So much for New Year's Resolutions!

Poster for ONE NIGHT for Religious Freedom
http://www.acnuk.org/onenight
To donate towards ACN's work in Iraqi, click here

Where does the time go? I was truly planning to blog more frequently when I wrote my last post in late January, but here we are at the end of February and this is my first attempt this month. Shocking, though I can say that this is not because there has been nothing to report, but rather because there is JUST SO MUCH GOING ON that I barely have time to gulp down the occasional restorative cup of tea let alone to engage in my typical musings about my life, the NW Office and the state of the Persecuted Church in the world today. I really, really need to redress this...

So, a quick recap of February in the NW Office. At the end of January I headed to London to speak before the Board of ACN at their quarterly meeting. I filled the trustees in on what I've achieved so far and my plans for the rest of 2105. They were all very friendly and supportive, and I left even more fully committed to doing my best to help ACN and its work with the suffering Church. Round about the same time I began to organise the next major event here int he North West: ONE NIGHT for Religious Freedom, an Overnight Vigil in support of Iraqi Christians. ONE NIGHT will be held over the night of 18/19 April at Holy Name Church on Oxford Road in Manchester. All are welcome to come for all or part of the event, and there are lots of ways that you can participate even if you can't attend the vigil. I am working with ACN colleagues--especially our logistical guru Johnny Dowling, the Jesuit community and students at the Catholic Chaplaincy of the Manchester universities, ACN supporters and members of Manchester's Iraqi Community. The Iraq Solidarity Campaign, which works with Iraqis all over the UK and is based in Manchester, has been so supportive and helpful--you will be hearing more about them as the plans for ONE NIGHT develop. I'll use my blog to post updates, so keep checking to learn about the programme of events, to register your interest and/or willingness to help and to find out how you may be able to access parts of the vigil over the internet on the night. Very, very exciting! The ACN webpage for ONE NIGHT can be found here; if you'd like to donate to ONE NIGHT for Religious Freedom and to help support ACN's work in Iraq, use this link to my Just Giving page. For every £10 raised, we will light a votive candle that will burn throughout the overnight vigil. We'd like to create a huge 'nun', the first letter of Christian in Arabic and now the internationally recognised symbol used to show solidairty with Iraqi Christians; let's see just how big we can make our show of support!

I have also been busy meeting up with teachers, lay chaplains and pupils of Catholic primary and secondary schools throughout the NW region. It is very exciting to be able to introduce ACN's prayer and information resources for use in schools, especially PRAYERS FROM OUR HEARTS--you all know how strongly I feel about this initiative, the Good Shepherd Sisters and the Syrian and Iraqi refugees that we hope to help with this offering. Word is spreading and I hope to have a number of schools actively using our resources and participating in Prayer from our Hearts before too long!

The ACN NW Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom have occupied much of my time over the past month. I have spoken at vigils at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, Stonyhurst College, Lancaster Cathedral, Shrewsbury Cathedral,St Mary's Barrow, Holy Family Warton and Tabor, the Carmelite Retreat Centre in Preston. Five more to go: Kendal, Chorley, Wigan, Middlewich and Wallasey. For details, visit the ACN NW regional page on Facebook: here, or the events listing on the ACNUK website: here.

Back to work--I have to finish my talk on Defining and Enacting Religious Freedom for next week!

Thanks for Reading! Caroline