Family, Faith, Football - A word from Club Chaplain Phil Mason

As taken from his column in the club's matchday programme, Club Chaplain and Head of the Community Trust Phil Mason discusses the final Family, Faith, Football event at Bolton Whites Hotel prior to Saturday's visit of Brentford.

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Before kick off on Saturday, the last of the pre-match events of Family, Faith, Football will be taking place in the Reflections Restaurant.

This is a family event that explores these three themes through something associated with football and this weekend, we will be looking at football programmes.

We are encouraging people attending to bring a programme that means something to them and to share the reason why.

We are very fortunate at this club to have such a good quality programme produced for every home game and thanks to Emma Norris who takes the lead and her team of writers and designers, we have an award-winning programme.

The pages are not just a reflection of the game itself, with all the interesting statistics and match analysis that goes along with a closer look at our players and the opposition.

The pages also tell a much wider story about the club. Stories are shared about fans and what they are celebrating in their lives, while those that have died are remembered.

Good news stories are shared about the work we carry out in the community, the visits that the players make to schools, events, charities and community programmes.

We celebrate the successes of our Academy and Girls teams and raise awareness about key issues concerning behaviour of health matters.

Each programme is full of stories that share something of the wider story of our family called Bolton Wanderers and forms part of our social history.

Down the years, looking back over matchday programmes, we can map how the highs and lows within the history of our club have been marked and shared as the story have been written.

There have been many times in our history that there has been much to celebrate told through these pages. There have also been times when the club has gone through difficult times or even tragic ones, like the Burnden Park Disaster, and the story has been shared through these pages.

We have clearly been living through difficult times in the life of our club over the course of this season and we have to recognise that this is a difficult period in our history.

However, one pattern you do see reoccurring through the pages of our programmes down the years, are the cycles of the highs and the lows. We have been through tough times before and risen to new heights again.

The ink of the pages of our matchday programmes from this season has now dried and this part of our history has been written. There is nothing we can do to change that now.

A new season will soon begin and that gives an opportunity to write a new chapter. Those pages are currently blank and together we can build again and write a new part of our history that forms part of the story of our family, our faith and our football here at Bolton Wanderers.

Enjoy the game on Saturday and I look forward to seeing you all again next season for the next chapter.

Phil

Admission is free to the Family, Faith, Football event, but booking is essential. Please email bwfcfff@gmail.com to secure your place.

Read Time: 3 mins