Saying Goodbye and Embracing New Beginnings

This is a (another!) strange week, and I find that I am feeling curiously frustrated as I am not able to get on with things as quickly as I would like to. I have been working late and mulling things over and talking through ideas with my family, but what I really need if a good run at things. I need to concentrate on one task at a time and schedule uninterrupted time to get down to business. An unexpected complaint from someone who works on her own at home, I know, and last night I had a real break-through moment. I realized that I myself am, in fact, the sole cause of my frustration. There is so much going on both with my family and here at ACN-NW that my natural tendency to respond enthusiastically to all external stimuli means that I allow my attention to be drawn away from the task at hand as each hour (or minute!) presents a new challenge. I am the Queen of Multi-Taskers, but even I need to find my inner Zen and take the time to experience fully the highs and lows that life throws at me.

Don’t panic—I’m not having a mid-life crisis and this is not the prelude to me announcing that I am planning to skateboard around the world or knit jumpers from seaweed that I’ve harvested from Morecambe Bay. I am simply noting that I, and possibly many others, can easily lose sight of  ‘essentials’ in a world where surface details are constantly thrust at us. Tomorrow I will be in London attending the funeral of my much-loved father-in-law. A native Hungarian who worked for the World Service for most of his long career, he was a very colourful character. He welcomed me with open arms when I joined his family and he (and my mother-in-law) made a slightly frightened young woman who managed to end up thousands of miles from home feel like she had an anchor and roots in her adopted country.  I definitely need to stop and take the time to mourn the loss of this special man.

HOWEVER, this is North West Caroline we are talking about. I am pathologically enthusiastic and optimistic (my lovely husband says that living with me is completely exhausting—but he is a bit eeyore-ish sometimes, I think!). I am deeply saddened at the loss of my father-in-law, but I have to look ahead as well. ACN-NW has made great strides over the last couple of weeks—Malta, two fabulous meetings with Bishops Brignall and Davies, exciting plans for the Hearts project for primary schools, the beginnings of plans for events and programmes for the North West Region, my new potential footballers initiative…Hurray! And, to top it all off, I would like to take this opportunity to announce to you all that ACN-NW has now received its first ever donation! A lovely doctor from Preston sent us a donation in reply to letter that I wrote to him about the possibility of an ACN lecture at the next meeting of his group. Unfortunately his group (along with most of its members!) is now defunct, but he wanted to help us himself. This warms my heart. I send out a lot of unsolicited letters and emails and, not surprisingly, most fall upon stony ground. This one didn’t though; for whatever reason this letter made someone think about helping and sharing with those who aren’t able to help themselves. That, I believe, is why we are all here; that doctor in Preston decided to CARE. He stopped and he took that extra step without getting immediately distracted by the details of the next thing that his life threw at him. I want to try to be more like him.

Big plans afoot from next Monday—a new, focussed, streamlined me. Just watch and learn…

Thanks for reading! Caroline

A Walk in the Park…why ACN-NW loves Birkenhead

Caroline and Bishop Davies

Yesterday morning I got up bright and early to make my way to the Curial Offices of the Diocese of Shrewsbury. Curiously, these are not in fact in Shrewsbury, but in Birkenhead on the Wirral. Personally I am exceptionally grateful for this as Birkenhead is only about fifty miles from Lancaster and Shrewsbury is more than double this. I cannot begin to imagine the complications that this distance must cause for Bishop Davies, but with my ACN-NW hat on, I must admit that Birkenhead suits me just fine! The day started off extremely well as all of my connections were on time and I was deposited at Birkenhead Park station a whole hour and fifteen minutes prior to my appointment. It wasn’t raining (always worth noting in this part of the world!) and with the beautifully landscaped Birkenhead Park standing between me and my destination, I set off into the wilderness to forge a path to the Curial Offices of the Diocese of Shrewsbury.

The Park did not disappoint. It is beautifully kept and obviously beloved by the inhabitants of Birkenhead. It was designed by Joseph Paxton (of Crystal Palace fame) and was opened in 1847. It is full of winding paths and pretty painted footbridges, and it boasts a selection of rather grand gatehouses in various architectural styles. It served as a model for Sefton Park in Liverpool and also influenced Frederick Law Olmsted when he formulated his plans for New York’s Central Park. If that in itself isn’t enough to make you want to drop everything and head immediately to Birkenhead, wait until you hear what happened next…

Rachel in Birkenhead

I emerged from a leafy footpath on to Park Road South and quickly found the Curial Offices. I was thirty minutes early for my meeting with Bishop Mark Davies, so I sat in the reception area and befriended Rachel Buckley, the receptionist. In between handling calls to and from the switchboard, Rachel told me about her various activities with her three (!) parish churches, her various prayer groups and the Legion of Mary. She happily agreed to distribute some of our new prayer cards (for persecuted Christians); I gave her my whole briefcase stash and will need to remember to top up for my next meeting! You’d think that this little serendipitous meeting couldn’t have gone any better, but you would be so very wrong! As it turns out, Rachel knows quite a few premier league-type footballers from the Merseyside area. Many of these are devout Catholics and Rachel feels that I should approach some of them to work with ACN. We discussed a few possibilities, and I left for my meeting with the bishop feeling as if my day just couldn’t really get any better.

Wrong again!  Bishop Mark Davies was very, very welcoming and it was clear from the outset that he is a committed, long-term supporter of ACN and the work that we do. I told him a bit about my new position and the initiatives that I am planning to implement and he just could not have been more helpful. My plea for parish reps within the Diocese of Shrewsbury was countered with an offer to promote this in his next Ad clerum and to set me up to be interviewed for the next edition of the quarterly diocesan magazine. Our primary school campaign for Sister Hanan (get ready for this, Scottish Lorraine!) and our on-line resources for secondary schools were met enthusiastically with a plan to get me in touch with the two independent Heads’ Associations and to try and find a way for me to address them or at least to have a presence at their annual meetings early next year. The suggestion that it would be lovely to introduce the Angelus and a daily prayer for suffering Christians into schools, coupled with a description of our ACN Angelus tradition, resulted in another praying of the Angelus, this time with Bishop Mark Davies. My ACN Angelus prayer card will NEVER leave my handbag; it is coming in very handy at meetings!  

I left the Curial Offices just before 1pm and headed back for the Park. I sat for a few minutes on a bench to recover myself and spend a few minutes being thankful for so much help and support. All of these new avenues to follow up and I didn’t even get around to mentioning my plans about North West Seminarian Challenge (more on this to come…).

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Life/Work Balance

Today is one of those days when I am glad to be working from home. Yes, I work alone and this is sometimes isolating, but when I am ensconced in my dining room with the door closed and I can hear my family bustling around the house, I realise that my housebound office allows me to embrace the last few years of active parenting before my children set out to conquer the world on their own. This is a gift, even if sometimes it is a bit of a distraction. My teenagers know not to disturb me while I am working, but that doesn’t mean that Gabriel, my youngest at 14, doesn’t stick his head in to ask if I want a cup of tea or a snack (at the moment his life is one GIANT snack!). Christopher is away at University now, but he is the one who helps me when he is here—over Easter he spent hours and hours stamping my name on countless boxes of ACN literature. Clemmie has just turned 18 and today is her last day of school. It is this that has set me thinking about managing life and work and about how hard it is for most of us to get this just right. Clemmie will pitch up mid-afternoon and begin the complicated process of getting ready for her leavers’ ball this evening. We have made an appointment for me to fix her hair at 5:30 when I am done working and it is little things like this that I am able to do because I don’t have a long commute to and from work.

All of this makes me think about the things that I take for granted as a wife and mother. Everything that I have read and heard about since I began working for ACN serves as a constant reminder of just how lucky I am to be living and working where I am. Always my thoughts turn to those people in the world who can’t provide for their families or ensure any kind of safe environment for their children. My daughter is the same sort of age as the Nigerian girls who have been kidnapped by Boko Haram. This is a sobering thought and I pray that these girls and young women are freed quickly and that they be allowed to embrace the world and all it is to offer just like my daughter can.

Gloomy thoughts—it must be the rain and the grey skies! This week has been a bit of a whirlwind, but I have managed to get a fair bit done. The bad weather that the whole country seems to be experiencing over the past two days has meant that more people are glued to their computers, so I have been getting replies to emails much more quickly than usual! I have managed to arrange a couple of promising meetings with enthusiastic ACN supporters and to open dialogues with some more Catholic institutions in the North West. I am really beginning to feel like things are starting to take off now. I am going to start organising events and launch a couple of campaigns in schools and parishes in the coming weeks…the North West doesn’t know what’s coming!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Playing Catch-up

I and Bishop Brignall

Lots to be getting on with after a week away! Monday was taken up with admin—contacting some new parish reps, answering emails, packing up some parcels to send out and getting myself ready for Tuesday, the day of my very first meeting with one of the bishops from my patch.

Bright and early on Tuesday morning, looking as presentable as possible and clutching a briefcase full of prayer cards and ACN literature (one must be ready for all eventualities!), I hopped on the train at Lancaster Station. Bound for Bishop’s House in Wrexham, I had two changes to make with very little time between connections. All went smoothly and within about two hours I found myself in a taxi on my way to see Bishop Peter Brignall. Bishop Brignall was wonderful; he spent well over an hour with me and we chatted very candidly both about the difficulties with awareness-raising faced by ACN and the current realities of the over-booked diaries and endless requests for appeals which today’s Parish Priests handle week in and week out. Bishop Peter made some very helpful suggestions about ways in which ACN could engage with the clergy and parishioners of his diocese, particularly with regard to the use of the Welsh language for prayer cards and ways to approach the primary and secondary Catholic schools in North Wales. Once again the alarm on my phone for the Angelus at noon disrupted my meeting, but this time with a very positive effect. I explained about the ACN’s daily praying of the Angelus and how I generally repeat it on my own in my dining room. Bishop Peter suggested that we say it together in his dining room (where we were meeting). I told him how saying the Angelus makes me feel connected to all of the other people who work with and for ACN and we agreed that introducing the Angelus to schools and parishes—ideally with  side-by-side Welsh-English translations would be a great way to begin to raise ACN’s profile in North Wales. I really enjoyed meeting Bishop Peter and I look forward to working with him in future.

We also discussed the possibility of mounting a prayer-based event at St Mary’s Cathedral in Wrexham following the launch of the Religious Freedom Report in early November. I outlined various forms that the prayer vigil might take and I agreed to stop by the Cathedral on the way back to the train station. The Cathedral Dean, Fr Simon, was not in, but I befriended Jan, the Cathedral Secretary and we swapped stories about our experiences running a busy cathedral office. I left some of our new prayer cards at the Cathedral and I agreed to contact Jan and Fr Simon to try and schedule an event later on this year.

Job done. What a lovely and fruitful day. No sooner had I arrived home than I received a phone call from Neville Kyrke-Smith, our National Director, to ask whether he could stop by today for lunch on his way home from an event in Scotland (congratulation to Scottish Lorraine for a job well done!). Eek! My first official visit to ACN NW Headquarters! I tidied up my reception area (aka the sitting room) and my office/dining room. I spoke to the head of catering who, ever accommodating, agreed to produce a  lovely onion tart and tomato salad (the’ head caterer’ does this dish well—if I may say so myself…). All was ready when Neville arrived and we had a lovely lunch (he had two helpings so it must have been good!). We talked about my ideas and how I was getting to grips with everything. Neville also gave me some names of keen ACN supporters on the region (perfect for my Diocesan Support Groups!) and we discussed ways that I might be able to help with major benefactors and potential corporate donors. All of the staff here at ACN NW thoroughly enjoyed Neville’s visit—especially my head of security, our 12-year-old Golden Retriever, Jassy.

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

More on Malta

Lorraine McMahon, John Pontifex and Portia Borrett

The final few days of our visit to Malta have been occupied by a comprehensive tour of Malta’s most important churches and shrines, with a healthy smattering of more tourist-y sites thrown in for good measure. Malta is a paradise for lovers of the Baroque due, for the most part, to Malta’s complex history of invasion and occupation and its role as the headquarters for the Knights of St John, and aided greatly by a very serious earthquake late in the seventeenth century. As a dyed in the wool medievalist (a leftover from my former life), I generally struggle with the drama, ostentation and the ‘in-your-face’ showmanship commonly encountered in baroque art and architecture. However, I have found that this sumptuous, OTT style has grown on me over the years. These days I can even admit to a deep appreciation for a baroque church done well. And Malta has a number of these. The most impressive has to be the Co-Cathedral of St John in Valletta. As the seat of the Order of St John and with each branch (or langue) of the order vying with the others to produce the most sumptuous and opulent chapel, the Co-Cathedral is a true masterpiece.

The interior is constructed entirely in the native limestone. It is soft enough to work with extreme precision and I was amazed at the delicacy of the surface carvings. Their state of preservation was also excellent, no doubt because the use of single worked pieces of stone avoids a lot of the most common reasons for decay and dilapidation; there are no missing or damaged bits as one might expect to find if the relief work were executed in wood and then applied to the stone surface.  Maltese limestone is a lovely butter-y colour; this is not apparent in the Co-Cathedral with its heavily gilded and polychromed surfaces, but it appears to great effect at the Shrine of Ta’Pinu on the neighbouring island of Gozo. This beautiful church is infused with the most beautiful light: clear, gentle and very calming.

Aside from our ACN pilgrimage, we also visited some other sites including two of Malta’s prehistoric complexes. The use of the same limestone and so many similar architectural solutions—dome-like ceilings, rounded and elliptical chambers and mensa-like altars—reminded me of the deep roots of our architectural heritage. The forms that we prefer to find in our chapels and churches are deeply reminiscent of the sorts of sacred spaces that were in use long before the first Christian chapel was constructed.

In the midst of all of this pilgrimage and sight-seeing I managed to befriend a good number of ACN staff from offices in other parts of the world. Marc Fromager, Javier Menéndez Ros and Herbert Rechberger, the National Directors of the French, Spanish and Austrian ACN offices, were great fun and I was interested to learn a bit about how they run their operations and what works in their countries when it comes to raising awareness and funding. I also spoke to the directors of offices in Belgium and Canada, and I struck up a good rapport with Declan, the National Director for the Irish office. We are thinking about events and pilgrimages that we might be able to work on together.

As if all of this weren’t enough, I feel perhaps most blessed by the chance to spend some concentrated time with my new ACN colleagues (‘buddies’ might be a better word now!). Portia was there, along with Scottish Lorraine and John Pontifex. Working on my own is isolating, but experiences like this trip remind me that I am a part of a team. Shared memories and stories go a long way to making me feel a part of things. I am so grateful to have had this chance to establish those crucial connections. Special thanks to Neville Kyrke-Smith, the UK National Director, for organizing such a great week and for thinking to include me.

Monday is back to work at home…maybe I should think about redecorating my dining room. A bit of a trompe-l’oeil dome effect might not go amiss…

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

I don’t really have words for this…

 I and His Beatitude Patriarch Gregorius III

I have now spent two full days in Malta attending the ACN International Religious Freedom Conference. I have met people from all over the world all of whom share the desire to offer whatever they have—time, talents, money—to make the world a more tolerant and peaceful place. The conference opened with High Mass at St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta; the Cathedral is stunning and the array of clerics was truly impressive. Back at the conference centre the plenary address was given by His Beatitude Patriarch Gregorius III of Damascus, the head of the Melkite Church. He spoke very eloquently and rather optimistically about the current situation for Christians in Syria. He made the point that there is indeed religious freedom in Syria, but currently that freedom is endangered due to the volatile political situation in which, as is the case with so many countries in the region, is intricately bound up with religious issues. To date 91 Syrian churches have been seriously damaged or destroyed in the conflict; His Beatitude feels that the time is fast approaching to implement a systematic programme of rebuilding. Though the situation is far from resolved and there remains ever-present danger for Christians within Syria, His Beatitude brought a fledgling sense of hope and an unexpected optimism to the proceedings.

I and Sister Hanan in Malta

Yesterday ended with a reception at the conference centre. We welcomed the President of Malta who spoke with great conviction about the valuable work of ACN and the warm welcome that she felt sure the Maltese people would extend to the newly opened Malta office. It was a wonderful occasion—beautiful weather and an interesting mix of people. I spent some time in conversation with Sister Hanan Youssef, a Good Shepherd Sister who works in Lebanon. Sister Hanan’s kindness and deep humility were immediately apparent, but it was not until the following day that I really appreciated the impact and importance of her work with Christian refugees in Lebanon.

Today the conference really came into its own with three very different, but equally moving talks. First we heard from Bishop Kyrillos William of Assiut, a Coptic Bishop of Egypt. His talk was entitled ‘The Reality of the Arab Spring in Egypt—Revolution Revisited?’. Bishop Kyrillos is a modest and very humble person. Small in stature, he is extremely approachable and friendly. He told us about the increasingly difficult situation for Egypt’s Christian population and how divisive the current political situation is proving for interfaith relations within Egypt. He finished by saying that the Church in Egypt is indeed suffering, but that he is happy to be a Bishop in a suffering Church. His churches are full. Something to think about there…

Next up was my new friend Sister Hanan. A native of Syria who was herself forced to flee her country, she works with Syrians and Iraqis who have sought refuge in Lebanon—the most Christian country in the region. Though most of the refugees—and she estimates them to be over 150 thousand at this point—are Christians, some are not and she and her fellow sisters offer whatever they can to all regardless of faith or race. She runs a medical clinic, a school, a counselling service, food banks and so much more. So many Lebanese Christians have now themselves emigrated that the government is no longer particularly supportive of Christians and she is forced to make do with minimal help from the state. Organizations like ACN provide a vital lifeline for those whom Sister Hanan works tirelessly to help. She shared a number of very moving stories and anecdotes, offering a truly personal witness to the situation on the ground for the refugees. Scottish Lorraine and I are in the planning stages of an ACN programme to take into primary schools; we were sitting together as Sister Hanan was speaking and all it took was a quick glance at each other for us to realise that we had found our focus. After the talk we quickly spoke to Neville Kyrke-Smith, the UK National Director, and he went straight to the Main Office contingent (from KÓ§nigstein in Germany) and negotiated a project with Sister Hanan for ACN UK. When we were able to give Sister Hanan a big hug and tell her how we were going to try and help her, she was so surprised and moved that Lorraine and I just knew that we had to make our new project work. We are filled with ideas and will meet up to discuss everything later this month. Needless to say, I am SOOOOO excited about this!

The final talk was by Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos in Nigeria. His talk was entitled ‘Dialogue and danger on the front line of faith,’ and it was truly inspiring to hear about his attempts to work with local leaders from other faiths. His firm belief that dialogue and shared experience is the only way forward shone through every word of his lecture. With the recent kidnapping of so many Christian teenage girls by Boko Haram fresh in our minds, we all felt the frustration and bafflement that the Archbishop expressed when he spoke of the lack of action by the Nigerian government.

The conference finished up with several short personal witnesses about missionary work and a closing address by Baron Johannes von Heereman, the Executive President of ACN International. I don’t think anyone who watched and listened over the past two days could fail to have been moved by what we learned. If only it were so easy to get the word out to everyone!

More on the rest of the week in a few days…

Thanks for reading! Caroline

Forget ‘Fish Friday’ : at ACN North West, it’s ‘Parish Rep’ Friday

Another brilliant Parish Rep experience this Friday—a fabulous follow-on from last week when Mrs Clews, the new Parish Rep for St John the Evangelist, Thornton-Cleveleys (Lancs), asked for more leaflets to hand out after Mass. This week’s excitement was the result, once again, of Area Secretary Chris Robson’s amazing Parish Rep recruitment technique (see post above).

What with all of my meetings this week I have only just now managed to ring the new potential reps from Our Lady Star of the Sea in St-Annes-on-Sea. The first two weren’t in, but the next two were at home and wonderful to speak to. Sister Mary from the local Daughters of Wisdom convent was lovely to chat with and will certainly keep up prayer for ACN and the struggling people we try so hard to help. I have sent her some copies of “Persecuted but never Forgotten”—our new booklet outlining a number of the ‘hotspots’ for persecution of Christians. I think that the content of this booklet, disturbing as some of it may be, is a wonderful tool for focussing prayer—I have a feeling that the Daughters of Wisdom will, too!

My next phone call was also one of those that reminds me why I love working for Aid to the Church in Need. One parishioner also from Our Lady Star of the Sea, just could not have been friendlier or more supportive. We talked about ACN, about the new activities going on in her parish and about how ACN might be supported by the parish in future. She gets a package, too: hers contains some ACN prayer cards with the Angelus on the back—now that she knows that we all stop work and say it each day at noon, she is keen for others in her Parish to do this as well! What wonderful initiative!  Maybe we should start a big campaign to say the Angelus every day all over the North West for persecuted and struggling Christians…hmmm. I’ll think about that some more over the weekend.

The day was rounded off by a meeting with Portia, Scottish Lorraine and Patricia Hatton, our Head of Fundraising and Marketing. You might not think that this sort of thing would be much fun, but I LOVE regional strategy & marketing meetings! Scottish Lorraine and I are on our phones and Portia and Patricia are in the Conference room at HQ. We bat ideas around—we talk about what we can do together, about what worked in the past , about new ways to get our message out to more people. Today we even began to discuss how this very blog might go live. It’s always a bit sad when these meetings end and I’ve loads of ideas, but am left back in my dining room with no one to tell about them…oh, well, we’ll get to have another one in a month or so!

I’m off tomorrow to Malta for an ACN conference and pilgrimage. I’ll be away for a whole week, but I don’t want you to panic and so I shall make sure to post two more entries from there. I am looking forward to getting to know my ACN colleagues a bit better, to meeting various people from all over the world with whom ACN works and to having a good look around Malta and its churches and shrines. I’ll fill you in on everything that I learn and see. Maybe even I’ll post a picture or two!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Good times with Scottish Lorraine

Scottish Lorraine and I have had our first ever ‘North and even more North’ meeting. Just us…no one from the South…go, North! This morning I left cold, rainy, gritty Lancaster and took the train to colder, rainier, grittier Motherwell wherein lies the office of ACN Scotland. Unlike your basic NW Manager (aka yours truly), Scottish Lorraine has a proper office, in a proper office building with a reception desk and wall to wall carpets and that office-y smell. Today she also had no internet access. I am not jealous though, because Scottish Lorraine, just exactly like your basic NW Manager , has no one to talk to or have a cup of tea with, no one off whom to bounce ideas and no one to do those things that she doesn’t particularly feel like doing (like fixing her internet problems!). So, obviously and perhaps like Scotland and England, we have more in common than not. We are buddies in our ACN solitude. This is good. This will result in meaningful collaboration. ACN North will speak loudly and with one voice (though in two different accents…).

Today we talked primary schools. This is a thorny topic (see my earlier post), but one that we feel needs to be addressed. “Light fires in young hearts and they will burn for years to come.” (My own words of wisdom here, but they sounded rather wise and fairly profound, so I have added inverted commas for effect.) We talked about what we could do and how we could do it. We talked about timeframes and whether we should head in this autumn with something simple and direct. We think yes: we have a plan; we have a timeframe; we are up for it. Regional strategy meeting on Friday, so we shall see what HQ has to say about our plans.

Scottish Lorraine and I will both be heading to Malta at the end of the week for the ACN conference there. This gives us lots of evenings to bounce around ideas for moving forward in our regions—we can do this separately, obviously, but I think that there are lots of things that we can do together as well. Now I have that warm, fuzzy feeling that you used to get when you made your first friend at a new school…

Yesterday I held my second individual Area Secretary meeting; this time with Chris Robson. Chris looks after all of the Diocese of Lancaster and part of the Archdiocese of Liverpool. He typically does more than 25(!) parish appeals per year (yes, that is literally EVERY OTHER WEEKEND). Chris is quite simply an ACN legend. I went off and watched him give an excellent appeal at Our Lady Star of the Sea in St-Annes-on-Sea in Lancashire this past weekend (thank you, Fr Hart and the wonderful parishioners of Our Lady Star of the Sea!). I have known Chris for many years—since we first arrived in Lancaster, in fact—so it is a pleasure to be working with him. We touched on lots of issues in our meeting together and I learned a lot about good ways to approach parishes and how to pitch appeals so that they strike just the right balance between hard-hitting facts and uplifting ways that ACN can help those who can’t help themselves. Aside from his obvious parish-appeal prowess, Chris is also the King of Parish Reps. Virtually all of the NW Parish Reps (and you know how much I love Parish Reps!) come from his patch; just this weekend alone he has presented me with no fewer than FOUR new names. Before long most of the Diocese of Lancaster will be volunteering for ACN NW. Now, on to my other four dioceses…

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

This is just the best job EVER…

OK, I know that my last post was perhaps not of the upbeat, optimistic bent that you have come to expect from me. If I let you down, I am truly sorry. And to make up for it, today’s entry is bright and shiny and positive and everything uplifting that a blog about working for such a wonderful charity should be. Hurray!

The first half of my week was productive, if predictable, but on Thursday things really picked up. I travelled to Liverpool to attend the installation of the new Archbishop. Liverpool Lime Street Station was teaming with priests, monks, nuns and fancily dressed laity all heading by foot or taxi up Mount Pleasant to the Cathedral.  Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral was filled to bursting (more than 3000 people I believe!) and the Mass was beautiful. Fabulous music, loads of clergy, a wonderful homily by Archbishop McMahon…it was a very moving and very warm welcome to the new Archbishop. I was seated with William Pilkiewicz (the Area Secretary for Salford Diocese…on whom more below) in the ‘Catholic Associations’ section. I proudly sported my ACN lapel pin and wore my green suit that has previously gotten me through an episcopal ordination, an installation and a retirement Mass in honour of Bishop O’Donoghue when he left Lancaster several years ago. Archbishop McMahon spoke in his homily about the need for each and every baptised Catholic to evangelise and to help those who suffer or are persecuted.  1 May is the Feast of St Joseph the Worker and the new Archbishop also reminded us all that even ordinary people can make extraordinary contributions. It felt a bit like he was speaking just to me! I shall write to him shortly to set up a meeting; I am certain that in him ACN will find a kindred spirit!

After the Mass William and I went for a quick sandwich and a bit of a chat. I am meeting with all four of the NW Area Secretaries to get to know them and to make sure that they are happy and not lacking support in any way. We had a very informative and positive meeting. William has only begun to give parish appeals for us about 6 months ago and he is moving from strength to strength. Whatever you are doing, William, please keep on doing it!

Despite a signal failure outside of Wigan that kept me from home until 7 pm that evening, I ended the day as my usual positive self (I’d even managed to fix my phone by then!). Friday was another great day here at ACN NW. Much busy-ness took place—and when I shut down my computer at 6pm I honestly wished I had another few hours to finish up all that I had begun. I managed to organize a group meeting with the four Area Secretaries (you have NO IDEA how difficult it is to get five people to the same place at the same time on the same day!), I sorted out the final paper work for a new Parish Representative (from St Mary’s, Hornby in the Diocese of Lancaster!) and I caught up on some admin. I had a very informative meeting with Fr Jonathan Hemmings—Lancaster’s resident Greek Orthodox priest—where we agreed to keep in touch and explore ways of working together to help the Catholic and Orthodox Christians who are suffering so much in the Middle East and elsewhere. I now understand about the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople, the Antiochan congregation and the various autocephalic churches. It is complex, but very interesting, and I am hopeful that we will be able to work together to make a difference.

To top off my lovely day, I got a phone call from the new Parish Representative from St John the Evangelist, Thornton Cleveleys (Lancaster Diocese). Our representative asked for some leaflets to hand out to parishioners after Mass and some prayer cards and reports to help the parish prayer group incorporate ACN into their prayer list. This is wonderful. Thank you Parish Rep!

And so ended my week. I find myself wishing that Monday was a work day and not a Bank Holiday. I cannot wait for next Tuesday! 

Thanks for reading!  Caroline