Cruisin’ along the ACN Highway!

St Clare's, Chester

“Cruisin’?” you say, “as in ‘driving’?” Oh, yes, that is indeed what I said. Yesterday at 2:27pm I took my second driving test (well, my third actually if you count the one I took—and passed—in America when I was 17). My examiner was the same as last time (in the UK, obviously, not 30+ years ago in New Jersey…) and, let me tell you, I was petrified. In the end, however, I emerged triumphant and am now the proud possessor of a UK driving licence. Hurray! I shall still use public transport whenever I can (better for the environment AND cheaper for ACN!), but now I can arrive quickly to ACN ‘emergency calls’ from anywhere in the NW or North Wales; this scenario is highly unlikely, of course, but it would still be very exciting to have an ACN siren or flashing light to keep in the back of my car. Maybe I should put in a request to ACN HQ…

Passing my driving test yesterday is just the most recent highpoint in a truly remarkable week thus far here in the NW Office. On Sunday I headed to St Clare’s in Chester to attend an appeal by Karen Blundell, ACN Area Secretary for the entire Diocese of Wrexham and a little bit of the Diocese of Shrewsbury as well. When my children heard “Chester,” “Sunday Lunch” (my sons) and “shopping” (my daughter), the whole NW Office family was happy to leave home at 9:30 and drive 90 minutes to go to Mass before indulging in said Sunday lunch and shopping expedition. In the end, none of us was disappointed (I am off lunch and shopping now and am referring to the Mass!). It was lovely to see Karen and her husband and it was an honour to meet Fr Martin Onuoha, the Parochial Administrator at St Clare’s. Fr Martin is Nigerian and he trained for the priesthood at an ACN-supported seminary in Nigeria. His homily was inspirational (even my three teenagers said so!) and it felt like a great privilege to meet this kind-hearted priest. His strong support of ACN was obvious and I know that he made Karen very welcome in his parish. It is wonderful to see a priest trained by ACN in action—it really brought home to me that the support provided by ACN trickles down to impact on individual people. Without our help, Fr Martin might not have been able to realise his vocation; the most recent ACN report highlights the dire situation in Nigeria today and the piece on seminarians makes it clear that these dedicated young men are very worthy of our help and support.

While Karen was speaking to the community at St Clare’s, Chris Robson was making an appeal at St Joseph’s in Ansdell in the Diocese of Lancaster. Aside from a number of very generous donations to the collection, several people came forward to offer to act as ACN Parish Representatives; more names for me to follow up. I love doing this; I get a chance to talk to someone new and people always have interesting stories about how they came to learn about ACN and the ways in which they support us. I am saving this task for tomorrow (by when I figure my post-driving-test-glow will have begun to fade). It will provide a great morale boost!

By noon on Monday the NW Office had already taken five generous donations for Iraq—this is more than I sometimes get in a whole week! I am extremely humbled by the outpouring of generosity towards the suffering Christian communities throughout Iraq. Our accounts department in Sutton is working flat out to process everything quickly to ensure that ACN can provide aid where it is needed as soon as possible. I figure that for every single donation there are a number of others who may not be able to give funds, but who offer their support through prayer. Prayer and aid together surely provide the best way to help.

To this we can add another very generous donation from St Joseph’s in Accrington (Diocese of Salford). Fr Paul Blackburn, the new parish priest, held a second collection for Iraq last weekend and wants to send the proceeds to our Iraq Fund. He rang my mobile just as I was on my way home after my driving test (have I mentioned yet that I passed this?). Luckily I was not driving so I was able to answer my phone; it was the icing on the cake of my very good day. Many thanks to Fr Blackburn and the parishioners of St Joseph’s!

All of this wonderful-ness and it is only Wednesday…I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Ask me anything you want to know!

This week has been an interesting one. Obviously my media triumph (see my last entry) was a high point, but it was another, on-going problem that actually served as the defining factor of this week in the NW Office: the sudden demise of my internet connection. I’ve been through the typical gamut of emotions about this, from mild irritation to optimistic bafflement through to genuine ready-to-hurl-electronic-devices-around-the- room fury and crazed hair-pulling frustration. I’m quite calm about it now. When I see those five bars of wonderful connectivity fade into that wretched yellow triangle with the dreaded black exclamation point, I simply shake my head philosophically and reach for my folder of ACN reports and reading material. I am really extremely well-informed about Iraq, Syria, Gaza and Nigeria now: ask me anything you want to know. Before fate removed eternal connection to cyber-space from my life I knew a good bit, but I rarely had decent stretches of time to read and think and assimilate. It has been an upsetting exercise in many ways, but ultimately beneficial. I have an appeal coming up in October and lots of prayer vigils from November, so I need to stay on top of things. I am thinking of blocking out a little bit of each week, maybe an hour or so, to catch myself up. Things happen swiftly and unexpectedly in this complicated, often misguided world of ours. What is relevant today may have changed rather dramatically by next month or next week or, at the moment, tomorrow. Lesson learned: from now on I shall make the time.

Among the most upsetting things I encountered on my read-a-thon concerns the current situation in Gaza. Embedded in an update from the Regional Director of the Pontifical Mission for Palestine was a table of figures derived from UN statistics. The update featured a number of fairly harrowing personal stories as well as a couple of pretty moving photographs from Gaza, but what struck me was the information contained in this fairly dry, academic table. The first column included a number of figures summing up the deaths, injuries and destruction in Gaza by the 23rd of July and the second listed the same statistics as of the 13th of August (just three weeks later!). These are just numbers—clinical, dry statistics—but once I noticed the dramatic increase from column one to column two, this table moved me more than many of the countless images of bombed out blocks of flats or long lines of refugees walking away from the cities and towns that they have always called home.  4,000 people had been injured in this conflict by 23 July; nearly 10,000 (9,986) were suffering three weeks later. There were 117,000 displaced persons in July (a figure that is scary enough in its own right), but by the day before yesterday there were…get ready for it… officially 386,000 people in Gaza who have been forced to leave their homes and lives behind. And how can this figure possibly include every single child and baby or lonely elderly person or over-confident teenager or man or woman who has become separated from other family members? It can’t—there must be even more. I could go on, but it doesn’t get any better—there are also totals for damaged housing units, schools and hospitals, people affected by lack of water or electricity and even numbers of children who are likely to need psychosocial support to deal with this. Believe me when I tell you that I am doing you a favour by not including all of these figures. What’s worse is that these aren’t really numbers and statistics, these are, or were, real live people and lovely homes and sweet little schools with pictures of flowers and birds stuck on to the windows just like here at home.  How can this be going on in the same world where you and I are living our lives right this very minute?

I was shocked by this, and even more so because the current ceasefire and the desperate situation in Iraq have moved Gaza just that tiny bit down from the lead story on the news. That’s the way it works…the most recent ACN mailing arrived in the NW Office on Monday…Nigeria: remember Nigeria? Those poor girls who still haven’t been returned and all of the other problems that Christians are having there at the minute? More on this next week. I am beginning to think that I need to set aside more than just an hour to stay on top of things!

Rosie relaxing in her 'wee' bed

Finally, on a much lighter note, I’d like to highlight an opening here at the NW Office—a volunteer position, of course. I had thought that I would promote Rosie the Cat to the much coveted position of Head Cleaner, but the fact that I have just found her lounging in the LITTER TRAY(!) means that I am going to have to reconsider. Please send your cv to the NW Office if you’d like to be considered; there is no salary, but I might consider letting you have Rosie…

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

“Good Mooooooooorning, SHREWSBURY!”

Caroline's Mars Bar and Banana Cake

St Andrew's, Sampford Courtenay

Yes, the title of this blog entry is my own, small, personal tribute to Robin Williams, who sadly died just a couple of days ago. It is, however, also directly relevant to the goings on at the NW Office as I have just returned from giving my first press interview as the NW Manager—I was interviewed by Simon Caldwell, the Communications and Press Officer for the Diocese of Shrewsbury. The interview will appear in the autumn issue of the Shrewsbury Voice. It all seemed to go well; Simon is very supportive and will help spread the word about the new NW Office and my regional initiatives. Afterwards he showed me the diocesan website and how he already uses ACNUK press releases to post news bulletins on the homepage; he also has an events section and he is happy to highlight upcoming ACN events. Thank you, Simon! Here’s hoping that this is the first of many successful NW Office forays into the complex world of the Catholic and regional press.

I am now firmly back in the saddle following my week away. The cottage turned out to be just outside of Chagford in North Devon (so, not Dorset this time!). It was a beautiful old farmhouse, not substantially altered since about 1650, complete with outbuildings and a lovely secluded garden. Very relaxing and an excellent base for visiting the local sites. I attach a picture of St Andrew’s Parish Church in Sampford Courtenay,   wherein began the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549 (not familiar with this instance of religious persecution within in our own country? Shame on you—read up on it!). There is also a photo of my world-famous, patented Mars Bar and Banana Cake (which my three nephews—11, 8 and 4—made all by themselves in the lovely farmhouse kitchen while we were on holiday.) Maybe this will be my entry should we ever have an ACNUK NW Office Bake-Off!

The past week has seen the situation in Iraq go from atrocious to whatever the word is that indicates that something is exponentially worse than ‘atrocious.’ Patriarch Louis Sacko, the leader of the majority of Iraq’s Christians, asked for a Global Day of Prayer for Iraq last Wednesday  (6 August—the Feast of the Transfiguration) and our own Bishops’ Conference teamed up with ACN and the Patriarch to ask  English and Welsh Catholics to pray for peace and an end to suffering in Iraq at all Masses over this past weekend. ACN has promised to send more emergency aid to Northern Iraq; in fact, so far ACN has sent £160,000 and just yesterday Baron Johannes Heereman, ACN’s International Executive President and two others from our International Office in Germany left for Erbil, where they arrived this morning. It is this direct involvement that makes ACN such a great charity; I am extra proud to be a (small) part of the ACN team when I learn about the risks that many of our staff take to make sure that what aid we can offer goes to where it is most needed. The prayers requested by the Patriarch and our Bishops are already being answered by generous ACN benefactors. I understand that the phones at HQ and the ACNUK website are extremely busy with donors desperate to help—the NW Office has also taken several very generous gifts. Let’s keep it going so that we can really make a difference to the lives of these suffering, displaced people.

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Tying up loose ends

ACN-NW Baba Ganouj

This is my last entry for the month of July and also my final one before I head off on Thursday for a week’s holiday. In some ways I am ready for a break, in others I am wishing that I had another couple of weeks before going. Now that all of the children are in residence full-time and the University has settled down for the summer, my WHOLE family is here ALL the time and ACN-NW is a very busy place indeed! This afternoon is deceptively peaceful (son 1 out with a friend, daughter out at work, son 2 out with husband on a walk), so it felt like a good time to collect my thoughts before I undertake my final push to sort things out before I go off.

Things have really begun to pick up in my office over the last couple of weeks. Let’s face it, for all of the hard work I have done up until now still only a handful of people know that I am here. This is beginning to change, though—in the past 2 weeks I have had a number of phone calls from benefactors who live locally and would like to make donations or from people who can’t through to HQ in Surrey and need information about something or other. Even though sometimes I get calls on weekends or after hours, at this point it is still so exciting to get any call at all that I am delighted to hear from anyone at any time. This may change, of course, but for now I am happy to reach out to those benefactors who ring ACN-NW on a Saturday morning on the off chance that someone is in. This past Saturday was an excellent case in point. I had a lovely chat with a benefactor who lives near Wigan. I was able to help her with some Mass stipends and she now knows that ACN has an active presence in her region—Result! The excitement kept on coming because shortly thereafter the postman came and delivered a generous donation to ACN in memory of a man from Merseyside. How cross could I ever get with dealing with ACN business out of hours when I get to meet new benefactors and experience the generosity of the friends and family of former benefactors?

So far, this week has been largely devoted to PRAYERS FROM OUR HEARTS, the Final Push. Almost everything has been written and edited, and Lorraine and I are just finishing up the last few texts before delivering them all to Patricia by the end of play tomorrow. This has been hard work—I am not by nature a ‘finisher’; I am an ‘ideas person’—so I have had to put on my ‘details’ hat and stop myself from coming up with new plans for just long enough to finish this initiative. Still, now that it is nearly done, I can appreciate how undergoing the process of thinking, writing, thinking again, editing, waiting for approval, getting involved with other things for a bit, coming back to it, writing some more and so forth has really helped to sharpen the offering and to make it more meaningful. I hope that the primary schools throughout my region and Scotland think so, too!

I have also done some more work on the ACN-NW Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom. These are going to be great! When I get back from Dorset or Devon (I didn’t pay much attention when my husband booked the cottage!), I am going to need to think seriously about publicity strategies. It would be a shame to organize these wonderful events only to discover that no one knew about them! I’ll put my head together with Marketing at HQ and I’m sure that we’ll come up with something fabulous.

Over the weekend I attended an appeal by William Pilkiewicz at St Edmund’s in Little Hulton, near Bolton (Diocese of Salford). My husband and eldest son came along as well and we were all able to lend a hand. William did a great job and the parish responded enthusiastically. It is nice to go to Mass in a new church in a different place and observe how the comforting familiarity of the Mass can be interpreted in so many slightly different ways. It was all rather uplifting, I thought.

Yesterday I decided to hold a taste-testing session for my recipes for typical Middle Eastern school dinner food (this is part of PRAYERS FROM OUR HEARTS). The accompanying picture shows the ingredients for ACN-NW baba ganouj. Here are two of my recipes, in case you are feeling peckish:

Hummus

Ingredients: 2 cans chick peas (410g each); 2 heaping tablespoons tahini; 3 tablespoons olive oil; juice of half a lemon;2 cloves garlic, pressed; salt to taste

Method: whiz all ingredients together in a food processor until smooth. You can use a potato masher or even a fork it you don’t mind a few lumps!

Baba Ganouj

Ingredients: 2 large aubergines; 2 cloves garlic, pressed; juice of 1 lemon; 3 tablespoons tahini; 2 tablespoons olive oil; salt and pepper to taste

Method: bake or grill the aubergines until the skin is cracking and bubbling and the inside is very soft; you will need to turn each several times. Halve each aubergine lengthwise and scoop the soft flesh into a food processor add the remaining ingredients and whiz until smooth.

Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Another amazing Angelus moment!

Courtyard Cafe at Tabor

My Angelus window at Tabor

Prayers from our Hearts Assembly Script

Reception at Tabor

Yesterday I made a trip that I should have made long ago. Tabor is a retreat centre just outside of Preston that I have wondered about for a few years now. I know a several people who go there quite a bit and lots of others who have been once or twice. I got in touch with Fr Frank Gallagher, the Director, a while ago to ask whether he would like some Persecuted but never Forgotten booklets. He replied positively, so when I sent the booklets I asked if he would consider hosting a Prayer Vigil for Religious Freedom. We agreed that I should head to Tabor for a bit of a chat.

Tabor has been constructed out various ranges of farm buildings that the Carmelites purchased twelve years ago. The facility is wonderful—calm and tranquil—with lots of amenities from chapels to function rooms to café space to guest rooms. Fr Frank was brilliant—really helpful and supportive; I left with my mind buzzing (never a good sign!) with lots of ideas about ways we might work together in future. I joined their e-mailing list and will now receive their schedule of events twice a year. Our Prayer Vigil at Tabor will take place on Monday 2 March 2015 between 7 and 10pm—I am looking forward to it already!

Some interesting smaller things came out of the meeting as well. Fr Frank says that most of the PbnF booklets are already gone. I’ll look into sending some more info when I get back from holiday the week after next. I also mentioned that, with my academic hat on, I would be happy to help out with a talk or day-long course on medieval art if that appealed; I would waive any fees in return for a donation to ACN—everyone’s a winner! My long-suffering husband, who is a professor of medieval history, is happy to do the same; he has even written a book about the Carmelite Order, so he may be in higher demand than yours truly. He told me that he would also be happy to ‘sing for an ACN supper,’ as it were—so maybe we can use our lengthy liberal arts educations to help persecuted Christians. (I’ve just remembered that when our children were little, they used to tell people that their Mummy and Daddy were ‘useless’ doctors because we were doctors, but we couldn’t make anyone feel any better; a sad, but true indictment of our PhDs. Children don’t half know how to cut straight to the heart of the matter!)

Just as I was packing up to leave, my Angelus alarm went off—what a surprise! I was alone in the Chapel facing a beautiful stained glass window with sunlight pouring through it. It was a lovely place to stop for a few minutes and pray. I loved Tabor, and that made me feel that Tabor might just love me, too!

Btw: we are now up to ELEVEN confirmed Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom, with at least another five in the pipeline. I’ve got a very busy few months ahead of me…

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

And, now, back to the Studio

I have had a great day today. After a hectic start to the week, I had a whole day at ACN-NW HQ and I was able to get right down some hard work on the remaining texts for PRAYERS FROM OUR HEARTS. This morning I finished off the ‘tasting menu’ which will allow pupils in participating schools to sample foods served as part of a typical Middle Eastern school dinner. I love Middle Eastern food, so working out recipes to provide 30 tiny servings of baba ganoush and falafel is a labour of love for me. I also had the help of my youngest son—who is also quite the foody—soon  I’m feeling doubly confident about my choices.

After lunch I moved on to the script that I needed to write for a primary school assembly. I was aiming for something about 5 minutes long that provided some child-friendly background on ACN. After three hours or so I ended up with about 8 ½ minutes of news-breaking reports delivered by top-notch ACN reporters with catchy names like Ace Reporter and Harry Headliner. My son, loyal to a fault, stuck around to help me with a run-through (complete with much enthusiasm and several silly accents) and to select illustrations to go along with the script. Tonight I’ll force all of the children (including a Uni friend of my elder son who is currently visiting us) and my long-suffering husband to go through it again. Shall I play Tabby Topstory or stick with Annie Anchor back in the studio?

Just a few more texts to generate and Scottish Lorraine and I can move on to the heavy editing and final polish stages of this initiative. About time, too—we need to have everything to Patricia by close of play next Wednesday. We think we are on target, but only time will tell!

Off to walk the dog shortly as my working day is nearly done, but I wanted to finish off by saying that I failed my driving test on Monday. Only 3 minor faults, though—which is pretty darn good!—and one major fault which I personally felt I had under control, but no point in crying over this (well maybe only for another day or so). I have scheduled another test for after my holiday and we will have to hope for the best.  Feel my pain…

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

This is driving me crazy!

Simon's Dashboard

It is time, my friends, to let you all in on a little secret: when I moved to this country from America in 1991 I stopped driving. I have had a driving licence since I was seventeen, so I drove for ten years or so like a normal person, but once I switched countries for some reason I became a ‘drivee’ rather than a ‘driver.’ Why I did this I am not exactly sure, but despite plans to remedy the situation when the children were small (largely so that my husband didn’t have to do all of the driving), I never did anything about it.

In some ways being a non-driver has been beneficial; I am a great walker and so are my children—“if Mummy is taking us to the playground, cinema, chip shop, etc, we are walking”-in fact, I could argue that I have done them a great service by fostering their appreciation of their legs as a mode of transport (I notice that many of their friends do not share this outlook!).

I’ll admit that I had more or less planned to be chauffeured for the rest of my days by the time I decided to apply for the NW Manager position with Aid to the Church in Need. As you know I somehow was lucky enough to be appointed and am thankful every day that I applied for this job. The only stipulation set before me was that I must get myself a UK driving licence. “No problem”, I thought, “I already know how to drive; all I have to do is do it on the other side of the road and with a standard transmission.” How hard could this actually be?

Well, let me tell you, it has been hard—I mean, very, very, very hard.  For starters I come from the land of HUGE, gas-guzzling houses on wheels and have never had to change a gear in my life.  Furthermore, over 20 years of not driving has meant that I am, naturally, a bit rusty, but unfortunately I have discovered that what you never lose about driving is all of the sneaky corners that you begin to cut once you have passed your test. You know what I mean—all drivers do it: do you cross your hands over each other when you steer? Or coast with the clutch down when you are turning corners or going down hills? Or not bother to signal when changing lanes because no one else is bothering? Or ignore cycle lanes and position your car too far to the left?  When people joke and say that they would never pass their test if they had to take it again tomorrow, BELIEVE THEM because, for most of us, it would be true.

Anyway,  after weeks of cramming lessons into my spare time and trying to bring myself up to speed (forgive the pun!) with my new job, I am now about to take a driving test. I am petrified—I don’t remember being this scared on my 17th birthday when, after 6 one-hour lessons and a few weeks of cruising around my hometown in my father’s estate car, I took my first test! Simon, the world’s most patient driving instructor, says not too worry and that I’ll be fine as long as I remain calm (and check my mirrors a million times and approach roundabouts really slowly and remember to straighten out my wheels before I reverse when executing a 3-point turn and…I could go on and on and on…). I am trying to have faith in myself and what Simon says and that God will help me pass this test so I can concentrate fully on my work for Aid to the Church in Need.

What can you do? You can say some prayers for me, that’s what! Just like when I say the Angelus all by myself in my dining room and I suddenly feel part of a community working together to help others, knowing that my readers are supporting me while I go through this rather stressful ordeal will make all the difference to me. Please stop for a minute around 2:27pm on Monday and say a little prayer for me—I’ll fill you in when I write my next entry. Argh….  

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Oh, the things we do for our Mothers!

ACN-NW's Master Heart-Weaver

Curved diamond heart

My Little Heart Weavers

My children must really, really love me. Over the years they have always risen to every challenge that I have set. They never let me down when I needed their help in the office at Lancaster Cathedral; they haven’t always suffered in silence, but they always helped me when there was no one else. I am pleased to announce that my in-house team of helpful teens has now pledged its allegiance to ACN-NW and, as the Regional Manager, I must say that I am delighted and, further, that I am not surprised. Partly they help because they are clever people and they know that if their mother is happy, they are that much more likely to be granted the next favour/loan that they ask for, but they also help because they are interested and they care. They are nearly grown up now and I am incredibly proud of their strong sense of right and wrong and the ways in which they express their faith. Perhaps all those formative years of setting up folding tables and handing out service sheets and washing up after parish lunches haven’t done them any harm after all…

The past two days saw all four of us involved in assembling the craft resources for PRAYERS FROM OUR HEARTS (yes—I’m still excited, so it’s still in caps…). I know that I introduced you all to the joys of paper heart-weaving when Scottish Lorraine came to visit the ACN-NW office. My eldest son and I have put together what we feel is a comprehensive and deeply helpful series of images to provide step-by-step instructions for weaving hearts—this took hours away from the Latin poetry that Son #1 is memorising for some university exams he will sit in a few months. It was worth it, though—he is a great hand model and a heart-weaving natural! Yesterday my daughter and younger son came on board to help me develop nine different patterns and to weave an example of each one. I was very grateful that they were willing to help as this made what would have taken me all day into an enjoyable couple of hours spent together. I must report that I am doubly proud that they would help with this—I have been weaving hearts for a couple of years now and my children, despite much initial eye-rolling and merciless ridiculing of their ‘sad’ mother, all have mastered the basic techniques—especially after I forced all of them (and my husband) to weave fifty golden hearts in less than a week for my in-laws fiftieth anniversary a couple of years ago. They claim to have been ‘scarred’ by that experience, but, to help their mother and Iraqi and Syrian refugees, they are back in the heart-weaving saddle once again. Thank you, Christopher, Clemmie and Gabriel!

Scottish Lorraine and I are currently looking for volunteers (with or without primary school-aged children) to test drive the heart-weaving resources. If you want to give it go, just let me know—but be warned: heart-weaving may change your life forever!

Thanks for reading! Caroline

Religious Freedom Prayer Vigil World Cup: ACN-NW: 6 Apathy: Nil

ACN NW Regional Planning Meeting

My first prayer vigils for Religious Freedom aren’t until the end of November (thank you to Wrexham Cathedral and St Francis, LLay--22/23 November--and the Parish of St Mary of Eden in Carlisle--29 November), but I am already making lots of plans. I’ve contacted about twenty venues and most of these are thinking about dates at this point—people seem to be keen to participate. By the time everyone has come on board we are likely to be talking about between fifteen and twenty Prayer Vigils—that’s a lot of prayers being offered all over my region to ask that others be given the chance to worship however they like without fear of punishment. I’m looking forward to these events; they will help to raise awareness and, in a purely selfish way, I will have the chance to meet lots of people and hopefully to forge lots of links between the various parishes and ACN-NW. By the way, my timely (and witty) world cup reference reminds me: have you watched the ACN World Cup themed video on our website? Go on, it won’t take long and is definitely worth a watch!

I promised a bit of a recap of this week in this blog, so here goes. On Monday I touched base with one of our ACN Board Members, Lord David Alton of Liverpool. Lord Alton and I have known him for several years now. We had a very informative meeting—lots of exchange of contacts and ideas—just the sort of thing that I love! Several new ideas for the North West emerged in the course of our hour-long chat; you will hear more about these in due course.( I can’t give everything away all at once—I need to leave some things out or you might not keep reading this blog!) Tuesday was a catch-up morning and the monthly Regional Marketing and Fundraising Meeting that I mentioned in my last post.

Wednesday I went to Scotland to visit Scottish Lorraine to firm up some more details concerning…wait for it…here comes the actual name of our initiative for primary schools…for the first time EVER in print…yes, you saw it here before anyone else…PRAYERS FROM OUR HEARTS! Worth the wait, I hope—we like it and we hope that schools across the North West, North Wales and Scotland will love it!

Yesterday and today were spent on PRAYERS FROM OUR HEARTS (I’m going to continue to capitalise this until my initial excitement begins to wear off!). It’s time to firm everything up, to make lists for the designers and printers, to write and proof all of the texts and to double check the details to make sure that we’ve thought of everything (Scottish Lorraine and I are nothing if not thorough). Yesterday, among other things, I wrote out easy step-by-step instructions for weaving hearts, the craft element of the offering. Later on today my helpful teenage force of volunteers is going to pose for photos to accompany said instructions; my daughter and her friend may well be upstairs doing their nails in preparation even as I type this. I’ll let you see a sample in one of next week’s posts.

I have also begun work in earnest on some new initiatives. I am thinking about various ways in which ACN-NW could work with Farid Georges, a Syrian Orthodox painter from Homs in Syria. Farid is currently living in Germany and he has recently completed a series of paintings inspired by his difficult experiences living as a Christian in his native city over the past couple of years. His images are visually extremely powerful, and coupled with his explanatory texts, they tell a truly heart-breaking story. Can we bring the paintings to the UK? Or maybe create an exhibition that could travel around the North West region? Or maybe a booklet about them? Then there is the Angelus Angels project; how might that work? Will it work?  See what it’s like to be inside my head with zillions of ideas floating around all of the time? Thanks heavens that I am not in this alone—my colleagues at ACNUK HQ are always there to help me think things through. Stick with my blog to see how these ideas (and, no doubt, lots of others!) develop over the coming months. And let’s not forget the Seminarian Challenge and next year’s Prayer Vigils for Vocations and opening up dialogues with universities in my region …

Job done!

Two computers are better than one

Three (yes, three!) pictures accompany this entry. All come from my meeting in Scotland on Wednesday. My favourite is the final one that sums up our meeting: we had jam donuts and chocolate and crisps AND Lorraine gave me some pens to take home (the ACN-NW staff goes through pens like nobody’s business!). The Scottish office puts on a much better meeting than ACN-NW. I must raise my game in future!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

My Dear, we simply must stop meeting like this…

ACN NW Regional Planning Meeting

Big Monthly Regional Marketing and Fundraising Meeting yesterday; the attached picture shows you just how we managed to squeeze me, Scottish Lorraine, Portia and Patricia along with all of our papers and files into my dining room!  These meetings are always very productive as they allow us to touch base, exchange information, ask questions and canvass opinions. Yesterday’s meeting was nearly 2 hours long—my phone was actually hot by the time I hung up—but it left me with lots to think about and to get on with so my poor old phone will just have to suffer…

There is an art to the conference-call-meeting, and I am not naturally good at it. I love the connection and the chance to engage with other committed people to get a worthy job done. What I hadn’t realised about meetings by phone is how reliant I am on physical presence and body language to gauge the impact of what is being said. I am a very physical person; when I was an academic, I regularly began my lectures with a warning that at some point I was entirely likely to trip—I tend to jump about and run to the screen to point at things and there are always loads of leads and chair legs, etc; it all adds up to potential disaster even after years of experience! I am enthusiastic and I guess that that exuberance has to flow out of me somehow…falling flat on my face in front of 300 undergraduates may not have been dignified, but at least they always remembered the point that I had been making! Anyway, I find it very difficult to discuss things with people when I can’t use my own face and hands to make my point and when I can’t watch other people’s facial expressions. Words say a lot, but they don’t say everything. Curiously, I have recently participated in a conference call with my brother and two sisters (we had to deal with some family issues that had come up); this I found very easy—no problems at all—when my younger sisters described the situation I knew exactly when to laugh and when to cry and when my hulking brother-who is an American football coach-tossed in one of his typically mono-syllabic contributions I required no further elaboration from him whatsoever.

The difference lies not in the nature of the subject matter being discussed, but rather in how well we all know each other. I don’t have to guess when my sister is smiling and she doesn’t have to wonder whether my staring off into space means that I am not interested (she knows that I am merely ‘mulling’). As I get to know my colleagues at ACN better, and as they get to know me, we should become more adept at filling in the missing faces at our phone meetings. Indeed, I think that we are already getting better at it. I, ever bubbly and chatter-y, am learning not to be concerned about silences as we all absorb what we’ve heard or the more hesitant way we all speak when we are thinking something through and trying to articulate that process at the same time. This, I feel, is progress and adapting to a new way of working together; this is good.

However, I am writing this as I sit on a train to Motherwell to have a Primary Schools session with Scottish Lorraine; I will confess to a certain sense of excitement at the prospect of a bit of face-to-face interaction. I plan to wave my arms around and smile and wink and stare off into the distance as much as I possibly can!

Plenty of developments to report already this week, but I was feeling a bit philosophical this morning. In my next entry I’ll bring you up to speed on everything that’s going on.

Is there anybody out there?

Jassy on guard duty

Where I come from, today, the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday. It is unfailingly warm and sunny and there are parades and picnics and barbeques and fireworks in the evening. I have never been able successfully to re-create the spirit of Independence Day in my adopted country; Thanksgiving goes down a treat, but Fourth of July will, at least for me, be an extremely low key, more personal affair—with nary a sparkler in sight!

This week has been an interesting one here at ACN-NW HQ. No meetings to speak of—which can only be a good thing as my recent punishing round of visits was exhausting (though very productive!) and barely left me time to get anything done! I’ve had lots of clear time to develop ideas, to mull them over (crucial, as you know!), to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard…) and to take care of those little administrative tasks that have a slight tendency to sit on my ‘to-do’ pile for slightly longer than they ought. Indeed, this week and last week saw huge strides towards the implementation of several of my new ACN-NW initiatives, most notably the offering for primary schools (still without a title!) and the Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom to take place from November 2014. I have also begun work on a completely new idea—Angelus Angels—for a Day of Prayer across the North West and North Wales in March 2015 (more on this next week after I present it at the Regional Marketing Meeting on Tuesday). I have even had a bit of time to start thinking about content for my new media outlets—got to keep that ACN-NW Facebook page looking fresh and interesting…

Highpoints of the week included my day of a million prayer vigils on Tuesday; since then I have contacted quite a few more potential venues and I now have four definites and at least ten to twelve more that I am fairly certain will want to be involved. Next week I must contact all of the Catholic chaplains at the universities in my region—the Multi-Faith Reflection Hour option would go down very well in a university setting…Thursday was also full of surprises as Neville Kyrke-Smith, ACN UK National Director and now my personal ACN hero, returned from a trip to Lebanon laden with videos, photos and quotes from the Good Shepherd Sisters for Lorraine and me to use in the primary school initiative. Thank you, Neville!

There were parts of the week when I suffered a tiny bit from feeling rather lost and alone. Working from home is hard at times, for me anyway. It isn’t hard to stay focussed and I certainly have plenty to do, but sometimes I really miss the lack of companionship up here on my own. There was one day when I worked on my prayer vigils and sent out what felt like about a hundred emails. And no one replied…not a single person…not even an ‘out-of-office’ message. Zip. I began to wonder whether the world had ended and I (and my squad of ACN-NW animal volunteers) was all that was left. And then, finally, I had a call from Scottish Lorraine AND a text from Portia. Suddenly everything was bright and wonderful again; next time, I’ll make the first move! No more wallowing in regional isolation!

This week’s picture features another member of my ‘staff’; meet Jassy, our twelve-year-old golden retriever and head of ACN-NW’s ever-vigilant security team. Maybe she can act as a bouncer at future ACN-NW events?

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Just put our heads down and get the job done…

I have made a deal with Scottish Lorraine. By the end of this month, we will have hammered out the details of our initiative for primary schools and have things in place to begin to offer it to schools from September. No more pussy-footing around; we mean business! We have already done a fair amount of work, but it is time to tie up loose ends and make some difficult decisions to make the offering come together. This will, no doubt, involve finally deciding on a name for the initiative! We have narrowed the choices down to two, but we are going to have to take the plunge. This small step will, in fact, be for me a huge relief as I have begun to talk about this to my bishops, various parish priests and some teachers I know. You can imagine how much more convincing it will all sound once it actually has a name.

As hard as making that choice will be, it will be nothing compared to finalising the text and design for all of the supporting materials and making sure that all of the web-based resources are in place. Then there will be exploring the various methods we have to publicise the offering and the follow-up support that we will need to offer to interested schools. Implementing a system for monitoring and evaluating as well as establishing further contacts with each school to give our thanks and keep them aware of similar offerings in future years will occupy us once things get moving. We’ll also have to re-evaluate all of the materials regularly to keep things fresh and work in any new developments within the project in Lebanon that this initiative has been designed to support. We also plan to generate monthly news bulletins for participating primary schools to keep awareness of the current problems and issues surrounding persecuted Christian communities on the children’s ‘radar.’   Developing this sort of offering is definitely not for the faint-hearted, but Scottish Lorraine and I are committed to helping Sister Hanan and the Syrian and Iraqi refugees with whom the Good Shepherd Sisters work. We will prevail; no need to worry!

This week has been going very well so far. The Parish of Our Lady of Eden in Carlisle is on board for a Prayer Vigil for Religious Freedom (thank you, Canon Watson!) and I am awaiting responses from a number of other venues throughout the North West and North Wales. As of yesterday I am the proud possessor of three options for ‘scripts’ for the vigils—with advice from some ‘liturgically minded’ friends, I have managed to put together a Eucharistic Holy Hour, an ecumenical Prayer Vigil and an informative hour of prayer and reflection for multi-faith communities. Once the final touches are added—lists of suggested hymns and readings—and the drafts of the prayers are edited, these are good to go. All I need to do is finalise the dates and times of the Vigils and sort out a list of ACN speakers to offer witness at each one. Throughout my region we will offer all interested parties the chance to reflect on, and pray for, religious freedom and to learn more about ACN and what we do to help. I have set myself the challenge to try and attend every single one of these vigils—there should be a minimum of fifteen!—your thoughts and prayers to support me would be much appreciated.

Off to the post office to send a parcel of Persecuted but never Forgotten booklets to Tabor, the Carmelite Centre in Preston; these little books are a great summary of the current situation in some of the most troubled parts of the world. On Monday one was posted to each Parish Priest in the Archdiocese of Liverpool following my recent meeting with Archbishop McMahon. My secret stash in my basement is running low…

This just in: Wrexham Cathedral is on board for a Prayer Vigil for Religious Freedom—now it’s back to Bishop Brignall to try to sort out a date and time!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

I just knew this would happen!

No reason for anyone to be envious of the ACN-NW office today; we are back to grey and cold. Shucks!

This is probably for the best, though, because I have so much to do that today is not the day for distraction in the form of roses or bees or sunshine. I figured that it would be this way…first a trickle and then a steady flow of ideas and events which will, no doubt, build up to a massive gush (yes, GUSH) of ACN-NW activity. This always happens to me (and to everyone, I guess…or, at least, I hope it does!)

The trickle has been increasing over the past couple of months—more Parish Reps, more emails, more meetings, more plans—and, as of this weekend, ACN-NW has officially entered Phase 2 (the steadily increasing rush of jobs to do, documents to write, diaries to fill…). I felt this coming last week after I visited HQ with so much forward momentum inspired by my meetings with my colleagues in Sutton. My meetings with Archbishop McMahon and Bishop Brain made me more certain and I knew we were there when, by Monday morning, I had no fewer than three more initiatives floating around inside my head (and this total doesn’t even include the smaller ideas in there…)

I don’t want to say too much at this point—let’s face it, it’s my air of mystery that keep you coming back, isn’t it? Actually, the real reason is that things are all at a very early stage and need to be handled very delicately for now. For now…and this is top secret, ACN-NW classified information…just think: displaced Christians, refugees, oil paint, Franz Liszt and Luke 1:38. Curious? Good. Rest assured, you will see it here first once everything begins to materialise.

Lots to be getting on with, so this entry is a bit shorter than usual (and I haven’t even been able to get to it until just before noon on Wednesday—I usually do it on Tuesday!). Just one final note to say that today’s post brought my letter of confirmation from ACNUK. My probationary period is over—you are now stuck with this blog for the foreseeable future! Could ACNUK love employing me as much as I love my job? I'm not sure that this is even possible. Hurray!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

And then there were none

Aid to the Church in Need, Sutton

Another beautiful day, but time is pressing me, so I shall write this at my desk, though my garden is beckoning!

Today’s meeting with the Bishop of Salford was a true test of my finely-honed public transport skills, but it was entirely worth it. I carefully planned my trip, as I always do, so I left ACN-NW HQ in good time to make my train. I transferred as required at Salford Crescent and headed for Swinton. I knew that it would be a long-ish walk from there, but I assumed that I could get a cab. Lesson learned: there was nothing resembling a taxi or a minicab in the immediate vicinity of Swinton Station. Undaunted and (luckily) wearing comfortable shoes, I strode out into the wilds of Salford. I found Cromwell Road easily enough (thank you, Google Maps!) and eventually got on to the A6 down which I walked and I walked and I walked. At 11:20 and in a (fairly uncharacteristic) moment of despair, I rang Fr Parkinson, Bishop Brain’s Private Secretary. He told me that I was nearly there and I continued forward only to encounter Fr P in his zippy red car as he headed out to rescue me! I figured with that level of concern for visitor comfort, I was in for a treat at Wardley Hall. I was right!

Bishop Brain was extremely hospitable and very happy to hear about what I am up to. We discussed lots of issues, but spent some time discussing the ACN-NW Seminarian Challenge; he was amazed to hear that ACN currently supports one in eleven of all seminarians and he laughed when I told him that the Catholic Community in NW was going to try to make it one in ten. Bishop Brain made some very helpful suggestions about the Primary Schools initiative—obviously, I wasn’t going to miss my last chance to say the Angelus with a one of my regional bishops, so that led naturally to a discussion about reintroducing this lovely prayer into schools. I will look into developing some resources on this prayer, what it means and how it is used to make available to Catholic primary and secondary schools. Bishop Brain suggested that an initial approach to schools that is strictly prayer-based might increase the take-up of our main initiative; this is a wise suggestion, I think. I shall run this past Scottish Lorraine and HQ next week.

I have also secured my fifth (and final!) bishop for our ACN-NW Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom to run between early November and Easter 2015. That’s a full episcopal uptake for the vigils…I am already thinking about organizing next year’s vigils around vocations. I am currently looking for a second venue or two in each of my five dioceses; if your parish or school might be interested in coming board, why not email me or give me a ring?

Fr Parkinson conveniently popped up at the end of the meeting to take our picture (note the skull of St Ambrose Barlow in the small glass window above and to the right!) and then he offered to drive me back to Salford Crescent. The combination of my very warm welcome and the beautiful surroundings of historic Wardley Hall have made this final episcopal visit especially memorable.

I am so pleased to have so much support from the Bishops in my region; it is going to make all the difference.

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

This is the Life…

Limestone relief detail, Co-Cathedral of St John, Valletta

(Psst! This entry is a bit top secret as I am writing it from my satellite office in my garden; don’t tell anyone at HQ in Sutton in case word gets around and they all ask to be transferred to the NW office. Today it is beautiful up here, but I’ve managed to convince them all that it is always grey and miserable. Our little secret, ok? Thanks.)

Lots to catch you up on this week and even though I generally try to write a blog entry on a Tuesday, it’s late on a Wednesday afternoon and this is the first minute I’ve had to spare so far this week. I am working hard, but, as it is for a good cause, how can I possibly mind?

Monday and Tuesday were spent in an enjoyable and profitable visit to HQ. Despite the fact that lots of people were out of the office either for work or on holiday, I still managed to get loads done. No one had too much advance notice of my impending arrival so I am assuming that they didn’t clear out because NW Caroline was heading to town… On Monday I met with the National Director and Scottish Lorraine (via speaker phone) to talk about our new offering to primary schools; Neville is off to Lebanon and he has offered to do a bit of fact-finding for us (thank you!). Tomorrow I need to finalise what we need Neville to do and email him our Children’s Prayer for Refugees. I’ve never written a prayer before, but I’ve managed it and so far all of my critics have been supportive and very helpful (you know who you are!). Chris Kennedy, Neville’s PA, met with me, too, and she was able to provide me with lots more information and images for the schools initiative and for my ACN-NW Seminarian Challenge. Another big thank you!

Steve, my IT hero, and Carol and her fab team in Accounts spent lots of time talking me through ACN’s main data base and discussing various options we can set in place to monitor NW income and benefactor numbers. This will all take some careful consideration and probably a good bit of tinkering, but things are beginning to fall into place nicely.  I was also able to meet Antony Roullier, the newly appointed New Media Manager; I have a feeling that Antony is fast becoming one of my favourite people in the whole world. He will work with me to open up all sorts of new media avenues of communication. I hope before too  long that there will be any number of ways for you to find out about what is happening with ACN-NW—this is good as shortly there certainly will be an awful lot going on! Soon this blog may even go live and become available to millions of eager readers all over the world. Now wouldn’t that be something?

Yesterday saw me meeting with Johnny Dowling, the Database King. Compared to Johnny I have the spread sheet skills of a gerbil. I will work with Johnny and Scottish Lorraine to support the Area Secretaries and to look after the Parish Reps. I had better get all of my filing systems in order in case Mr Database visits the NW office! I headed back down to Accounts to tie up a few loose ends—I really have a much better sense of how things work now—before sitting down with John Pontifex, Head of Press and Information, to have a chat about developing a child-friendly ACN news bulletin for our schools initiative. Much work to be done there, but all to the good I say!

I also managed to have a good catch up with Portia, my highly esteemed line manager. Portia is calm and practical and I am really coming to value her skills as a trouble shooter. Not that I have much in the way of workplace difficulties (as I have one of the best jobs in the world), but when I have a question about the best way forward, Portia seems able to cut straight to the source of the confusion and provide me with clear, constructive advice about how to proceed. I love going to HQ for a visit!

Today I left home early to head to Mossley Hill in Liverpool to visit the (brand new) Archbishop of Liverpool. Archbishop McMahon, whose head must be spinning with all of the people he has met since his installation on 1 May, very kindly agreed to meet up with me for a chat about ACN and what I have planned for the region. He was very supportive of all that we do currently and he suggested that I speak to the editor of the Liverpool PIC, the archdiocesan magazine to see what kind of coverage I may be able to get there. This will be a big help with raising awareness about my search for Parish Reps, the Seminarian Challenge and the prayer vigils for Religious Freedom that I am planning for later this year and early 2015. He is happy to participate in one of these and I shall contact Liverpool Met shortly to see if we can all agree on a date. This time I remembered to turn off the Angelus alarm on my phone, but I told him about it anyway, so we said it together at the end of our meeting. By then, unfortunately, his PA had left for the day so I wasn’t able to ask her to take our picture (and I draw the line at taking a selfie with an Archibishop!), so I have included a picture of the front gate to Archbishop’s House so at least you will all know that I was actually there!

On Friday I meet with the Bishop of Salford in what will be my final introductory episcopal encounter. So far, all of the bishops have been so helpful and supportive; this will make a huge difference once all of my planning turns into action.

Yes, indeed, it is a lovely day here in the sunny North West…

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Learning to rely on the Voice inside my Head

I and Bishop Brain

Considering the frequency and confidence with which I use my voice the extent to which I rely on my inner voice—the one inside my head—it somewhat startling. Just who is that voice in there? I’m not sure I know, but I am certain that that tiny whisper offers me far more than the stark Angel/Devil model that shows up in films…my interior self provides the rest of me with a sounding board without which I could not do my job.

I have always set great store by what I like to refer to as ‘mulling time.’ When I was a postgraduate and then a university lecturer, my penchant for spending an hour or two staring off into space wasn’t particularly noticeable—I had colleagues who behaved far more strangely than I—but except for my few years as an academic, my mulling has attracted a fair amount of negative attention. My siblings, who grew up with me pretending to pay attention to them when I was actually mid-mull, think that I am fairly batty.  I have worked with various people over the years who actually found it fairly irritating. What can I do? I am a confirmed muller!

I am currently at the mulling stage for two ACN initiatives: the offering for primary schools that I am working on with Scottish Lorraine and my ACN-NW Seminarian Challenge. As an award-winning multi-tasker, I am able to mull while answering emails, filling in spread sheets and sorting out parcels to take to the post office. I can talk on the phone and mull, but prefer not to as I do my strange phasing out routine which my sisters find so annoying. This week I have managed to have a couple of quiet days—this is prime mulling time—so I have just gotten on with it.

For Prayers & Hearts offering for schools I have been thinking about how the day might work within each school; how long the various components should be and in what order, the nature of the support materials that we will need to assemble and the topics that a seven-year-old might find interesting or palatable about life as an Iraqi or Syrian Christian child living as a refugee in Lebanon. I have also been pondering how Sister Hanan and her community in Lebanon continue to try their hardest to help the ever-increasing numbers of traumatized people who are daily forced to flee their countries in search of safety.

For my seminarian challenge, I have been thinking about ways to spread the word and to help people to team up if they want to help but can’t afford the full amount needed. I have been thinking about how it must feel when the voice inside your head tells you that you should leave your home and your family and devote your entire life to serving God and ministering to others and how much more difficult that must be for those Christians who happen to live in places where very real and physical dangers accompany the decision to follow a vocation.

I have also been thinking about footballers. Specifically about Catholic footballers. More specifically about Catholic footballers who play in the North West. Most specifically about how to approach them and exactly what I would like to ask of those whom I approach. Footballers and seminarians—perhaps an unlikely combination. But the voice inside my head just will not shut up about these footballers; I still can’t quite make out what it is saying to me, but I shall keep listening until I figure it out—I think it’s going to be very interesting…

Obviously most people think about what they are doing while they do it and generally for a bit before actually getting started. I think the voice in my head and I do it differently though; we bat ideas back and forth for however long it takes—not usually too long as my mulling occurs every minute of every day when I am involved in the creative process. When my mull is complete, my internal oven timer goes ‘ping’ and my mulled-over item springs forth—fully formed and carefully set- out, though still in need of editing and the occasional tweak.

This week I have moved forward at a pretty rapid pace on both of these initiatives; this is because I have completed the current mulling phase and so have produced quite an outpouring of documents. Next week I have a veritable festival of meetings—2 days at HQ in Sutton; the new Archbishop of Liverpool; Bishop Brain (of Salford), but, in between all of these, I shall re-examine this week’s offerings before moving on to my next mull.

Things are beginning to move quickly here at ACN-NW: meetings and initiatives and events and marketing strategies. Soon we will all look back (fondly, I hope!) at these more philosophical posts about things like focussing and mulling.  The past few weeks of waiting and planning are nearly over; bring it on! 

Thanks for reading!  Caroline

Cutting the Apron Strings

Te Deum large window

My main purpose in writing these diary entries is to introduce you—and me!—to the ups and downs (mostly ups!) of my new position with Aid to the Church in Need. I try not to dwell needlessly on my personal details, but it is inevitable that my life will impact on my work and vice versa; that symbiotic relationship between work and life, the past and the present, the public and the private is what makes our lives so rich and varied and interesting. Yesterday evening I had one of those experiences where my past life collided with my new ACN life and, much to my amazement, it all suddenly made sense. Here’s what happened:

I worked for Lancaster Cathedral for the past ten years. When I say ‘worked’ I don’t mean the 9-to-5 arrangement that one might expect; I mean WORKED. I laughed; I cried; I fell asleep at my desk; I dragged my husband and children in to set up chairs and act in plays and hand out flyers; I went in at 6:30 am to water flower displays and spent the night there when the priests took the parish on pilgrimage to Rome and someone had to stay on the premises because the fire alarm was acting up. I could go on, but I won’t (you may breathe a sigh of relief now!). When I decided that taking up my new post with ACN was the right thing for me to do and that it was time to leave the Cathedral, I cleared my desk, I left lists everywhere and I took off two weeks early so that I could stay home and answer the phone to help with all of the things that I was sure no one else knew how to do. I disappeared—‘cold turkey’ as they say (why do they say that?)—and it was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. I needed to shift my focus and the only way to manage it was to shine all of my light (however dim!) on to my new job. Someday I shall begin to help again, but for now all that is going on with ACN deserves my full attention.

Anyway, two weeks ago I received an email from the person who has taken over school visits (yes, I used to run those, too!). She asked if I would come and talk to the new guides about the Cathedral’s west window. Years of touring groups around the Cathedral means that I know it like the back of my hand—every image, every cupboard, every smell and every creak; I even dream about it sometimes. I agreed; actually I was pleased to be asked. I walked up the hill, like I have done for so many years, and arrived at 7pm to a room full of old friends who were all desperate to know all about my new job—“Read my blog,” I told them! Then I showed them which keys they would need to prepare for a school tour. As we stepped inside my (former) office, it began to pour outside. When it pours outside and the wind is coming in off Morecambe Bay, what I affectionately refer to as the office ‘water feature’ starts up. Water began to stream from the beautiful gothic arched windows down the wall and on to the bright, shiny new boxes of A4 paper. Sadly the tea towels I always kept there (not because I am a slob, but because I knew all about the water feature) had been removed,  so I calmly headed to the kitchen to grab some; such is the fabric of the regime change! However, no one was hurt—except a couple of reams of paper—and now people know for future reference. I realized that my Cathedral is fine without me there to take care of things; things won’t go so smoothly for a while, but it will be ok. My job there is done.

Next we headed into the Cathedral and up the spiral stairs into the organ loft. I then set about talking about the west window—as I have done hundreds of times to families, school groups, architectural historians and local history buffs. The late 19th-century window is a beautiful depiction of the Christ enthroned surrounded by the Communion of Saints. The window is a tour-de-force; it displays superb craftsmanship, excellent balance, marvellous use of colour and great attention to detail. All in a window so high off the ground that no one inside the church can actually make much of it out! This is a point I always make to people: “why create such a beautiful, complex composition and put it where no one can actually see it?” The answer, I have always maintained, is simple. Jesus and Mary and the Saints are always there with us and for us even when we don’t realise it. You can’t begin to imagine to how many people I have made that statement over the past decade. The strange thing was that, yesterday evening, with the evening sun streaming through and knowing that this might be the last time that I ever talk about ‘my’ window, I finally took this on board myself. Wherever I go and whatever I do, I know that they are watching over the Cathedral and me and my family and my friends and all of you. A very comforting thought.

Yesterday evening I walked into Lancaster Cathedral as (slightly jaded) Cathedral Caroline, but I left as invigorated, calm and collected ACN-NW Caroline. Maybe not quite as catchy, but a very significant shift for me.

Thanks for reading!  Caroline