Sydney pilgrims go to Santiago at IWitness

Held at Sydney's nothern beaches conference centre, The Collaroy Centre, the young people heard a host of enriching talks, had all night Adoration and daily Mass as well as took part in some seriously fun activities.

One programmed event was 'The Amazing Pilgrimage' which had ten teams of young people trekking from Lourdes to Santiago de Compostela to the River Jordan.

Inspired by the ‘Amazing Race,’ this game took on a very Catholic spirit as each team was named after a saint.

Out of the ten saints who participated in the game, it was the teams under the patronage of St Agnes and St Maria Goretti, which won in the end.

"And they were up against saints like St Augustine, St Ignatius and St Joseph," one of the organisers of iWitness, Jovina Graham, 24, said incredulously.

There was a strong line-up of speakers including Bishop Julian Porteous who preached on the relevance of Christ, 2000 years after his birth and the Dominican Sisters of St Cecelia from Nashville talked about how to “Take up your Cross.”

The new rector at the Seminary of the Good Shepherd in Sydney, Fr Tony Percy, also addressed the youth. He asked them if they wanted "Longer lasting LOVE?” before launching into a discussion on God's plan for human sexuality.

This then led into a session where men were separated from women for a short time in order for the attendees to hear about the way to true manhood and true womanhood respectively.

His Eminence Cardinal George Pell gave the keynote address on the Church and the Papacy, before leading the attendees in an outdoor candle-lit rosary.

At the close of the conference, the team of co-ordinators was presented spontaneously with a book of heartfelt thank you messages from the attendees.

“Thank you for organising such a beautiful conference! It's been a wonderful opportunity to 'slow down' and meet other people in the same boat to network … We are part of the next generation to set the world on fire,” a 26-year-old man wrote.

And from a 21-year-old young lady, “Thank you so much for everything you've done. You truly have enlightened me and touched my heart. You've made me a stronger Christian with better faith and have changed my life.”

And yet another voice, this time a 17-year-old from Sydney said “I felt the presence of God more than usual. I saw God and heard His voice during this weekend. Thank you for giving me this great opportunity.”

This unplanned standing ovation that accompanied the presentation of this thank-you gift brought Miss Graham to tears.

"I felt really blessed to be able to see the growth in people in just a few days. You could actually see that people were becoming much more open to God's plan in their life, and just being a bit more open to other people in general ... I felt so blessed to be able to witness all that," she said.  
 
HOW DID IWITNESS COME ABOUT?

Seven months ago, the world was gearing up for World Youth Day. But one young lady, Amy Vierboom, was dreaming of the aftermath.

When the 20-year-old Sydneysider told her friends that she dreamed of planning a four-day faith oriented fun conference – (later to become known as 'iWitness') - her friends told her it was impossible.

"Amy came up with the idea. When she came up with it, we all told her it was stupid. She couldn't run it. It seemed that we were too small an outfit to do something that big and important for the church and she should let someone else do it," Jovina Graham said.

Nevertheless, Jovina Graham and Patrick Langrell joined Amy Vierboom in organising and preparing for the conference.

For Miss Vierboom, the conference was her way of giving back to the Catholic Church. Having attended a Protestant school, she was frequently questioned about her faith, she said.

But it was experiences at school camps that have impacted most upon her faith. She was tested, she says, and asked about Mary and the Eucharist, which led her to go home and find out more about her faith.

"I love God, I love Christ and I know how powerful those experiences [on camp] are. [On camps] I experienced that there were ways to have great fun doing stupid things like water bomb volley-ball. And I knew that that wasn't really in the Catholic Church and so I wanted to provide that," she said.

"Christ says in the Gospels that to come to him we have to be like little children, and at 'iWitness' people were able to have many experiences of childlike joy through the activities and but also come to Christ through the Eucharist and hear his message through the speakers," she said.