Can you sponsor Ruth’s Christmas Walk for ACN?

Ruth Baker walking

I wouldn’t want anyone to think of me as a cheater or to wonder whether I was taking the easy way out, but I’m going to take a chance with this blog… Below please find a request for sponsorship from Ruth Baker, a member of the Youth Team based at Castlerigg, Cumbria in the Diocese of Lancaster. Ruth contacted me last week to tell me about her sponsored walk for ACN. Below is her message to me—which is now (minus my typical jaunty, if rather long-winded, turn of phrase) my message to you. Enjoy the break from me and PLEASE sponsor Ruth if you can!

“My name is Ruth Baker, and I’m 24 years old.

In November this year I went to a Catholic youth event in Liverpool’s Catholic Cathedral called Embrace, where I attended a workshop by Lord David Alton, on the persecuted church. What he said in his talk really shook me up; although I had heard the news over and over again, this time it got to my heart and I knew I could no longer stand by doing nothing.

I wanted to do something to raise awareness and funds. My parents have always supported Aid to the Church in Need and it seemed like a good place to start. Inspired by my love of walking (I completed the Camino de Santiago in Spain two years ago!) I decided to walk part of my journey home for Christmas. I live and work in Keswick, which is such a beautiful part of the Lake District, and my parents live in Herefordshire, Britain’s most rural county, in Ross-on-Wye which sits in the lovely Wye Valley. These seemed two excellent places to walk in, and I decided I would walk to and from the train stations that I use.

View in the Lake District

My walk will start on the morning of the 20^th December, when I will walk from my room in Castlerigg Manor, the Diocese of Lancaster’s Youth Retreat Centre where I work, to the train station in Penrith. This is 18 miles along a cycle path that has some amazing views of some of the Lake’s most majestic mountains.

That evening, I will get the train from Penrith to Hereford (a journey of 5 hours, which always feels like quite an undertaking on its own!). I’ll stay the night in a hotel in Hereford, and the next morning attend the 8am Mass at St Francis Xavier’s Catholic church in Hereford. (That’s in the Archdiocese of Cardiff).

After Mass, I’ll make the short walk to Hereford Cathedral, where I’ll begin the second stage of my journey, another stretch of 18 miles along the Wye Valley walk, alongside the River Wye, through tiny villages, woods and fields.
At the end of this walk I’ll climb the hill up from the river to the town of Ross-on-Wye, where my parents live and I’ll be home for Christmas!
I hope to raise money for Aid to the Church in Need, to pray for persecuted Christians along the way, for those who will be without their homes and families this Christmas.

Packing so far!

I love the outdoors and I’ve done a lot of walking and hiking in the past. Even with my love of walking, I know how unpleasant it can be at times, when you’re nearing the end of a long day and it’s cold and wet. It can reach a case of mind over matter and gritting your teeth to get through it. At least I will have a warm train and a warm bed awaiting me on my arrival each day, and my home will be my final destination. Maybe during this walk  I will gain a tiny sense of empathy for those who have had to flee their homes and who face a winter without their home for Christmas; those who had to walk away from their home instead of to it.

My JustGiving page can be found here: https://www.justgiving.com/ruthiebakes/

Thank you for your support!”

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Lighting Candles at Lee House

Chapel at Lee House, Thornley, Lancashire

Lee House is an old, rambling dwelling a few miles outside of Longridge which is itself a ways outside of Preston in Lancashire. Technically Lee House is in Thornley, but essentially it sits alone, surrounded by fields and approached by a single track off a country road. You might think that an isolated farm used to hide priests and celebrate Masses during the Penal period might not be an ideal location for an ACN-NW Prayer Vigil for Religious Freedom, but you couldn’t be more wrong!



Candle Lighting at the Lee House Prayer Vigil

On Friday 5 December Theodora and I braved freezing weather, icy roads and pitch black country skies to head to Lee House for a vigil. At 7:30pm each First Friday, Mass is celebrated there by the Parish Priest from Longridge, Fr David Chinnery, and on this particular evening, Fr Chinnery and Joe Howson, the caretaker at Lee House, had pulled out all the stops to help support ACN and our work with persecuted Christians. The Mass incorporated the scriptural readings, the introductory talk and statement of personal witness that are generally included in the vigils and then, after a brief comfort break, a deeply moving talk by Lord Alton of Liverpool kept us all glued to our seats. This was followed by the Angelus and a silent period of prayer and reflection during which people were invited forward to light votive candles for those who are currently suffering the world over. After a closing prayer for Persecuted Christians in the Middle East, the evening finished off with much fellowship and good will.

Spending a couple of hours in that small, secluded chapel which has stood for so long as a safe haven for those persecuted for their beliefs brought home to me the strong connections between English Recusant Catholics and those people—of all faiths—who continue to suffer atrocities in order to remain true to their religious faith.


Martyrs of England Wales, pray for us and for those who still endure your suffering and pain. Amen.

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Our Lady of Eden & St Edmund Campion

Once again I find myself playing catch-up with my blog entries. This is a shame as I find them really fun to write and I definitely enjoy the chance to note down my experiences and to think about the people I've met and the places I've visited. I feel a NW Office New Year’s Resolution coming on…

On the evening of Saturday 29 November my husband and I headed up to Our Lady of Eden in Carlisle for a Prayer Vigil for Religious Freedom. We received an extremely warm welcome from the clergy there—many thanks to Canon Watson, Fr Gaskin and Fr Millar for their generous hospitality and delicious food! The vigil was lovely—excellent music with a very attentive congregation in a beautiful church.  I met up with the Head Catechist and I am planning to go back to talk to the confirmandi in the new year. There is a vibrant Polish community based here; I must put my mind to coming up with an offering for them in the future. The new parish hall and Carlisle's  relative proximity to Scottish Lorraine's office in Motherwell have me pondering a joint event with our friends across the border...och, Aye!

You will notice the banner with the little girl from Syria once again front and centre at an ACN NW Prayer Vigil; at Carlisle, just as at every other prayer vigil so far, I found several people standing in front of her at the end of the vigil--"we are just praying for her, to make sure that she stays safe," they said. It is this sort of compassion and selflessness that I find wherever I encounter ACN friends and benefactors. I pray for her too!

Treasures from the Stonyhurst College Collections

1 December is the feast day of the English Recusant martyr, St Edmund Campion. This day is celebrated with special care each year at Stonyhurst College, an ancient Jesuit school just outside of Clitheroe in Lancashire. The Campion Mass is always takes place in St Peter's, Stonyhurst in the presence of invited senior clerics and with two relics of this notable Jesuit saint upon the high altar.  This year, in my capacity as NW Manager for Aid to the Church in Need, I was invited to attend the Mass and the lunch afterwards as a guest of the College. It was indeed an honour and a privilege to be there. The Mass was very moving; the choir was in great voice and the Archbishop of Baltimore, whose earliest  predecessor was himself a graduate of the Jesuit College of St Omer (from which Stonyhurst was founded), preached a beautiful homily pitched perfectly to the largely teenaged congregation. Lunch followed in the refectory—a remarkable affair as Campion Day is celebrated with great gusto at the College. On this day the older students serve the juniors and the staff serves the senior students and the whole school attends the ‘Campion Fair’ in the afternoon. Very festive it was! The other guests and I headed into the historic libraries to view some of the highlights of Stonyhurst's extensive collections of religious items collected, bequeathed and donated by Jesuits and their supporters over the past 450 years or so. We saw relics (both corporal and secondary), rare books, manuscripts, paintings, vestments and other artefacts. Jan Graffius, who curates the collections,  led the tour and provided lots of interesting and amusing titbits of background information. We all had a lovely day; everyone should celebrate Campion Day!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline