Cross & Icon welcomed by Bomaderry, Kiama and The Abbey

Today’s events with the Cross & Icon included a visit to Bomaderry Homes, where members of the Stolen Generation were housed in the 1950s. The liturgy here incorporated Indigenous dancers and the chance for veneration.

Next the Cross & Icon were taken to Kiama, where the symbols were processed along the picturesque esplanade to Sts Peter and Paul Church, where it was standing room only as hundreds of people flocked to the liturgy and veneration.

The Cross & Icon were then processed to Hindmarsh Park where a youth festival was held the included performances from a great range of local young people. There was a great community atmosphere present in Hindmarsh Park and it was wonderful to see so many young people gather around the Cross & Icon with such joy and a sense of celebration.
A candlelight procession along the foreshore and a liturgy around the Cross & Icon was carried out really prayerfully in a beautiful location overlooking the water with the stars twinkling in the sky above.


The Cross & Icon were then driven to Jamberoo Abbey, where a crowd of onlookers welcomed the symbols in the darkness and then proceeded to pray the Stations of the Cross down the main driveway of the Abbey to the Chapel. I was really struck by the way the Stations were so relevantly applied to today’s world, and the atmosphere in the Chapel was incredible with the candlelight and the singing of the Benedictine nun’s voices making for a beautiful time of prayer around the Cross & Icon.

Today has seen some really varied events take place around these great symbols entrusted to the young people of the world by JPII, but in every location today I am sure that he was smiling down really proudly as young and old danced, sung, partied and prayed before the Cross & Icon.

Bernadette :)