Hallowe'en Horrors at Glastonbury

This time last year, I attended my first Youth 2000 prayer festival (I hasten to use the word 'retreat') at Glastonbury. Perhaps I will write more on Youth 2000 another time, but for a good account of the Glastonbury 2005 weekend, see here. My experience with Youth 2000 was fleeting, but had the desired effect of affirming me in my faith and encouraging me as a young Catholic, at odds with those around me! I have much praise for the organisation, despite not enjoying their charismatic style of worship.

Therefore it was with deep regret to learn of the disruption which happened at this year's Glastonbury prayer festival, as reported in The Times, The Guardian and even The Sun. It is tempting to get preoccupied with the fact that Glastonbury is such a Pagan town, when reminded of its great Christian heritage, but that is no excuse to assault Pagans. It is annoying, on such processions, that bystanders will occasionally mock and taunt us - but that is no reason to abuse and reciprocate that hatred.

It is impossible for me to report what happened either way, since I was not present. But I can reproduce Youth 2000's official statement on the matter:

On 27-29 October, around 300 young Catholic adults from across the country gathered for a peaceful, prayerful retreat in Glastonbury, Somerset. It was a moving event and it helped many of them revive their spiritual lives in quiet meditation.

There have been some reports in the media, however, of incidents of harassment involving some people connected to the retreat. Youth 2000 is sensitive to the feelings of the local community and hopes that any issues can be ironed out. However, we would like to set out some of the facts, both about the retreat itself and the nature of our initiative.

• Firstly, Youth 2000 does not have ‘members’ – it runs retreats all around the country that are open to all young people aged 16-35. Although we do all we can to encourage a peaceful, prayerful spirit, the behaviour of particular individuals that arrive for a retreat is not under our direct control.
• Nor is Youth 2000 a hard-line fringe group, as suggested in some reports. As a registered charity that operates within the Catholic Church, we have worked alongside parishes and dioceses for the past 16 years - with the co-operation of many bishops and youth officers. Since 1991, we have quietly run 176 retreats – without these kind of problems.
• We are saddened to hear some people felt offended and are deeply sorry for any distress that may have been caused to people in the local community by thoughtless individuals who do not represent our spirit of peaceful prayer.
• We are aware that in the past, some people have been uncomfortable with Youth 2000’s procession around the town of Glastonbury, which is a feature of the retreat. It shouldn’t be a problem for us to hold such a procession – but the people who live or work there do have the right to be free from any kind of harassment. Therefore, twice during the retreat, we emphasised that as guests in the community, those present needed to be sensitive to other people’s feelings and that the walk was to be completely peaceful and non-confrontational. The procession was held with the full co-operation of the local police.
• The vast majority of the retreat took place in the church and on the Tor, away from the town centre and its shops.
• There were several incidents that happened that same weekend that were linked to people who had come to Glastonbury for the retreat. One involved an abusive exchange of words in a local shop, which the owner found offensive and led to police intervention. Because of this, the person involved in this was not allowed to register at our retreat. Another involved directing blessed salt at some pagans witnessing the procession.
• Youth 2000 does not condone or encourage this kind of behaviour from anyone. We fully agree that differences on matters of faith cannot and should not be resolved by any kind of harassment.
• That said, we need to remember that there are two sides to every story. Youth 2000 is concerned that young people at the retreat were harassed, sworn at and even cursed by people present in the town at the time.
• The outcome of these events is that Youth 2000 will not be running a festival in Glastonbury next year. Due to these isolated incidents, some people in the local community have formed a wrong impression of the initiative. We agree, therefore, that it is for the best that we do not run a retreat in Glastonbury from now on.