Can you sponsor Ruth’s Christmas Walk for ACN?

Ruth Baker walking

I wouldn’t want anyone to think of me as a cheater or to wonder whether I was taking the easy way out, but I’m going to take a chance with this blog… Below please find a request for sponsorship from Ruth Baker, a member of the Youth Team based at Castlerigg, Cumbria in the Diocese of Lancaster. Ruth contacted me last week to tell me about her sponsored walk for ACN. Below is her message to me—which is now (minus my typical jaunty, if rather long-winded, turn of phrase) my message to you. Enjoy the break from me and PLEASE sponsor Ruth if you can!

“My name is Ruth Baker, and I’m 24 years old.

In November this year I went to a Catholic youth event in Liverpool’s Catholic Cathedral called Embrace, where I attended a workshop by Lord David Alton, on the persecuted church. What he said in his talk really shook me up; although I had heard the news over and over again, this time it got to my heart and I knew I could no longer stand by doing nothing.

I wanted to do something to raise awareness and funds. My parents have always supported Aid to the Church in Need and it seemed like a good place to start. Inspired by my love of walking (I completed the Camino de Santiago in Spain two years ago!) I decided to walk part of my journey home for Christmas. I live and work in Keswick, which is such a beautiful part of the Lake District, and my parents live in Herefordshire, Britain’s most rural county, in Ross-on-Wye which sits in the lovely Wye Valley. These seemed two excellent places to walk in, and I decided I would walk to and from the train stations that I use.

View in the Lake District

My walk will start on the morning of the 20^th December, when I will walk from my room in Castlerigg Manor, the Diocese of Lancaster’s Youth Retreat Centre where I work, to the train station in Penrith. This is 18 miles along a cycle path that has some amazing views of some of the Lake’s most majestic mountains.

That evening, I will get the train from Penrith to Hereford (a journey of 5 hours, which always feels like quite an undertaking on its own!). I’ll stay the night in a hotel in Hereford, and the next morning attend the 8am Mass at St Francis Xavier’s Catholic church in Hereford. (That’s in the Archdiocese of Cardiff).

After Mass, I’ll make the short walk to Hereford Cathedral, where I’ll begin the second stage of my journey, another stretch of 18 miles along the Wye Valley walk, alongside the River Wye, through tiny villages, woods and fields.
At the end of this walk I’ll climb the hill up from the river to the town of Ross-on-Wye, where my parents live and I’ll be home for Christmas!
I hope to raise money for Aid to the Church in Need, to pray for persecuted Christians along the way, for those who will be without their homes and families this Christmas.

Packing so far!

I love the outdoors and I’ve done a lot of walking and hiking in the past. Even with my love of walking, I know how unpleasant it can be at times, when you’re nearing the end of a long day and it’s cold and wet. It can reach a case of mind over matter and gritting your teeth to get through it. At least I will have a warm train and a warm bed awaiting me on my arrival each day, and my home will be my final destination. Maybe during this walk  I will gain a tiny sense of empathy for those who have had to flee their homes and who face a winter without their home for Christmas; those who had to walk away from their home instead of to it.

My JustGiving page can be found here: https://www.justgiving.com/ruthiebakes/

Thank you for your support!”

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Lighting Candles at Lee House

Chapel at Lee House, Thornley, Lancashire

Lee House is an old, rambling dwelling a few miles outside of Longridge which is itself a ways outside of Preston in Lancashire. Technically Lee House is in Thornley, but essentially it sits alone, surrounded by fields and approached by a single track off a country road. You might think that an isolated farm used to hide priests and celebrate Masses during the Penal period might not be an ideal location for an ACN-NW Prayer Vigil for Religious Freedom, but you couldn’t be more wrong!



Candle Lighting at the Lee House Prayer Vigil

On Friday 5 December Theodora and I braved freezing weather, icy roads and pitch black country skies to head to Lee House for a vigil. At 7:30pm each First Friday, Mass is celebrated there by the Parish Priest from Longridge, Fr David Chinnery, and on this particular evening, Fr Chinnery and Joe Howson, the caretaker at Lee House, had pulled out all the stops to help support ACN and our work with persecuted Christians. The Mass incorporated the scriptural readings, the introductory talk and statement of personal witness that are generally included in the vigils and then, after a brief comfort break, a deeply moving talk by Lord Alton of Liverpool kept us all glued to our seats. This was followed by the Angelus and a silent period of prayer and reflection during which people were invited forward to light votive candles for those who are currently suffering the world over. After a closing prayer for Persecuted Christians in the Middle East, the evening finished off with much fellowship and good will.

Spending a couple of hours in that small, secluded chapel which has stood for so long as a safe haven for those persecuted for their beliefs brought home to me the strong connections between English Recusant Catholics and those people—of all faiths—who continue to suffer atrocities in order to remain true to their religious faith.


Martyrs of England Wales, pray for us and for those who still endure your suffering and pain. Amen.

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Our Lady of Eden & St Edmund Campion

Once again I find myself playing catch-up with my blog entries. This is a shame as I find them really fun to write and I definitely enjoy the chance to note down my experiences and to think about the people I've met and the places I've visited. I feel a NW Office New Year’s Resolution coming on…

On the evening of Saturday 29 November my husband and I headed up to Our Lady of Eden in Carlisle for a Prayer Vigil for Religious Freedom. We received an extremely warm welcome from the clergy there—many thanks to Canon Watson, Fr Gaskin and Fr Millar for their generous hospitality and delicious food! The vigil was lovely—excellent music with a very attentive congregation in a beautiful church.  I met up with the Head Catechist and I am planning to go back to talk to the confirmandi in the new year. There is a vibrant Polish community based here; I must put my mind to coming up with an offering for them in the future. The new parish hall and Carlisle's  relative proximity to Scottish Lorraine's office in Motherwell have me pondering a joint event with our friends across the border...och, Aye!

You will notice the banner with the little girl from Syria once again front and centre at an ACN NW Prayer Vigil; at Carlisle, just as at every other prayer vigil so far, I found several people standing in front of her at the end of the vigil--"we are just praying for her, to make sure that she stays safe," they said. It is this sort of compassion and selflessness that I find wherever I encounter ACN friends and benefactors. I pray for her too!

Treasures from the Stonyhurst College Collections

1 December is the feast day of the English Recusant martyr, St Edmund Campion. This day is celebrated with special care each year at Stonyhurst College, an ancient Jesuit school just outside of Clitheroe in Lancashire. The Campion Mass is always takes place in St Peter's, Stonyhurst in the presence of invited senior clerics and with two relics of this notable Jesuit saint upon the high altar.  This year, in my capacity as NW Manager for Aid to the Church in Need, I was invited to attend the Mass and the lunch afterwards as a guest of the College. It was indeed an honour and a privilege to be there. The Mass was very moving; the choir was in great voice and the Archbishop of Baltimore, whose earliest  predecessor was himself a graduate of the Jesuit College of St Omer (from which Stonyhurst was founded), preached a beautiful homily pitched perfectly to the largely teenaged congregation. Lunch followed in the refectory—a remarkable affair as Campion Day is celebrated with great gusto at the College. On this day the older students serve the juniors and the staff serves the senior students and the whole school attends the ‘Campion Fair’ in the afternoon. Very festive it was! The other guests and I headed into the historic libraries to view some of the highlights of Stonyhurst's extensive collections of religious items collected, bequeathed and donated by Jesuits and their supporters over the past 450 years or so. We saw relics (both corporal and secondary), rare books, manuscripts, paintings, vestments and other artefacts. Jan Graffius, who curates the collections,  led the tour and provided lots of interesting and amusing titbits of background information. We all had a lovely day; everyone should celebrate Campion Day!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Three Prayer Vigils, Six ACN Cakes & a Puncture: Part II

This past weekend saw the next two Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom. On Saturday I drove Theodora (stuffed once again!) to Salford Cathedral for an afternoon vigil. The Cathedral Dean, Fr Michael Jones, was incredibly helpful and welcoming, and Bishop Brain arrived to lead the vigil. His Private Secretary, Fr Steven Parkinson, was there as well; he deserves special thanks for helping to distribute publicity around the diocese. This vigil was just as moving as the vigil in Accrington, though the number of people was much smaller. The period of Exposition in the middle of the Vigil—15 minutes or so—felt very special to me, with all of us, including two priests and the bishop, on our knees before the Blessed Sacrament to pray for those suffering so much for their faith, it was deeply moving. Afterwards I received similar comments from those who attended, in particular about Sahar’s moving words. I was delighted to meet some lovely people from the area, including an Iraqi-born Christian and several people whom I had just met on Thursday at a Social Action Networking meeting in the Cathedral Centre. I mentioned the vigil when I introduced myself at the meeting and they took the time to come. I was so pleased to see them and I look forward to working together with the many parishes, schools and special interest groups in the Diocese of Salford.

Before I move on to Sunday’s vigil in Wrexham, I would like to mention my final adventure in Salford. Theodora works hard for the NW Office; she never complains! Obviously I am not as observant of her needs as I should be because when I got to the car park after the vigil at Salford Cathedral it was apparent that she had a had a slow leak for some time in one of her tyres and that it was virtually flat. The AA was called—but until they arrived I had wonderful help from Bishop Brain and Fr Parkinson as well as two people who attended the vigil. Thank you all for looking after us. Thanks, too, to William Pilkiewicz, the ACN Area Secretary for Salford, who kindly came along to run the trading stall for me. A spare pair of hands is a wonderful thing!

Messages and Hearts from Wrexham

On to Wrexham. With Theodora out of commission my husband and I had to take our other car, Sharon, down to Wrexham. This was handy, actually, as I had even more to take with me: before the vigil I ran a workshop for the Youth of the Diocese. The afternoon yielded more messages of support and more paper hearts, and the vigil was, once again, different from the others, but just as moving. Fr Simon Treloar, the Cathedral Dean and Deacon Ian Cameron, were very hospitable and Bishop Brignall was there to lend his prayers and thoughts to the vigil as well. Again, I was met with overwhelmingly supportive comments at the end of the vigil. Two or three people told me that they were so pleased that North Wales was not being overlooked by the new NW Office—‘certainly not,’ was my reply. Afterwards Fr Simon invited my husband and me in for a cup of tea. We had a lovely chat with Bishop Brignall, Fr Simon and a few others—I really appreciated the chance to talk about ways in which the NW Office can reach out to the Catholic Community in North Wales. I left with lots of ideas…

Just a quick mention of the cakes to which I allude in the title of the last two entries. Your NW Manager has a bit of a baking complex…I make cakes: LOTS of cakes. So I have undertaken to take a cake to each bishop and each priest who has hosted a prayer vigil. That’s six so far (two bishops and four priests). Shameless bribery, you say—no, just heartfelt thanks. Thank you to Bishop Brain and Bishop Brignall, and to the other members of the clergy whom I have met at the first three Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom! (cranberry and orange bread, in case you are wondering…recipe available on request!)

I am definitely catching up on myself now! Hurray!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Three Prayer Vigils, Six ACN Cakes & a Puncture: Part I

The excitement doesn’t ever stop here in the NW Office: this entry is jam-packed with more events and escapades. Make yourself a cup of tea and get comfortable. Here we go!

On Thursday 13 November—after less than a week of recovery time following Archbishop Kaigama’s visit—I loaded Theodora up for the very first ACN Prayer Vigil for Religious Freedom. It was very exciting—months of preparation (as you know) went into this day: finding venues, writing the ‘script’, organising publicity and service sheets and talks…I could go on. Anyway, this first vigil was to be held at St Joseph’s Church in Accrington, Lancs (Diocese of Salford). St Joseph’s just happened to be the parish in which my lovely friend Marie spent most of her childhood. Marie agreed to come with me to help and to show me the scenes of her childhood. Before we got to Accrington, though, I had to make an hour-long stop to run a workshop at St Cecilia’s High School in Longridge, nr Preston. The day at school was centred on Vocations, but I thought about it and I decided that I, no doubt just like you, have a vocation to serve and to help wherever I can. I talked to the students about this and about what ACN does to help. I then taught 90 Year 10 pupils how to weave paper hearts (with varying degrees of success!) and I asked them to write messages of support to Iraqi and Syrian refugees to place inside said hearts. All of this seemed to go down well at the school—thank you to Year 10!

My friend Marie at St Joseph's, Accrington

By late afternoon Marie and I were back on the road to Accrington. We arrived at St Joseph’s around 5pm and we were met by the Parish Priest, Fr Paul Blackburn. Fr Paul is a very keen ACN supporter and his church was full of ACN materials and posters for the Vigil; as was, no doubt, the neighbouring church dedicated to St Anne, whose Parish Priest, Fr Simon Stamp, had teamed up with Fr Blackburn to host the vigil. Marie and I got busy setting up the trading stall and a table of ACN literature, Executive Summaries of the new Religious Freedom in the World 2014 Report, sign up sheets for mailing list and much more. The vigil was set to begin at 7:00pm; we were ready by 6:30pm and people began to arrive. And they just kept on arriving—Marie and I were handing out prayer cards, service sheets and hymn books as fast as we could—but they just kept on coming! Over 100 people turned out in the end; what a fabulous start for the whole series of vigils!

Marie at the ACN stands, St Joseph's, Accrington

The vigil ran like clockwork and I couldn’t have been more pleased. I couldn’t see behind me because I was sitting up at the front, so you can imagine my surprise when I got to the lectern to speak and turned to see the church so full! Afterwards there was so much positive feedback; people were especially moved by the statement of personal witness from Sahar Mansour, a friend of a friend of mine, who is currently ‘living’ (if you can call it that) in a refugee camp in Ankawa in Northern Iraq. She has written a message especially for those who attend the prayer vigils and she speaks very candidly about her life, her day-to-day existence and what it means to be a Christian in Iraq today. At the very end, after five rather harrowing pages of text, Sahar closes by expressing her deep gratitude to Christians in the UK for their prayers. I have now read Sahar’s message at three very different prayer vigils and it isn’t getting any easier—Sahar’s thoughts stay with me all the time and whenever I revisit her words I am struck again by her quiet strength and deep faith. Please keep her and those thousands like her in your thoughts and prayers.

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Our very first NW Regional Event



His Grace Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos
speaking at Holy Name Church, Manchester
Photo Credit: Simon Caldwell 

Caroline Hull speaking at Holy Name Church
in Manchester; Photo Credit: Simon Caldwell

Ok, so I am still catching up, but I AM very, VERY busy now and I just haven’t had a second. I am determined to bring you all up to speed, though, so herewith my newest blog entry:
read on to learn about the most recent NW Office exploits!

I headed up to London (Why up? Especially as I am coming from Lancaster! There are some things about this country I shall never understand!) on Tuesday 4 November to the launch of ACN’s new Religious Freedom in the World 2014 Report. Your trusty NW Manager was invited to the House of Lords to mark the release of the new report which explores the state of religious freedom, or lack thereof, in 196 countries around the world. Lord Alton of Liverpool hosted the event and there were a number of excellent speakers, among them HRH the Prince of Wales (watch his taped address to us on our website --http://www.acnuk.org/) and His Grace Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos. You can have a look at the report and access the individual sections on each country at http://www.religion-freedom-report.org.uk. Well done to John Pontifex and the UK-based team who edited the new report!

On Thursday 6 November I drove to Manchester (yes, right into the very middle of Manchester on a weekday in bad traffic—am I brave?). I headed straight to Holy Name Church on Oxford Road and I received a very warm welcome indeed. The Jesuit Community based at Holy Name is so supportive of ACN and they were delighted to host our very first regional event. Fr William Pearsall, Fr Ian Tomlinson, Brother Ken Vance and Fr Joe Duggan couldn't have been kinder and Fr Tim Byron, who runs the Catholic Chaplaincy for the Universities, and Stephanie who runs the office, couldn't have been more helpful. I got parked up and unloaded and set up with no trouble at all.

Fr Tim drove me to Piccadilly Station to meet Archbishop Kaigama of Jos and his Private Secretary, Fr Emmanuel Kundum. Fresh from the Westminster Launch on Tuesday and the Scottish Launch on Wednesday, Archbishop Kaigama would have been well within his rights to be flagging at least a little bit, but this was certainly not the case. On Thursday evening he spoke with great passion and eloquence about the Church in his country and his efforts to work towards a regional and national climate of greater forgiveness and religious toleration. About 90 people came along to our first regional event and everyone seemed very pleased with the evening. Of course, I couldn't have managed without the help of Terry and William, the Area Secretaries for the Diocese of Shrewsbury and Salford respectively, and Brigid and Antony who are former Area Secretaries as well—Thank you all! Afterwards I sat down with the Jesuits and the visitors from Nigeria along with two other Nigerian priests currently working in the NW and we all had a lovely dinner together.

Archbishop Kaigama speaks to 500 pupils at Stonyhurst College

The next morning Fr Tim kindly offered to drive the Archbishop and Fr Emmanuel to the next stop on our whirlwind tour: Stonyhurst College near Clitheroe. I followed behind in Theodora (who was, once again, stuffed to the gills—if cars have gills…--with display boards, ACN literature and banners. The weather was terrible, with driving rain and low visibility, but our little convoy made steady progress and by the time we arrived at Stonyhurst it had cleared up quite a bit. Fr Twist at Stonyhurst welcomed us with a much needed cup of tea and at 5:15 the Archbishop celebrated Mass for the Nigerian community at Stonyhurst; there are currently around 40 Nigerian students there. This was followed by dinner in the refectory with the African students and in the evening the Archbishop and Fr Kundum attended a concert and had a tour of the beautiful, historic school.

Archbishop Kaigama, Fr Kundum, Fr Twist, Caroline Hull and Nigerian Pupils at Stonyhurst College

We were all up bright and early the next morning so that Archbishop Kaigama could address the upper school (about 500 pupils in all) at the Saturday morning Assembly in the newly renovated Church of St Peter within the College. Still no sign of the Archbishop getting tired at all: he gave a very rousing and riveting talk to the young people, stressing their youth and great promise and asking that they all make the most of their gifts and remember to make time for prayer in their lives. He was at his most inspirational when speaking to the students and he later told me that he looked out and saw such enthusiasm and hope for the future that he was immediately moved to provide them with as much support and encouragement as he could.

Archbishop Kaigama, Fr Emmanuel and your trusty NW Manager at Stonyhurst College

Fr Griffiths, the Parish Priest of St Peter’s, drove the Archbishop and Fr Emmanuel to Preston Station later that morning; I was again very grateful because I would never have fitted everything into Theodora (boot space isn't everything in a great car, you know!). I arrived back at the NW Office exhausted, but proud. Thanks to all who made the Archbishop's visit to the North West such a success!

Thanks for reading! Caroline

Don’t worry; I am still here!

ACN Kitty at Embrace-Liverpool 2014

I know that you have about given up on me at this point (and I’d like to believe that you would have been just a tiny bit sad at the loss…) and I am truly sorry for the hiatus in my blog entries, but I have been very, very busy (truly, epically busy, actually!). Immediately after I completed my last entry, I went to see my father in America for a week (a visit that was in fact at least 2 years overdue!). When I returned I had a week’s worth of work to catch up on and since then the NW Office has been a veritable whirlwind of activity!

 

Two days of feverous preparation saw your trusty NW Manager and her friend, Kitty, ready for anything as we headed to Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral for Embrace-Liverpool 2014 (http://www.embrace-liverpool.org.uk/), a huge event for young Catholics from all over the region. Kitty and I, feeling rather like Thelma and Louise, left Lancaster at 7am on Saturday 1 November in Theodora, laden with ACN literature, display boards, heart-weaving supplies and Iraq Solidarity buttons, wristbands and t-shirts. We managed to arrive at our destination without too much trouble and we got ourselves unloaded and set up—the accompanying photo shows Kitty behind our ACN stall. The day began at 10am and, for the next 8 hours, we met people, chatted about ACN, what we do and the people we help. We wove lots of paper hearts (most while standing up and talking to people—which is NOT easy I can tell you!) and collected messages of support to send to displaced Iraqi and Syrian Christians.

 

Archbishop McMahon reads out a greeting from
Pope Francis at Embrace-Liverpool 2014

We met students, teachers, youth group leaders, lay chaplains, parish priests and young families. We handed out ACN reports and contacts details for the new NW office and we told people about Prayers for our Hearts and Farid Georges and the new Religious Freedom Report. We explained about the Arabic N symbol for 'Nazarene' (this means Christian in Arabic and the initial has been painted on Christian houses in Iraq by IS members) that is currently all over the internet as symbol of support for Arabic Christians in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. I was disappointed at first by how few young people had ever heard of us, but very soon I was much gratified by the enthusiastic way everyone took our literature and contact details. I emerged exhausted, but feeling very determined to find ways to make ACN much better known to younger people throughout the North West…I have IDEAS about this. Watch this space…

 

Many, many thanks to Kitty for all of her help—I simply could not have managed without her!

 

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

ACN Annual Westminster Event 2014 (Part II)

Glad to see that you are back for more!

Annual Westminster Event 2014

Fr Michael Shields talks to ACN Benefactors

Lunch for ACN staff was a quick stand-up affair in the kitchen (thanks to my colleague Chris for the delicious sandwich—ham and cheese with mustard: a classic!). A bit of strategizing for the afternoon sessions, a quick mobile phone charge and it was back into the fray. I had a bit of a wander while drinking my cup of tea; I love meeting people and any time spent away from my solitary office needs to be enjoyed to the fullest possible extent! I met a very nice man who told me how much he loves our Christmas cards (and who came back later to hand me an extra donation for ACN—thank you!). I also met a couple from just outside of London who wanted to ask their priest to set up an appeal in their parish. I caught up with Bishop Hlib Lonchyna, the London-based Exarch of the Ukrainian Catholic Church; he lent me some vestments for an exhibition several years ago and I was glad of the chance to let him know how grateful I was. Frankly, I could have spent an hour or two chatting to people…but the show must go on and we were soon called to order for the afternoon session.

It will be difficult to express my thoughts and feelings about these three talks in just a few paragraphs, but I shall do my best. The first speaker was my colleague John Pontifex, Head of Press & Information at ACNUK. John has just returned from Iraq and brought with him a number of truly moving stories told to him directly by displaced Christians currently trying to manage from day to day in Northern Iraq. I’ll limit myself to just one here (but only for the sake of brevity…). John met two 80-year-old women from a village on the Nineveh Plains. Victoria and Gisella were too elderly and infirm to flee, so they remained in their homes as IS members invaded their village. After several days locked in their houses—they were neighbours—they were forcibly removed to a nearby Christian shrine and thrown together with a number of elderly, disabled and infirm Christians. They were told that they must convert to Islam or die. These two courageous women looked their captors in the eye and said “if you want to kill us for our faith then we are prepared to die here and now.” Clearly this was unexpected and the bemused IS soldiers let them go. They found their way to a refugee camp and were able to welcome John with open arms when he visited them. It is hard to imagine anyone being much braver than these two devout women; there are no words for this sort of faith.

John made it clear that, though the situation is dire in terms of day-to-day necessities and the possibility of even a short-term solution minimal at best, there remains a solid underlying core of Christian faith that we in the west must look to with awe and deep respect. We must do all we can—through prayer, awareness-raising and financial support—to secure peace and religious tolerance throughout this troubled region.

Bishop Borys Gudziak, Bishop of the Eparchy of St Volodymyr, gave a talk about Christianity in his country that hit very close to home for me. My Ukrainian Catholic mother-in-law was born in Lvov just before the horrible famine of 1939 hit her region and left with her family along with thousands of her family’s friends and neighbours in 1945; Bishop Borys told us of a thriving city of 300,000 inhabitants which within a few years housed only 60,000 following the systematic expulsion of Poles, Jews and many others and the incarceration of one-third of the Ukrainian population in Siberian prison camps. He spoke of the Maidan movement which worked to support the fight for freedom and unity throughout Ukraine and the extremely important role of Christian clerics and liturgy in this crusade. He also outlined the current dire situation in Crimea where he told us that the Ukrainian Catholic Church is ‘hanging on by a thread.’ Bishop Borys made clear the enormous debt that his Church owes to ACN, its greatest benefactor. Today there are 3000 Ukrainian Catholic priests in Ukraine; this is up from just 300 in 1989. There are 800 seminarians…with 100 new entrants each year. Bishop Borys said that ACN ‘gives hope, rebuilds trust, fosters faith and gives us love’. It is hard to come up with higher praise than that.

The final talk of the day was given by Fr Michael Shields, an American priest who ministers in Magadan, Siberia. Many, many miles from the next church or priest, Fr Shields has spent years living and working with the small population of this former prison camp. A profoundly moving speaker, Fr Michael spoke enthusiastically about the people with whom he lives. Many remain damaged from past experiences and all are living in a very isolated and remote community where nature is more often foe than friend. He brought with him two relics from Magadan, both possessions of a woman, now dead, who spent 8 years in prison in Magadan. First he showed us a small piece of fabric bearing her prisoner id number; she told him that for those 8 years no one called her by her name, her number serving as the sole mark of her individuality. More moving than this, though, was the second object. He held in his hand a set of rosary beads that his prisoner friend had fashioned for herself out of bits of bread rolled into beads and strung together with a fishbone needle and bits of thread scavenged from her mattress. She was not permitted to pray aloud or even to bow her head, but still she found a way to fashion these beads to help her express her faith. Another anonymous, truly heroic Christian made strong by the Cross that she was forced to bear.

An informed and informative Q&A session followed and the day ended with Archbishop Nassar reciting the Lord’s Prayer in our Lord’s language and blessing us all in his own native Arabic. Fr Shields had told us earlier that ACN ‘goes to suffer with those who are suffering.’ I left Westminster Hall more determined that ever to try and lighten the burden of these suffering people.

 
Thanks for reading!  Caroline

ACN Annual Westminster Event 2014

See, I am part of a team!

This past Saturday I attended our big annual event at Westminster Cathedral. It was a wonderful day by all accounts and it was lovely to be able to help out even in a small way. Here’s how it all came together:

 This event is a bit of an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ affair, with everybody pitching in on the day. While I could understand that this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, this is just the sort of thing that I love—working really hard with people I like and feeling part of a team…heaven! We all arrived as cheerfully as we could around 8:30am on Saturday morning. There was much unpacking of leaflets, setting out of trading stock and placing of chairs to be done. I was a (tiny bit) late (because of works on the Underground, not because I slept in…) so I missed the first coffee round, but I dug deep and summoned the requisite energy to join in the fray.

 We headed off to Mass in the Cathedral at 10:30. Personally, I love a good Latin Mass properly celebrated with a great choir and incense and lots of con-celebrants. These sorts of occasions move me because they link us all to the very many Catholics who have gone before us while at the same time reminding us of the universality of our Church. I feel humbled and inspired when I hear the same words in the same language that my ancestors would have heard and that a fellow Catholic halfway around the world might be hearing at the same time. 



Westminster Hall: Ready to go!

After Mass I was on the main door welcoming and collecting tickets with Scottish Lorraine. As I dropped my pen and struggled to find change and forgot to tear the stubs off of people’s tickets, Scottish L stood across from me, smiling serenely and calming welcoming all who were lucky/clever enough to head to her side of the doorway. Next year I fully expect to be removed from door duty due to my almost total incompetence, but I did try my best…

Then, on to the main attraction. Michael, Scottish Lorraine’s new colleague (how lucky is she?) and henceforth ‘Scottish Michael,’ and I were on Twitter duty, Michael on press content and yours truly on interesting asides (I am trying not to draw any conclusions about how this might reflect my colleagues’ notions of my intellectual capabilities!). Notepad and mobile at the ready, we got down to the task at hand.

Archbishop Nassar Speaking

All of the speakers were truly inspirational. In the first session we heard from Archbishop Elias Nassar, Maronite Archbishop of Saida in Lebanon. Archbishop Nassar spoke extremely eloquently about the current state of affairs in his country. With somewhere in the region of 2 million refugees now living in a country with a native population of no more than 4.5 million, Lebanon simply cannot cope through official channels; the infrastructure just isn't up to it. Archbishop Nassar also spoke candidly about the situation for Christians in Lebanon today: numbers are rapidly diminishing there as well as throughout the Middle East (down 35% in the last 70 years to just over 30% of the population today). He feels that Christianity is the key to helping to stop the conflict and discrimination which are rife throughout the region. He called upon all Christians to reach out and support the most ancient Christian communities in the world—those who worship in the very places within the very traditions laid down by Christ and his disciples. The Archbishop's current undertakings and future plans are ambitious to say the least, and he claims that he could not have come this far without the prayers and support given to him by ACN through its many benefactors throughout the world. With our help, Archbishop Nassar is trying to care for the thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees—of all faiths—who find themselves with nothing in a strange land; he is also working extremely hard to foster an environment in which young Lebanese Christians can thrive. His projects centred around low-income housing and job creation are proving critical in the fight to allow these young Lebanese people to remain in their native country rather then feeling that their only hope is to emigrate to the West.

Regina Lynch, ACN's Project Director, was up next. Regina gave a clear synopsis of ACN's activities in the Middle East. I felt proud and moved to be a part of ACN as Regina outlined the atrocities that have occurred throughout the region over the past 30 years and made the point that, through it all, ACN was there helping to keep our Faith alive by supporting clergy and religious sisters, building and repairing churches, funding seminarians and helping to educate young Christians. Regina says that ACN serves as ‘a voice for voiceless Christians in many parts of the world.’ Her words sum up beautifully what our wonderful charity tries to do for suffering and persecuted Christians.

Part II of this blog to be posted shortly…

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

My Most Successful Parish Appeal to Date

Parish Appeal at St Catherine's, Penrith, Cumbria

This weekend I made my very first ACN Parish Appeal…so I feel entirely within my rights to refer to it as my best so far (surely I deserve a bit of indulgence here as I am only just getting started!). I was warmly welcomed by the Parish Priest and the Parishioners of St Catherine’s in Penrith and St Wulstan’s in Alston. Alston, as you may or may not know, is England’s highest market town with an altitude of 300m above sea level; compare that to the East End of London which is only 2 or 3 metres above sea level and you begin to realise that settling down (or ‘up’?) in Alston is not for the faint-hearted! The tiny church of St Wulstan has a parish of only 20 or so, so it was a lovely select group who listened to my first go at an appeal. Everyone was so kind on the way out that I went home feeling very proud of myself indeed!

I got up very early on Sunday morning so I could get to Penrith in time to set up before the 8:30am Mass. Despite the rain and the complicated one-way system in Penrith, I arrived by 7:45am and had just enough time to get myself sorted before I began to greet people with an ACN prayer card and an ACN smile. This Mass was followed by the Family Mass at 10:30—in all about 200 people attended. After both of my appeals I was inundated by people who wanted to buy Christmas cards or to let me know that they are regular supporters of ACN. I was very touched by the number of parishioners who came up to me to tell me how much they enjoyed my talk. I was asked beforehand by the Parish Priest not to take a collection so I mentioned in my talk that I would be handing out ACN donation envelopes to all interested parties at the end of each Mass; I couldn’t believe how many people made donations anyway AND, even more surprising, the large numbers of people who patiently waited for me to complete a chat or a sale only to ask for a donation envelope! Virtually everyone took an envelope, so even if most do not turn into donations, I am hoping that we will have generated a number of new names for our mailing list as a result of my appeal. On top of all of this, I also managed to recruit a Parish Rep for Alston and drive all the way to Penrith and back in Theodora without incident. All in all, an exhausting, but gratifying weekend for your NW Manager!

A HUGE THANK YOU TO THE PRIEST AND PARISHIONERS OF ST CATHERINE’S, PENRITH AND ST WULSTAN’S, ALSTON.

The week before last I promised to produce all of the details of the upcoming ACN NW Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom. I always honour my promises, so please find below the details you have been waiting for… divided up by diocese to make things that little bit less complicated for everyone. I am planning to attend each and every one, so I hope to see some of you there!

Light in the Darkness: Young Christian in Syria

ACN North West Office Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom:

Archdiocese of Liverpool: Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (Friday 6 February 2015; Speaker: The Most Rev Charles Bo,  Archbishop of Rangoon;  7:30-9:00pm); St Mary’s, Chorley (Sunday 8 March 2015; 3:00-4:30pm); St John’s, Wigan (Friday 13 March 2015; 7:30-9:00pm)

Diocese of Lancaster: Our Lady of Eden, Carlisle (Saturday 29 November 2014; 7:30-9:00pm); Lancaster Cathedral (Sunday 15 February 2015; 3:00-4:30pm); Our Lady of Furness, Barrow(Wednesday 25 February 2015; 7:00-8:30pm); Holy Family, Freckleton (Sunday 1 March 2015; 3:00-4:30pm); Tabor Carmelite Centre, Fulwood, Preston (Monday 2 March 2015; 7:00-10:00pm); Holy Trinity & St George, Kendal (Saturday 07 March 2015; 10:00-11:30am)

Diocese of Salford: St Joseph’s, Accrington (Thursday 13 November 2014; 7:00-8:30pm); Salford Cathedral (Saturday 22 November 2014; 2:00-3:30pm); Lee House, Thornley (Friday 5 December 2014; Speaker: Lord Alton of Liverpool; 7:30-9:00pm); St Peter’s, Stonyhurst (Saturday 7 February 2015; Speaker:  Archbishop Bo of Rangoon; 7:30-9:00pm)

Diocese of Shrewsbury: St Clare’s, Chester (Saturday 6 December 2014; Mass: 6:00pm; Vigil 7:00-11:00pm); St Mary’s, Middlewich (Sunday 15 March 2015; 4:00-5:30pm); Holy Apostles & Martyrs, Wallasey (Friday 20 March 2015; 7:00-8:30pm)

Diocese of Wrexham: Wrexham Cathedral (Sunday 23 November 2014; 4:00pm-5:30pm)

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

“Home, Theodora.” “Yes, Ma’am.”

Theodora, the ACN-Mobile

Meet Theodora, my new Head of Transport. Here at the NW Office we plan on ferrying a fair number of distinguished visiting clerics around and about the place, so last weekend my husband and I decided that we needed to acquire an ACN-mobile for this purpose. We found Theodora at a dealership in Preston; you should have seen the look on the salesman’s face when I asked my husband how many priests he thought I could fit in the back… Now, I’m not really what I would call a ‘car person.’ When I was a teenager, I drove the car, but my lovely father cleaned and maintained it; when I moved to this country and got married, I stopped driving until joining ACN, as being able to drive is a requirement of my role. You’ll already know about my recent UK driving trials and triumphs (if not, check out my previous blog entries for some pretty exciting stuff!), so I remain still somewhat surprised at the sight of the trim, fit Theodora in my drive; Sharon, our elderly 7-seater that has served us faithfully for the past decade, now resides around the corner on a side street (Sorry, Sharon!). I am looking forward to working with Theodora; I could already tell, when driving her home from Preston, that she has a bit of a swagger, a bit of attitude maybe—just what I look for in my staff here at the NW Office. She will be reliable, friendly and welcoming—she just needs some stuffed, fuzzy ACN logos to hang from her mirror and we are ready to go!

This week wondrous things have happened here at the NW Office! Aside from the arrival of Theodora, we also stood by (perhaps shedding just a few tears of joy…) while the designers came to take away PRAYERS FROM OUR HEARTS to put the final touches on all of our hard work from the past few months. Scottish Lorraine and I, along with Patricia and Portia and the other staff from HQ who have helped, have put so much care and effort into this initiative, and I’m sure that I can speak for both of us (though not in a Scottish accent) when I say that it is so exciting watching on as everything comes together. I have an offer from a school already and I have also had an interesting offer from a secondary school near Preston—they would like to train some of their pupils to work with local Catholic primaries to run the day! More on this as it develops!

I also attended a very useful meeting this week where we discussed my new initiative for secondary schools. This involves the work of a Syrian Orthodox painter from Homs. I shall be talking more about this soon…so you’ll just have to hang in there and wait for the details!

I’m also focussed once again on ACN Parish Representatives for the NW region. It took me a day and a half, but I have produced the first ever NW ACN Parish Representative Newsletter. I am rather fond of it, to be honest; it is packed with information about the upcoming Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom (more below!), suggestions about ways to raise the profile of suffering Christians and ACN in a parish setting and even a feature on the amazing work of the new Parish Rep for Holy Family in Blackpool. I’ve asked for feedback, so we’ll see what the reps have to say about my efforts….

And now for the Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom: (sit down, because this will shock you) I have managed to confirm all of the dates and start times and venues that I had originally planned. Hurray! Huzzah! Yippee! I am still a bit shocked actually; it was never difficult to get Parish Priests to agree to host a vigil—they were all very supportive—but what with summer holidays and pilgrimages to Lourdes and clergy being transferred to new parishes, it has been extremely difficult to nail down all of the details. In several cases I had to take a deep breath and call someone just ONE MORE TIME, knowing that this might be that one call too many that means I am no longer the ‘friendly, enthusiastic ACN NW Manager,’ but now have become that ‘pesty, bothersome woman who rings and emails constantly’! Thankfully, this wasn’t the case and I must thank each and every parish priest, cathedral dean and parish secretary who proved so helpful to me! Thank you! The final list will come out as part of my next blog, so you simply will be making the biggest mistake of your life if you don’t check in this time next week to see what happens!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

See this picture? Get used to it!

Where does the time go? There was a time not so long ago when I was able easily to book two ‘blog slots’ in my diary each week. These days I need to try and sneak them in where and when I can. I don’t want to let this slide because a) I love, love, love writing these entries (especially now that the blog is live and people can actually read them!) and b) my new colleague in the Scottish Office (a warm welcome to Michael Robinson!) is busy blogging his head off up in Motherwell so now the pressure is really on! You can read Scottish Michael’s blog at http://acnscotland.blogspot.co.uk/ (what I won’t do for the Scottish Office!); it is witty, entertaining and very informative, so really you should head right there each week  (but only after you've read the entries from the NW Office…obviously.)

Right, back to the matter at hand. The image featured in this entry will, I hope, soon appear in Catholic churches and ACN literature all over North West England and North Wales; you will see it on all of the publicity for the upcoming NW Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom. Please embrace this image and learn to love it! This picture—which I took last May at the ACN Conference in Malta—depicts the central dome at St Paul’s Cathedral in Mdina and, NO, I did not lie on my back to take it. I chose it because I have always associated domes with freedom and heaven; there is something about a good dome that is slightly miraculous, yet entirely attainable—a big heavy structure that seems to float high above us and but can be created by human hands out of the humblest of materials. (This, by the way, is not easy for an historian of Gothic art and architecture to admit; we are rather fond of our pointed vaults and soaring spires, you know!). Domes such as this one make me feel that out there somewhere there is peace and light and universal harmony. Just because we must all view a dome from our place far below on the ground doesn't mean that we can’t lift our eyes and set our sights on the bright blue oculus in the dome’s centre. (An oculus, for those of you who aren't up on your Roman architectural terms—shame on you!—means ‘eye’ in Latin and refers to the hole in the very centre of a classical dome—the oculus was generally uncovered, so you can usually find it just above the bucket to catch the rain on the floor of a Roman temple!)

This particular dome has an extra significance for me. It is in Malta and it was there last May where I met so many inspiring people who work hard and pray every day to nurture religious freedom in some of the most troubled areas of the world. It reminds me of Sister Hanan in Lebanon and her work with Iraqi and Syrian refugees and Bishop Cyrillos of Assiut in Egypt and H.B. Patriarch Gregorius of Damascus. Malta is also where I met Archbishop Kaigama from Jos in Nigeria; I am really looking forward to seeing him again when he comes to the NW early in November to kick off all of our Religious Freedom events here.

So there you have it, the complicated, slightly wacky thinking behind my choice for the publicity image for the Religious Freedom Events throughout the North West region. Maybe by now you are glad that you get only the occasional glimpse inside the inner workings of the NW Office—full-time it is pretty exhausting, let me tell you! Still, now you will never look at a dome the same way again. My job here is done.

Thanks for reading!  Caroline