ONE NIGHT for Religious Freedom: What it means to Sr Edelquine in Kenya

ONE NIGHT for Religious Freedom has been receiving messages of support from people all over the world. Today's post features the first in a series of Guest Mini-Blogs in which guest bloggers complete a short list of four questions about themselves, their interest and/or involvement with ACN and any messages that they want to send to displaced and refugee Iraqis. Read on to see how today's Guest Blogger from Kenya feels about getting involved with ACN through ONE NIGHT for Religious Freedom.

1. Please give us a bit of background about yourself: I am Sr. Edelquine, a nun and student. I am a Little Sister of St. Francis. I am a second born of my family in Kenya.

2. Why are you interested in the issues surrounding Religious Freedom in our world today? Being a religious, I feel freedom was ordained by God. In that case, nobody should be forced to embrace a faith he/she is not conversant with. People have the freedom of worship at least from my country's view point and I presume worldwide.

3. Have you supported Aid to the Church in Need before? How might you be interested in helping in the future? I have never supported ACN before. I wish to be an active member of it. I like to volunteer in Commentation and being MC. I am also good in poetry and editing of passages. I yearn to talk to young people about valuing the word of God through catechesis.

4. What is your message to those Iraqis who are currently suffering persecution both as displaced people within Iraq and as refugees elsewhere? Courage! In persecution, we share the suffering of Christ. Let us hang on Christ our hope and trust. To the refugees, "the son of man has nowhere to lay his head...." Let us all join in prayer even when tempted to the point of death. Long live ACN.

Thank you for your contribution, Sr Edelquine--your message of support will be passed on to the Iraqi Community at ONE NIGHT in a few weeks' time. May God bless you in your work as a Little Sister of St Francis. ACN is very grateful for your support and prayers.

If  you would like to contribute to this series in the run-up to ONE NIGHT for Religious Freedom, please contact the NW Office of ACN ( email: email) or follow us on twitter: @ACNUK_NW; or facebook: www.facebook.com/acnuk.northwest) Thanks!

The End of an Era: The Final ACN-NW Prayer Vigil for Religious Freedom

The Final Prayer Vigil: Holy Apostles & Martyrs, Wallasey

It's been a long haul, but totally worth it--as of last Friday evening (20 March), the series of Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom that began with Archbishop Kaigama's talk at Holy Name Church in Manchester moved into the very first (and still the best attended!) prayer vigil at St Joseph's in Accrington has now concluded with the eighteenth and final vigil at Holy Apostles and Martyrs in Wallasey on the Wirral.

All of the vigils have been wonderful and I have had the pleasure of meeting so many committed long-term ACN benefactors and plenty of new people who are just beginning their journey with us. I have worked with six bishops, around twenty-five priests and literally hundreds of people interested in learning about and praying for those who suffer religious persecution. I've made friends; I've opened dialogues with parishes, schools and special interest groups; I've looked on as regular benefactors realise that their friends and neighbours also support ACN and they didn't know that they shared this common interest. 

Young Syrian Girl at an Advent Service

I shall miss my pop-up banner with the picture of the Syrian girl holding her candle up at an Advent vigil; I have seen a number of people approach her at the close of a vigil to say a little prayer or gently rest a hand on her forehead in support. I shall miss reading the incredibly moving statement written for the vigils by Sahar Mansour, an Iraqi Christian woman from Mosul who currently 'lives' with her family in the refugee camp in Ankawa, north of Erbil. I read that statement eighteen times; I feel as though Sahar is a good friend even though I have never met her. Her brave words have inspired so many prayers over the past five months.

I shall miss a few things slightly less: I have not a completely free weekend in weeks--not that I minded as it was all for a good cause, but my house is a mess and my children are looking forward to decent meals on weekends... I love baking, but the famous ACN-NW thank you cakes which I presented to every priest who hosted a vigil and each bishop who attended one were at times being baked in batches of six just to get me through a single weekend's worth of vigils. My children took to staring balefully at the cooling rack. I managed to fit in an extra cake for them whenever I could... Then there were the long drives--almost always in the dark AND the rain to places I had never been before--a bit hairy here and there, but overall I managed  pretty well (thanks to Theodora, the ACN mobile, and Roberta, my trusty sat-nav). 

The Paris Rep Team and
Fr Kevin Lowry,
Holy Family,
Freckleton & Warton

Some thanks are in order here. First to all the priests who offered venues (generally without too much arm twisting) and to those in neighbouring parishes who helped by advertising vigils; to Simon Caldwell who acted as the go-between for me with Sahar Mansour, to my friend who helped me put together the original format for the vigil, to Johnny at ACN HQ who helped send out invitations, to my husband and children who helped me pack up boxes, load and unload the car, tidy up afterwards, all this even while being forced to attend three or even four vigils in a row. I'd also like to thank Archbishop McMahon and Bishops Brain, Arnold, Brignall, Campbell and Davies for their support and contributions at each of the vigils they attended--Bishop Mark Davies attended two vigils including the final one in Wallasey--his kind words at the end about ACN and its work with suffering Christians and his thanks to me on behalf of the bishops of the region really meant a lot to me. There are undoubtedly others deserving of thanks; anyone I have overlooked, please know that this is unintentional! Thank you, also, to all of the people who attended the vigils and those who couldn't attend but sent letters of support and donations instead.

Prayer vigils are about the quality of the prayers and not the quantity of those offering them, but such overwhelming support from the Catholic community in the NW and North Wales can only have helped. I feel that together we have managed to do something very important and very special. Thank you all!

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

It has just been SOOOOOO busy!

I am shocked at how long it has been since my last post. New Year's ACN NW Resolution: Shorter, but more frequent blogs...no, really. I can do that; I love writing this blog, but I haven't had two seconds spare since my last post. Let me take you through it all quickly so we can get our timing back to the present!

St Austin's Advent Service

18 December: I attended a wonderful Advent Service at St Austin's Church in Garston, Liverpool. I had a great evening. All of the readings were in different languages (as well as in English, of course!) at this vibrant, multi-cultural parish; when I stood up to give my talk I asked whether they would count 'American' as another language to add to the tally for the evening... After the service we all retired to the Parish Hall where I ran a stall and met lots of interesting people: the two priests, teachers and catechists. I was invited to attend a parish retreat in 2015 and I bought a beautiful scarf from the parish stall that supports embroiderers in Bangladesh. Despite the pouring rain and the 2 1/2 hours (!!) it took to get there from Lancaster (rain, darkness and rush hour all working seamlessly together to delay me), I had a wonderful time. Thank you, Fr Unsworth for inviting me!
 

Hearts and Messages for Iraqi and Syrian Refugees

19 December: Very busy day! Hearts and messages of support sent out to Baghdad and the Good Shepherd Sisters in Lebanon in the morning. The afternoon saw my first meeting with Hussein to talk about the Iraq Solidarity Campaign; Huss was v, v helpful and has showed me lots of ways to jazz up my blog--none of which I've had time to implement yet, but I shall get to it soon! We are planning an an ACN Overnight Prayer Vigil for Iraqi Christians in Manchester in April; more on this as it develops. Off home at the end of the day for a small, select NW Office Christmas party; all other staff took off leaving just the Manager and the (canine) Head of Security--much hilarity all around.


Two weeks off for Christmas (most of which I spent in bed with 'flu...)

Since I've started up again, I have:

Moving the NW Office!

• Moved my office (so now my family can have dinner in the dining room again!);
• Begun to spread the word about Prayers from our Hearts to primary schools throughout the region--lots and lots of positive response, so things are really starting to take off with this!
• Organised posters, invitations, service sheets and newsletter blurbs for the TWELVE...yes, TWELVE...Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom that will take place in the NW between 6 February and 20 March.
• Worked with Holy Name Church in Manchester and Hussein from the Iraq Solidarity Campaign to get the Overnight Vigil plans off the ground
• Opened dialogues with the Education Departments in all five regional dioceses to talk about all of ACN's resources for schools--2 meetings so far...which have resulted in at least 4 further meetings; still waiting to schedule the other three dioceses...
• Spent a great day at Castlerigg Manor, the Diocese of Lancaster's Youth Retreat Centre; Ruth and her team can weave a mean heart after our afternoon together!
• Attended what feels like about a million meetings all over the place. Last week I spent only 1 1/2 days in my office!

Heart-Weaving at Castlerigg

ENOUGH! I am back on track now. Look out 2015---here comes the NW Office!

Here's what you need to know for now:

Please tell your parish primary school about Prayers from our Hearts; if schools get in touch I can fill them in on our other resources for schools as well!

ACN Overnight Vigil for Iraqi Christians: Saturday 18 April - Sunday 19 April at Holy Name Church (Oxford Road, Manchester); more details to follow!

Upcoming ACN NW Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom:

Friday 6 February: Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, 7:30-9:00pm (Archbishop McMahon will be there and Neville Kyrke-Smith, National Director, ACN UK, will be the guest speaker)

Saturday 7 February: The Chapel, Stonyhurst College, Clitheroe, 7:30-9:00pm

Sunday 15 February: Lancaster Cathedral, 3:00-4:00pm (Bishop Campbell will be there)

Will report back as soon as I can; please get in touch via Facebook or Twitter if you can!

Thanks for Reading!

Caroline

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