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| 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
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