The Resource Pack has been developed over a period of nearly two years and has gone through several stages of critique and revision.

First Stage: The Releasing Formidable Energy Symposium. October 2006

In April 2005 the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales identified Home is a Holy Place as a priority in following up the findings of Listening 2004. The Home is a Holy Place working group first met in October 2005 to plan a symposium at which to consider how best to meet the aim of raising awareness of the graced, blessed and holy reality of our homes. Pastoral leaders and families were invited to hear presentations arising from the findings of Listening 2004 and to identify key themes, priorities and strategies for Home is a Holy Place. Most of the symposium small group work identified a need to create new resources. Download the interim report produced in November 2006

Second Stage: Creating a Framework. February-April 2007

Over the three days of the symposium, fifteen small groups each generated four responses to the presentations that invited them to identify a headline statement, the most striking points and what was most important to communicate to others in their parish. Moreover each group was asked to devise a presentation describing their vision for the church and to action their strategies for raising awareness of home is a holy place. With such a wealth of data the working group determined that the logical next step was to organise this date within an overarching framework. The framework was envisaged as a temporary structure that would enable the vision of home is a holy place to be accessed and enfleshed by families up and down the dioceses. It was perceived almost as scaffolding which, once the house is of a certain maturity, is no longer necessary.

In February 2006, diocesan coordinators of marriage and family life ministry plus some of the symposium small group facilitators, met at Hinsley Hall in Leeds to discuss a draft framework document drafted by the working group. This document had three sections and eight vision statements. Over the weekend which was facilitated by Richard Hardy of Care for the Family, every participant critiqued and redrafted the proposal, which was considered to be unwieldy, over-long, badly ordered and rather preachy. By April 2007 it was possible to send a much shorter, simpler document with three vision statements to the Bishops' Conference for their approval.

Third Stage: Scrutinising the Vision and Goals. May-December 2007

Once the Bishops had approved what was now described as the Vision and Goals document it was subjected to further testing and public scrutiny. In June 2007 Bishop Hine and Elizabeth Davies presented it to the National Conference of Priests in Leeds and in October 2007 a meeting with a team of theological consultants took place.  At both events a number of significant suggestions were offered to improve and amend the text, man of which were incorporated. Eventually the whole document was passed to a renowned educator and author to translate into more family-friendly language.  The new document is now published within the Resource Pack as Introducing Home is a Holy Place.  

Final Stage: Producing the DVD. June 2007-April 2008     

Both at the symposium and at the framework meeting, calls were made to translate the vision into a more accessible format. In mid-2007 the generosity of a donor to the Bishops' Faith in the Future campaign made it possible to commission the production of the multimedia Resource Pack as well as to employ Veronica Murphy to oversee the DVD production. In finding families to feature in the DVD the only criteria was that as many different family types and stages be represented. Families were found largely through the diocesan network of marriage and family ministry coordinators, but also through the Travellers Working Group and through the production company, AVS, in Liverpool. Families were briefed about the project but not coached in any way so that their responses to the questions posed are spontaneous.

The questions were devised through testing at a Catholic People's Week in May 2007, at the National Conference of Priests in June 2007 and at a Christian Families Week in August 2007.

The script was drawn from the vision and goals document (Introducing Home is a Holy Place), from pastoral letters written by three of our Bishops to introduce Home is a Holy Place in December 2006 and from the filmed responses to the questions posed. Some of the language used is intentionally drawn from language used by families in Listening 2004. For example, the term 'single person family' is used to reflect the views of many of the single people who felt excluded by the family emphasis in Listening 2004. A respondent in the Diocese of Plymouth described him or herself as  "a family of 1". The vision of Home is a Holy Place calls for more appreciation of the single state within family spirituality, just as it does for more work to be carried out on the spirituality of marital, sibling, parental and extended family relationships and friendships.