Four Area Secretaries and a Bishop (but no funerals!)

I and Bishop Campbell

I am planning to become focussed and purposeful very, very soon…truly, I am, but it is already Tuesday and once again so much (most of it wonderful!) is happening that I am struggling to sit still even long enough to get this diary entry written! At least, like lentils (get it?), ACN- NW never gets boring!

Yesterday I held my very first Joint NW Area Secretaries’ meeting. We met in Manchester in some borrowed office space (thanks, Terry!) and I think that a good time was had by all. I was there (only slightly nervous, but full of ideas and plans), along with Chris Robson (Area Secretary for the Diocese of Lancaster and parts of Salford and Liverpool), Terry Gorman (Area Secretary for most of Shrewsbury and parts of Liverpool) and Karen Blundell (Area Secretary for Wrexham and the rest of Shrewsbury). William Pilkiewicz, who handles most of Salford and just a bit of Shrewsbury, wasn’t able to be there this time, but we will make sure that he is there for our next meeting. Chris, Terry, Karen and I had a good long chat about the current state of ACN affairs in the NW and I introduced a number of the initiatives that I plan to put in place. I got some very helpful and mostly positive feedback. These people are the ones who work at the ACN frontline; they speak to Parish Priests and arrange and give appeals in parishes so they receive constant feedback from congregations. When Area Secretaries say something might work, I believe them; if they tell me to go back and think again, I’ll be sure to do that. Another helpful resource to get me started. I am thankful for this. Following an hour and 15 minutes of me bubbling over with new ideas, the by-then exhausted Area Secretaries and I shared a delicious lunch and chatted generally about our lives and experiences. I couldn’t ask for nicer colleagues—what a shame that they all don’t work from my dining room!

Today I met with my own bishop, Michael Campbell, Bishop of Lancaster. Bishop Campbell is someone I know rather well from my days running the Cathedral office. In fact, I was one of the first people whom he met upon his initial visit to Lancaster after learning of his appointment. I was honoured to help to organize the hospitality both for his ordination as bishop  and his subsequent installation. Bishop Campbell kindly agreed to all of my suggestions for ways to raise the profile ACN throughout his diocese and he obviously holds ACN in high esteem and respects the work that we do. He told me that he spent several years in Nigeria (which I hadn’t known) and he was very interested in what the Archbishop of Jos had spoken about at our conference in Malta. True to form my pesky Angelus alarm went off during our meeting (this was NOT on purpose!), and yet again I was grateful to have my handy ACN Angelus prayer card at the ready. Bishop Michael and I prayed the Angelus together and talked about how wonderful it would be to get it back into our schools. I have lots to follow up from this meeting—various people to contact, diaries to co-ordinate, meetings to schedule—but this is only for the good. I even emerged with a picture of us both for this blog. AND I walked to the Curial Offices, so no waiting for connections on crowded platforms.

Once I arrived back at home, I caught up on some phone calls and correspondence. I spoke to the Dean of the Isle of Man and hope to schedule appeals there for early in 2015. I spoke to another enthusiastic former Area Secretary in Chester who is happy to meet with me to discuss my plans. ACN’s ICT 'superhero' Manager rang to tell me that my new laptop is ready; this will change everything as I will now be able to access ACN’s records for my region. This will help to put me in touch with more enthusiastic ACN-NW supporters. Finally, I received today another response to my letters to special interest groups sent out about a month ago. This one came from a Catenian. He has kindly offered to spread the word about my post and my offer to speak at meetings of the Catenian Association at any time. Just like the doctor last week, he has made that little extra effort to help. I love that I can make this point about two different people in two entries in a row! An ACN Regional Manager could get used to this sort of thing!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline