and podcasts such as Sunday Gospel Podcasts).
Please come and join us as we seek the Lord together if you can. The evening concludes around 9.30-10 p.m. with refreshments.
We sometimes upload recordings of our Friday night speakers to our YouTube channel youtube.com/@houseoftheopendoor
See the Calendar of Events for Friday night speakers on other dates.
On Friday March 1 2024 our Friday Night Fellowship Meeting speakers will be Dr Martin and Rev Margot Hodson from A Rocha.
A Rocha UK is a Christian charity working to protect and restore the natural world and committed to equipping Christians and churches in the UK to care for the environment. Martin and Margot will speak about A Rocha and its work during their talk.
Both Martin and Margot are knowledgeable and passionate speakers, and have published widely together on Christianity and the environment, and have several books including A Christian Guide to Environmental Issues published for the Bible Reading Fellowship.
We look forward to Martin and Margot sharing with us. Our fellowship meeting will be in the Tithe Barn at HOD for those who live locally. All welcome.
We sometimes post recordings of our Friday night speakers afterwards on our YouTube channel.
See the Calendar of Events for Friday night speakers on other dates.
____
Dr. Martin Hodson is a plant scientist and environmental biologist. He teaches at both of the universities in Oxford and has over 100 publications, mostly in international science journals. Martin is also the Principal Tutor for the distance learning course, Christian Rural and Environmental Studies (CRES).
Revd. Margot Hodson is Theology and Education Director for the John Ray Initiative (JRI), an organisation connecting Environment, Science, and Christianity. She is also a Vicar in the Oxford Diocese. The Hodsons have published widely together on Christianity and the environment, and have several books including A Christian Guide to Environmental Issues (BRF, 2nd ed. 2021).
On Friday 19 April 2024 our Friday Night Fellowship Meeting speakers will be Annie and John Hughes.
John and Annie live in Ducklington, Oxfordshire, and John is a retired vicar. They are both chaplains at Open Doors and love encouraging young leaders in their journey of faith to step into more of God’s wonderful purposes.
They have three married sons and eleven grandchildren which helps to keep them young at heart!
Our fellowship meeting will be in the Tithe Barn at HOD for those who live locally. All welcome.
We sometimes post recordings of our Friday night speakers afterwards on our YouTube channel.
See the Calendar of Events for Friday night speakers on other dates.
____
Canon John Hughes was vicar of St Andrew’s High Wycombe for 15 years and retired from parish ministry in 2009 after 18 years as vicar of St John’s Harborne, Birmingham. He has a passion to train and equip disciples and more than 20 young men and women went forward for ordination during his time at St John’s. In the Birmingham Diocese he was on the Bishop’s Council as Chair of the House of Clergy and on General Synod, as well as being a Canon of Birmingham Cathedral.
Annie Hughes is a chaplain at Open Doors and previously worked as a chaplain in Healthcare. Annie loves to see lives, and a community, transformed by the power of God’s love and truth.
Open Doors UK supports millions of Christians at risk for following Jesus: in more than 70 countries, they help by supplying Bibles, providing emergency relief and helping persecuted believers stand strong for the long-term. In the UK and Ireland, Open Doors helps the church to pray, give and speak out for those who share our faith but not our freedom.
On Friday May 10 2024 our Friday Night Fellowship Meeting speaker will be Jason Charewicz. Jason will speak on the theme ‘Pleasure and Joy.’
Pleasure and Joy are familiar concepts to all of us. But familiarity can lead us to take things for granted, and our – perfectly natural – tendency sometimes to use the two as synonyms can obscure the differences and, at first glance strangely, to experience less of both. Drawing on inspiration primarily from CS Lewis and Aristotle, this talk will explore what pleasure and joy are, how the digital age in which we live can hinder or enhance them and provide a few practical suggestions for how we might better pursue them.
Jason Charewicz is the Caritas and Environment Officer for Clifton Diocese, supporting parishes and pastoral areas in mission-oriented formation as well as the Diocesan Jubilee Coordinator. He has led pilgrimages to Flame and to World Youth Day as well. Faith and Formation | Clifton Diocese
Our fellowship meeting will be in the Tithe Barn at HOD for those who live locally. All welcome.
We sometimes post recordings of our Friday night speakers afterwards on our YouTube channel.
See the Calendar of Events for Friday night speakers on other dates.
____
‘When we have been clothed…’
(2 Corinthians 5.3)
On Friday September 27 2024 our Friday Night Fellowship Meeting speaker will be Andy Swinford who will speak on the theme “When we have been clothed“
Andy will lead us in a deep dive into the fascinating subject of clothing in scripture. It is an important and inspiring topic running right through the Bible, from God’s clothing of Adam and Eve at the beginning, to the wedding garment of the Bride at the end of time. Sometimes we all need a change of clothes and this might be the night!
We look forward to Andy sharing with us. Our fellowship meeting will be in the Tithe Barn at HOD for those who live locally. All welcome.
We sometimes post recordings of our Friday night speakers afterwards on our YouTube channel.
See the Calendar of Events for Friday night speakers on other dates.
__________________
Andy formerly taught English Literature and is the author of 14 essays in ‘The Christian Tradition in English Literature’. He is about to publish ‘The Practice of Joy: insights from the stories of C S Lewis’. He also delivers multimedia presentations and on-line classes about the authors C S Lewis and Tolkien.
Andy Swinford
Walking in the countryside and beekeeping are among his chief pleasures. He is a long-standing friend of The House of the Open Door, and has spoken before at our Friday Night Fellowship Meetings.
On Friday October 11 2024 our Friday Night Fellowship Meeting speakers will be Tim Alford from Limitless.
Our fellowship meeting will be in the Tithe Barn at HOD for those who live locally. All welcome. We sometimes post recordings of our Friday night speakers afterwards on our YouTube channel.
See the Calendar of Events for Friday night speakers on other dates.
____
Tim lives in Malvern, England, with his wife Jen, and two kids, Tobijah and Aria. He is the National Director of Limitless, a Youth Ministry Specialist Lecturer at Regents Theological College, and author of Leadership 101: Your go-to guide to leading youth and children’s ministries into a brighter future.
Tim is passionate about equipping leaders and communicating the gospel, having spoken at conferences, churches, schools and events all over the world. He is an enthusiastic runner, a frustrated supporter of Arsenal, and has on more than one occasion been to the cinema in Star Wars fancy dress.
