Three Prayer Vigils, Six ACN Cakes & a Puncture: Part II

This past weekend saw the next two Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom. On Saturday I drove Theodora (stuffed once again!) to Salford Cathedral for an afternoon vigil. The Cathedral Dean, Fr Michael Jones, was incredibly helpful and welcoming, and Bishop Brain arrived to lead the vigil. His Private Secretary, Fr Steven Parkinson, was there as well; he deserves special thanks for helping to distribute publicity around the diocese. This vigil was just as moving as the vigil in Accrington, though the number of people was much smaller. The period of Exposition in the middle of the Vigil—15 minutes or so—felt very special to me, with all of us, including two priests and the bishop, on our knees before the Blessed Sacrament to pray for those suffering so much for their faith, it was deeply moving. Afterwards I received similar comments from those who attended, in particular about Sahar’s moving words. I was delighted to meet some lovely people from the area, including an Iraqi-born Christian and several people whom I had just met on Thursday at a Social Action Networking meeting in the Cathedral Centre. I mentioned the vigil when I introduced myself at the meeting and they took the time to come. I was so pleased to see them and I look forward to working together with the many parishes, schools and special interest groups in the Diocese of Salford.

Before I move on to Sunday’s vigil in Wrexham, I would like to mention my final adventure in Salford. Theodora works hard for the NW Office; she never complains! Obviously I am not as observant of her needs as I should be because when I got to the car park after the vigil at Salford Cathedral it was apparent that she had a had a slow leak for some time in one of her tyres and that it was virtually flat. The AA was called—but until they arrived I had wonderful help from Bishop Brain and Fr Parkinson as well as two people who attended the vigil. Thank you all for looking after us. Thanks, too, to William Pilkiewicz, the ACN Area Secretary for Salford, who kindly came along to run the trading stall for me. A spare pair of hands is a wonderful thing!

Messages and Hearts from Wrexham

On to Wrexham. With Theodora out of commission my husband and I had to take our other car, Sharon, down to Wrexham. This was handy, actually, as I had even more to take with me: before the vigil I ran a workshop for the Youth of the Diocese. The afternoon yielded more messages of support and more paper hearts, and the vigil was, once again, different from the others, but just as moving. Fr Simon Treloar, the Cathedral Dean and Deacon Ian Cameron, were very hospitable and Bishop Brignall was there to lend his prayers and thoughts to the vigil as well. Again, I was met with overwhelmingly supportive comments at the end of the vigil. Two or three people told me that they were so pleased that North Wales was not being overlooked by the new NW Office—‘certainly not,’ was my reply. Afterwards Fr Simon invited my husband and me in for a cup of tea. We had a lovely chat with Bishop Brignall, Fr Simon and a few others—I really appreciated the chance to talk about ways in which the NW Office can reach out to the Catholic Community in North Wales. I left with lots of ideas…

Just a quick mention of the cakes to which I allude in the title of the last two entries. Your NW Manager has a bit of a baking complex…I make cakes: LOTS of cakes. So I have undertaken to take a cake to each bishop and each priest who has hosted a prayer vigil. That’s six so far (two bishops and four priests). Shameless bribery, you say—no, just heartfelt thanks. Thank you to Bishop Brain and Bishop Brignall, and to the other members of the clergy whom I have met at the first three Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom! (cranberry and orange bread, in case you are wondering…recipe available on request!)

I am definitely catching up on myself now! Hurray!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Three Prayer Vigils, Six ACN Cakes & a Puncture: Part I

The excitement doesn’t ever stop here in the NW Office: this entry is jam-packed with more events and escapades. Make yourself a cup of tea and get comfortable. Here we go!

On Thursday 13 November—after less than a week of recovery time following Archbishop Kaigama’s visit—I loaded Theodora up for the very first ACN Prayer Vigil for Religious Freedom. It was very exciting—months of preparation (as you know) went into this day: finding venues, writing the ‘script’, organising publicity and service sheets and talks…I could go on. Anyway, this first vigil was to be held at St Joseph’s Church in Accrington, Lancs (Diocese of Salford). St Joseph’s just happened to be the parish in which my lovely friend Marie spent most of her childhood. Marie agreed to come with me to help and to show me the scenes of her childhood. Before we got to Accrington, though, I had to make an hour-long stop to run a workshop at St Cecilia’s High School in Longridge, nr Preston. The day at school was centred on Vocations, but I thought about it and I decided that I, no doubt just like you, have a vocation to serve and to help wherever I can. I talked to the students about this and about what ACN does to help. I then taught 90 Year 10 pupils how to weave paper hearts (with varying degrees of success!) and I asked them to write messages of support to Iraqi and Syrian refugees to place inside said hearts. All of this seemed to go down well at the school—thank you to Year 10!

My friend Marie at St Joseph's, Accrington

By late afternoon Marie and I were back on the road to Accrington. We arrived at St Joseph’s around 5pm and we were met by the Parish Priest, Fr Paul Blackburn. Fr Paul is a very keen ACN supporter and his church was full of ACN materials and posters for the Vigil; as was, no doubt, the neighbouring church dedicated to St Anne, whose Parish Priest, Fr Simon Stamp, had teamed up with Fr Blackburn to host the vigil. Marie and I got busy setting up the trading stall and a table of ACN literature, Executive Summaries of the new Religious Freedom in the World 2014 Report, sign up sheets for mailing list and much more. The vigil was set to begin at 7:00pm; we were ready by 6:30pm and people began to arrive. And they just kept on arriving—Marie and I were handing out prayer cards, service sheets and hymn books as fast as we could—but they just kept on coming! Over 100 people turned out in the end; what a fabulous start for the whole series of vigils!

Marie at the ACN stands, St Joseph's, Accrington

The vigil ran like clockwork and I couldn’t have been more pleased. I couldn’t see behind me because I was sitting up at the front, so you can imagine my surprise when I got to the lectern to speak and turned to see the church so full! Afterwards there was so much positive feedback; people were especially moved by the statement of personal witness from Sahar Mansour, a friend of a friend of mine, who is currently ‘living’ (if you can call it that) in a refugee camp in Ankawa in Northern Iraq. She has written a message especially for those who attend the prayer vigils and she speaks very candidly about her life, her day-to-day existence and what it means to be a Christian in Iraq today. At the very end, after five rather harrowing pages of text, Sahar closes by expressing her deep gratitude to Christians in the UK for their prayers. I have now read Sahar’s message at three very different prayer vigils and it isn’t getting any easier—Sahar’s thoughts stay with me all the time and whenever I revisit her words I am struck again by her quiet strength and deep faith. Please keep her and those thousands like her in your thoughts and prayers.

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Our very first NW Regional Event



His Grace Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos
speaking at Holy Name Church, Manchester
Photo Credit: Simon Caldwell 

Caroline Hull speaking at Holy Name Church
in Manchester; Photo Credit: Simon Caldwell

Ok, so I am still catching up, but I AM very, VERY busy now and I just haven’t had a second. I am determined to bring you all up to speed, though, so herewith my newest blog entry:
read on to learn about the most recent NW Office exploits!

I headed up to London (Why up? Especially as I am coming from Lancaster! There are some things about this country I shall never understand!) on Tuesday 4 November to the launch of ACN’s new Religious Freedom in the World 2014 Report. Your trusty NW Manager was invited to the House of Lords to mark the release of the new report which explores the state of religious freedom, or lack thereof, in 196 countries around the world. Lord Alton of Liverpool hosted the event and there were a number of excellent speakers, among them HRH the Prince of Wales (watch his taped address to us on our website --http://www.acnuk.org/) and His Grace Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos. You can have a look at the report and access the individual sections on each country at http://www.religion-freedom-report.org.uk. Well done to John Pontifex and the UK-based team who edited the new report!

On Thursday 6 November I drove to Manchester (yes, right into the very middle of Manchester on a weekday in bad traffic—am I brave?). I headed straight to Holy Name Church on Oxford Road and I received a very warm welcome indeed. The Jesuit Community based at Holy Name is so supportive of ACN and they were delighted to host our very first regional event. Fr William Pearsall, Fr Ian Tomlinson, Brother Ken Vance and Fr Joe Duggan couldn't have been kinder and Fr Tim Byron, who runs the Catholic Chaplaincy for the Universities, and Stephanie who runs the office, couldn't have been more helpful. I got parked up and unloaded and set up with no trouble at all.

Fr Tim drove me to Piccadilly Station to meet Archbishop Kaigama of Jos and his Private Secretary, Fr Emmanuel Kundum. Fresh from the Westminster Launch on Tuesday and the Scottish Launch on Wednesday, Archbishop Kaigama would have been well within his rights to be flagging at least a little bit, but this was certainly not the case. On Thursday evening he spoke with great passion and eloquence about the Church in his country and his efforts to work towards a regional and national climate of greater forgiveness and religious toleration. About 90 people came along to our first regional event and everyone seemed very pleased with the evening. Of course, I couldn't have managed without the help of Terry and William, the Area Secretaries for the Diocese of Shrewsbury and Salford respectively, and Brigid and Antony who are former Area Secretaries as well—Thank you all! Afterwards I sat down with the Jesuits and the visitors from Nigeria along with two other Nigerian priests currently working in the NW and we all had a lovely dinner together.

Archbishop Kaigama speaks to 500 pupils at Stonyhurst College

The next morning Fr Tim kindly offered to drive the Archbishop and Fr Emmanuel to the next stop on our whirlwind tour: Stonyhurst College near Clitheroe. I followed behind in Theodora (who was, once again, stuffed to the gills—if cars have gills…--with display boards, ACN literature and banners. The weather was terrible, with driving rain and low visibility, but our little convoy made steady progress and by the time we arrived at Stonyhurst it had cleared up quite a bit. Fr Twist at Stonyhurst welcomed us with a much needed cup of tea and at 5:15 the Archbishop celebrated Mass for the Nigerian community at Stonyhurst; there are currently around 40 Nigerian students there. This was followed by dinner in the refectory with the African students and in the evening the Archbishop and Fr Kundum attended a concert and had a tour of the beautiful, historic school.

Archbishop Kaigama, Fr Kundum, Fr Twist, Caroline Hull and Nigerian Pupils at Stonyhurst College

We were all up bright and early the next morning so that Archbishop Kaigama could address the upper school (about 500 pupils in all) at the Saturday morning Assembly in the newly renovated Church of St Peter within the College. Still no sign of the Archbishop getting tired at all: he gave a very rousing and riveting talk to the young people, stressing their youth and great promise and asking that they all make the most of their gifts and remember to make time for prayer in their lives. He was at his most inspirational when speaking to the students and he later told me that he looked out and saw such enthusiasm and hope for the future that he was immediately moved to provide them with as much support and encouragement as he could.

Archbishop Kaigama, Fr Emmanuel and your trusty NW Manager at Stonyhurst College

Fr Griffiths, the Parish Priest of St Peter’s, drove the Archbishop and Fr Emmanuel to Preston Station later that morning; I was again very grateful because I would never have fitted everything into Theodora (boot space isn't everything in a great car, you know!). I arrived back at the NW Office exhausted, but proud. Thanks to all who made the Archbishop's visit to the North West such a success!

Thanks for reading! Caroline

Don’t worry; I am still here!

ACN Kitty at Embrace-Liverpool 2014

I know that you have about given up on me at this point (and I’d like to believe that you would have been just a tiny bit sad at the loss…) and I am truly sorry for the hiatus in my blog entries, but I have been very, very busy (truly, epically busy, actually!). Immediately after I completed my last entry, I went to see my father in America for a week (a visit that was in fact at least 2 years overdue!). When I returned I had a week’s worth of work to catch up on and since then the NW Office has been a veritable whirlwind of activity!

 

Two days of feverous preparation saw your trusty NW Manager and her friend, Kitty, ready for anything as we headed to Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral for Embrace-Liverpool 2014 (http://www.embrace-liverpool.org.uk/), a huge event for young Catholics from all over the region. Kitty and I, feeling rather like Thelma and Louise, left Lancaster at 7am on Saturday 1 November in Theodora, laden with ACN literature, display boards, heart-weaving supplies and Iraq Solidarity buttons, wristbands and t-shirts. We managed to arrive at our destination without too much trouble and we got ourselves unloaded and set up—the accompanying photo shows Kitty behind our ACN stall. The day began at 10am and, for the next 8 hours, we met people, chatted about ACN, what we do and the people we help. We wove lots of paper hearts (most while standing up and talking to people—which is NOT easy I can tell you!) and collected messages of support to send to displaced Iraqi and Syrian Christians.

 

Archbishop McMahon reads out a greeting from
Pope Francis at Embrace-Liverpool 2014

We met students, teachers, youth group leaders, lay chaplains, parish priests and young families. We handed out ACN reports and contacts details for the new NW office and we told people about Prayers for our Hearts and Farid Georges and the new Religious Freedom Report. We explained about the Arabic N symbol for 'Nazarene' (this means Christian in Arabic and the initial has been painted on Christian houses in Iraq by IS members) that is currently all over the internet as symbol of support for Arabic Christians in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. I was disappointed at first by how few young people had ever heard of us, but very soon I was much gratified by the enthusiastic way everyone took our literature and contact details. I emerged exhausted, but feeling very determined to find ways to make ACN much better known to younger people throughout the North West…I have IDEAS about this. Watch this space…

 

Many, many thanks to Kitty for all of her help—I simply could not have managed without her!

 

Thanks for reading!  Caroline