This is the Life…

Limestone relief detail, Co-Cathedral of St John, Valletta

(Psst! This entry is a bit top secret as I am writing it from my satellite office in my garden; don’t tell anyone at HQ in Sutton in case word gets around and they all ask to be transferred to the NW office. Today it is beautiful up here, but I’ve managed to convince them all that it is always grey and miserable. Our little secret, ok? Thanks.)

Lots to catch you up on this week and even though I generally try to write a blog entry on a Tuesday, it’s late on a Wednesday afternoon and this is the first minute I’ve had to spare so far this week. I am working hard, but, as it is for a good cause, how can I possibly mind?

Monday and Tuesday were spent in an enjoyable and profitable visit to HQ. Despite the fact that lots of people were out of the office either for work or on holiday, I still managed to get loads done. No one had too much advance notice of my impending arrival so I am assuming that they didn’t clear out because NW Caroline was heading to town… On Monday I met with the National Director and Scottish Lorraine (via speaker phone) to talk about our new offering to primary schools; Neville is off to Lebanon and he has offered to do a bit of fact-finding for us (thank you!). Tomorrow I need to finalise what we need Neville to do and email him our Children’s Prayer for Refugees. I’ve never written a prayer before, but I’ve managed it and so far all of my critics have been supportive and very helpful (you know who you are!). Chris Kennedy, Neville’s PA, met with me, too, and she was able to provide me with lots more information and images for the schools initiative and for my ACN-NW Seminarian Challenge. Another big thank you!

Steve, my IT hero, and Carol and her fab team in Accounts spent lots of time talking me through ACN’s main data base and discussing various options we can set in place to monitor NW income and benefactor numbers. This will all take some careful consideration and probably a good bit of tinkering, but things are beginning to fall into place nicely.  I was also able to meet Antony Roullier, the newly appointed New Media Manager; I have a feeling that Antony is fast becoming one of my favourite people in the whole world. He will work with me to open up all sorts of new media avenues of communication. I hope before too  long that there will be any number of ways for you to find out about what is happening with ACN-NW—this is good as shortly there certainly will be an awful lot going on! Soon this blog may even go live and become available to millions of eager readers all over the world. Now wouldn’t that be something?

Yesterday saw me meeting with Johnny Dowling, the Database King. Compared to Johnny I have the spread sheet skills of a gerbil. I will work with Johnny and Scottish Lorraine to support the Area Secretaries and to look after the Parish Reps. I had better get all of my filing systems in order in case Mr Database visits the NW office! I headed back down to Accounts to tie up a few loose ends—I really have a much better sense of how things work now—before sitting down with John Pontifex, Head of Press and Information, to have a chat about developing a child-friendly ACN news bulletin for our schools initiative. Much work to be done there, but all to the good I say!

I also managed to have a good catch up with Portia, my highly esteemed line manager. Portia is calm and practical and I am really coming to value her skills as a trouble shooter. Not that I have much in the way of workplace difficulties (as I have one of the best jobs in the world), but when I have a question about the best way forward, Portia seems able to cut straight to the source of the confusion and provide me with clear, constructive advice about how to proceed. I love going to HQ for a visit!

Today I left home early to head to Mossley Hill in Liverpool to visit the (brand new) Archbishop of Liverpool. Archbishop McMahon, whose head must be spinning with all of the people he has met since his installation on 1 May, very kindly agreed to meet up with me for a chat about ACN and what I have planned for the region. He was very supportive of all that we do currently and he suggested that I speak to the editor of the Liverpool PIC, the archdiocesan magazine to see what kind of coverage I may be able to get there. This will be a big help with raising awareness about my search for Parish Reps, the Seminarian Challenge and the prayer vigils for Religious Freedom that I am planning for later this year and early 2015. He is happy to participate in one of these and I shall contact Liverpool Met shortly to see if we can all agree on a date. This time I remembered to turn off the Angelus alarm on my phone, but I told him about it anyway, so we said it together at the end of our meeting. By then, unfortunately, his PA had left for the day so I wasn’t able to ask her to take our picture (and I draw the line at taking a selfie with an Archibishop!), so I have included a picture of the front gate to Archbishop’s House so at least you will all know that I was actually there!

On Friday I meet with the Bishop of Salford in what will be my final introductory episcopal encounter. So far, all of the bishops have been so helpful and supportive; this will make a huge difference once all of my planning turns into action.

Yes, indeed, it is a lovely day here in the sunny North West…

Thanks for reading!  Caroline