Cruisin’ along the ACN Highway!

St Clare's, Chester

“Cruisin’?” you say, “as in ‘driving’?” Oh, yes, that is indeed what I said. Yesterday at 2:27pm I took my second driving test (well, my third actually if you count the one I took—and passed—in America when I was 17). My examiner was the same as last time (in the UK, obviously, not 30+ years ago in New Jersey…) and, let me tell you, I was petrified. In the end, however, I emerged triumphant and am now the proud possessor of a UK driving licence. Hurray! I shall still use public transport whenever I can (better for the environment AND cheaper for ACN!), but now I can arrive quickly to ACN ‘emergency calls’ from anywhere in the NW or North Wales; this scenario is highly unlikely, of course, but it would still be very exciting to have an ACN siren or flashing light to keep in the back of my car. Maybe I should put in a request to ACN HQ…

Passing my driving test yesterday is just the most recent highpoint in a truly remarkable week thus far here in the NW Office. On Sunday I headed to St Clare’s in Chester to attend an appeal by Karen Blundell, ACN Area Secretary for the entire Diocese of Wrexham and a little bit of the Diocese of Shrewsbury as well. When my children heard “Chester,” “Sunday Lunch” (my sons) and “shopping” (my daughter), the whole NW Office family was happy to leave home at 9:30 and drive 90 minutes to go to Mass before indulging in said Sunday lunch and shopping expedition. In the end, none of us was disappointed (I am off lunch and shopping now and am referring to the Mass!). It was lovely to see Karen and her husband and it was an honour to meet Fr Martin Onuoha, the Parochial Administrator at St Clare’s. Fr Martin is Nigerian and he trained for the priesthood at an ACN-supported seminary in Nigeria. His homily was inspirational (even my three teenagers said so!) and it felt like a great privilege to meet this kind-hearted priest. His strong support of ACN was obvious and I know that he made Karen very welcome in his parish. It is wonderful to see a priest trained by ACN in action—it really brought home to me that the support provided by ACN trickles down to impact on individual people. Without our help, Fr Martin might not have been able to realise his vocation; the most recent ACN report highlights the dire situation in Nigeria today and the piece on seminarians makes it clear that these dedicated young men are very worthy of our help and support.

While Karen was speaking to the community at St Clare’s, Chris Robson was making an appeal at St Joseph’s in Ansdell in the Diocese of Lancaster. Aside from a number of very generous donations to the collection, several people came forward to offer to act as ACN Parish Representatives; more names for me to follow up. I love doing this; I get a chance to talk to someone new and people always have interesting stories about how they came to learn about ACN and the ways in which they support us. I am saving this task for tomorrow (by when I figure my post-driving-test-glow will have begun to fade). It will provide a great morale boost!

By noon on Monday the NW Office had already taken five generous donations for Iraq—this is more than I sometimes get in a whole week! I am extremely humbled by the outpouring of generosity towards the suffering Christian communities throughout Iraq. Our accounts department in Sutton is working flat out to process everything quickly to ensure that ACN can provide aid where it is needed as soon as possible. I figure that for every single donation there are a number of others who may not be able to give funds, but who offer their support through prayer. Prayer and aid together surely provide the best way to help.

To this we can add another very generous donation from St Joseph’s in Accrington (Diocese of Salford). Fr Paul Blackburn, the new parish priest, held a second collection for Iraq last weekend and wants to send the proceeds to our Iraq Fund. He rang my mobile just as I was on my way home after my driving test (have I mentioned yet that I passed this?). Luckily I was not driving so I was able to answer my phone; it was the icing on the cake of my very good day. Many thanks to Fr Blackburn and the parishioners of St Joseph’s!

All of this wonderful-ness and it is only Wednesday…I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Ask me anything you want to know!

This week has been an interesting one. Obviously my media triumph (see my last entry) was a high point, but it was another, on-going problem that actually served as the defining factor of this week in the NW Office: the sudden demise of my internet connection. I’ve been through the typical gamut of emotions about this, from mild irritation to optimistic bafflement through to genuine ready-to-hurl-electronic-devices-around-the- room fury and crazed hair-pulling frustration. I’m quite calm about it now. When I see those five bars of wonderful connectivity fade into that wretched yellow triangle with the dreaded black exclamation point, I simply shake my head philosophically and reach for my folder of ACN reports and reading material. I am really extremely well-informed about Iraq, Syria, Gaza and Nigeria now: ask me anything you want to know. Before fate removed eternal connection to cyber-space from my life I knew a good bit, but I rarely had decent stretches of time to read and think and assimilate. It has been an upsetting exercise in many ways, but ultimately beneficial. I have an appeal coming up in October and lots of prayer vigils from November, so I need to stay on top of things. I am thinking of blocking out a little bit of each week, maybe an hour or so, to catch myself up. Things happen swiftly and unexpectedly in this complicated, often misguided world of ours. What is relevant today may have changed rather dramatically by next month or next week or, at the moment, tomorrow. Lesson learned: from now on I shall make the time.

Among the most upsetting things I encountered on my read-a-thon concerns the current situation in Gaza. Embedded in an update from the Regional Director of the Pontifical Mission for Palestine was a table of figures derived from UN statistics. The update featured a number of fairly harrowing personal stories as well as a couple of pretty moving photographs from Gaza, but what struck me was the information contained in this fairly dry, academic table. The first column included a number of figures summing up the deaths, injuries and destruction in Gaza by the 23rd of July and the second listed the same statistics as of the 13th of August (just three weeks later!). These are just numbers—clinical, dry statistics—but once I noticed the dramatic increase from column one to column two, this table moved me more than many of the countless images of bombed out blocks of flats or long lines of refugees walking away from the cities and towns that they have always called home.  4,000 people had been injured in this conflict by 23 July; nearly 10,000 (9,986) were suffering three weeks later. There were 117,000 displaced persons in July (a figure that is scary enough in its own right), but by the day before yesterday there were…get ready for it… officially 386,000 people in Gaza who have been forced to leave their homes and lives behind. And how can this figure possibly include every single child and baby or lonely elderly person or over-confident teenager or man or woman who has become separated from other family members? It can’t—there must be even more. I could go on, but it doesn’t get any better—there are also totals for damaged housing units, schools and hospitals, people affected by lack of water or electricity and even numbers of children who are likely to need psychosocial support to deal with this. Believe me when I tell you that I am doing you a favour by not including all of these figures. What’s worse is that these aren’t really numbers and statistics, these are, or were, real live people and lovely homes and sweet little schools with pictures of flowers and birds stuck on to the windows just like here at home.  How can this be going on in the same world where you and I are living our lives right this very minute?

I was shocked by this, and even more so because the current ceasefire and the desperate situation in Iraq have moved Gaza just that tiny bit down from the lead story on the news. That’s the way it works…the most recent ACN mailing arrived in the NW Office on Monday…Nigeria: remember Nigeria? Those poor girls who still haven’t been returned and all of the other problems that Christians are having there at the minute? More on this next week. I am beginning to think that I need to set aside more than just an hour to stay on top of things!

Rosie relaxing in her 'wee' bed

Finally, on a much lighter note, I’d like to highlight an opening here at the NW Office—a volunteer position, of course. I had thought that I would promote Rosie the Cat to the much coveted position of Head Cleaner, but the fact that I have just found her lounging in the LITTER TRAY(!) means that I am going to have to reconsider. Please send your cv to the NW Office if you’d like to be considered; there is no salary, but I might consider letting you have Rosie…

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

“Good Mooooooooorning, SHREWSBURY!”

Caroline's Mars Bar and Banana Cake

St Andrew's, Sampford Courtenay

Yes, the title of this blog entry is my own, small, personal tribute to Robin Williams, who sadly died just a couple of days ago. It is, however, also directly relevant to the goings on at the NW Office as I have just returned from giving my first press interview as the NW Manager—I was interviewed by Simon Caldwell, the Communications and Press Officer for the Diocese of Shrewsbury. The interview will appear in the autumn issue of the Shrewsbury Voice. It all seemed to go well; Simon is very supportive and will help spread the word about the new NW Office and my regional initiatives. Afterwards he showed me the diocesan website and how he already uses ACNUK press releases to post news bulletins on the homepage; he also has an events section and he is happy to highlight upcoming ACN events. Thank you, Simon! Here’s hoping that this is the first of many successful NW Office forays into the complex world of the Catholic and regional press.

I am now firmly back in the saddle following my week away. The cottage turned out to be just outside of Chagford in North Devon (so, not Dorset this time!). It was a beautiful old farmhouse, not substantially altered since about 1650, complete with outbuildings and a lovely secluded garden. Very relaxing and an excellent base for visiting the local sites. I attach a picture of St Andrew’s Parish Church in Sampford Courtenay,   wherein began the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549 (not familiar with this instance of religious persecution within in our own country? Shame on you—read up on it!). There is also a photo of my world-famous, patented Mars Bar and Banana Cake (which my three nephews—11, 8 and 4—made all by themselves in the lovely farmhouse kitchen while we were on holiday.) Maybe this will be my entry should we ever have an ACNUK NW Office Bake-Off!

The past week has seen the situation in Iraq go from atrocious to whatever the word is that indicates that something is exponentially worse than ‘atrocious.’ Patriarch Louis Sacko, the leader of the majority of Iraq’s Christians, asked for a Global Day of Prayer for Iraq last Wednesday  (6 August—the Feast of the Transfiguration) and our own Bishops’ Conference teamed up with ACN and the Patriarch to ask  English and Welsh Catholics to pray for peace and an end to suffering in Iraq at all Masses over this past weekend. ACN has promised to send more emergency aid to Northern Iraq; in fact, so far ACN has sent £160,000 and just yesterday Baron Johannes Heereman, ACN’s International Executive President and two others from our International Office in Germany left for Erbil, where they arrived this morning. It is this direct involvement that makes ACN such a great charity; I am extra proud to be a (small) part of the ACN team when I learn about the risks that many of our staff take to make sure that what aid we can offer goes to where it is most needed. The prayers requested by the Patriarch and our Bishops are already being answered by generous ACN benefactors. I understand that the phones at HQ and the ACNUK website are extremely busy with donors desperate to help—the NW Office has also taken several very generous gifts. Let’s keep it going so that we can really make a difference to the lives of these suffering, displaced people.

Thanks for reading!  Caroline