Everyone I speak to says that while some might have initially raised their eyebrows to find certain groups were going to be there, they were soon thrilled to find a living image of the Church’s unity in diversity.

What happens when you bring together Cafod and Mary’s Meals, guitar-playing charismatics, the Latin Mass Society, the Syro-Malabar Eparchy, bishops, nuns, politicians, artists, and lots of children?

John Withers, the WeBelieve Festival’s director, admits that when he was helping to put the marquees up in the grounds of Oscott College for its first edition last summer, he was a little apprehensive. “We spent a week setting everything up, and I remember worrying: What if people don’t get on?” he tells me. “There’s a lot of division in the Church. Just look on social media. But what I witnessed as the participants arrived was amazing. It brought to mind the vision of the first believers in Acts 2:46, sharing everything with ‘glad and generous hearts’.”

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