AGM Reports
Report and members thoughts from the CWL CIO National AGM in the Hayes Centre – October 2019
AGM Reports
Relief & Refugee Committee
The Committee meets every month to assess applications received from the National Secretary.Your donations have helped Asylum Seekers and Refugees who have sought refuge in the UK since the First World War. Please continue to support the R & R Fund.
Applicants Countries of Origin – having arrived in the UK from 39 different countries, exhausted, malnourished and in need of help. Asylum Seekers have to rely on the support of charitable agencies and organisations.
Charity Commission Registered Agencies listed – that currently send applications to us via the National Secretary. Two of them, Freedom from Torture and Hibiscus, specifically deal with those who have been trafficked and abused.
The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is based at their centre in Wapping on the river Thames. They provide many services for their refugee friends. Services provided by the British Red Cross Destitution Centre were also available for members to see.
African Refugee Community – A message sent by the organiser, Mr Makuka, –
“ Your grant always makes a difference in their life, this is demonstrated on the day of collection of their grant when I see them smiling and saying a Big Thank You and May God continue to bless people working for the CWL”.
(SDCAS) A Local supermarket Morrison’s asked whether the volunteers at the centre could organise some music for Valentine’s Day –
One of the volunteers played a gig at the supermarket, but not on Valentine’s Day. He played his guitar and sang for 30 minutes, many staff and customers joined in.
Afterwards he struck a deal with the supermarket.
The new R & R Prayer given to the committee by the National President.
Heavenly Father, you are the source of all goodness, generosity and love.
We thank you for opening the hearts of many to those who are fleeing for their lives.
Help us now to open our arms in welcome,
and reach out our hands in support.
That the desperate may find new hope and lives torn apart be restored.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, your son, Our Lord who fled persecution
At his birth and at his last triumphed over death.
Amen
OUR LADY’S CATECHISTS
HISTORY OF THE OLC
Our Lady’s Catechists, (OLC), have been working in the field of catechesis for 96 years. Our Lady’s Catechists was founded in 1923 when Cardinal Bourne asked Margaret Fletcher, Foundress of the Catholic Women’s League, to help with the instruction of children not at Catholic schools.
Two years later there were 52 trained catechists and an equal number in training. In 1931 a standing committee of Our Ladies Catechists was established.
In 1956 OLC became a special committee of the Catholic Women’s League, with a representative from every Diocesan branch of the CWL.
In 1960 the OLC Certificate was recognised by the Hierarchy and the Bishops agreed to countersign the certificates. OLC is an associate member of the National Board of Religious Inspectors and Advisors, (NBRIA). OLC believes that the work of Parish catechists is as important now as it was in the 1920’s when OLC started. With the shortage of Parish priests, the role of lay catechists could become even more important. Although many Dioceses have their own training courses, OLC courses have several advantages.
OUR NEW WEB SITE
Our main development in the last year has been our new website at www.catechists.org.uk, which ‘went live’ around Christmas last year. This is well worth a visit as it introduces the OLC Executive, gives a brief history of OLC, gives details of all of our courses with application forms, and provides resources to work with children which can be downloaded for free, amongst many other features.
NEW LEAFLETS
We also have new leaflets for all of our courses, (available this weekend): ‘Sowing the Seed’ – Foundation Course, which gives training for Parish Catechists or for adult formation; ‘Reaping the Harvest’ – Diploma course, a more in depth course to enable catechists to lead parish programs; Catholicism Made Simple – an introduction to the Catholic faith for adults or young people, and, Mysteries of the Christian Life – a course based on the Holy Rosary
To keep up to date with OLC news there is our annual magazine, Notes and News.
OLC CONFERENCE 2019
This year, for OLC’s annual Conference and AGM, we tried a new venue, moving to the Royal Court Hotel in Coventry. Our guest speaker was Fr. Mark Moran who gave two very interesting talks on the Holy Spirit. We were blessed in having our Spiritual Director, Fr Harry Curtis and OLC’s good friend Canon John Minh with us, and we were very grateful to Bishop Peter Doyle who joined us to celebrate Mass on the Saturday. In all, it was a very enjoyable, restful and spiritual weekend. Paul Swinhoe, our web master introduced us to the new web site.
OLC CONFERENCE 2020
We will be using the same venue again for next year’s Conference, which will run from Friday 17th to Sunday 19th April. Our guest speaker will be Revd Dr Gareth Leyshon, a member of the Sion Community, who will speak on the theme, ‘Why am I a Catholic?’ – the relationship between catechesis and evangelisation. Details from secretaryolc@cwlhq.org.uk.
We would love to welcome members of CWL to our Conference to find out a bit more about our work.
The Executive and members of OLC would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the members of CWL who have supported us financially and in prayer throughout the year.
MEMBERS COMMENTS –
Sally Hamp Thank you God. Fabulous conference went home full of confidence.
Jacqui Hoath C.W.L alive and strong
Patience Okoukoni I had a fabulous time at the conference. Blessed, refreshed and looking forward to 2020 AGM. Thanks to planners and organisers.
MORE INFORMATION ON TALKS GIVEN AT THE AGM
ENGLAND-THE DOWRY OF MARY: MEANING & MISSION
Good afternoon. My name is Edmund Matyjaszek and as the event details rightly say, I am Principal of Priory School of Our Lady of Walsingham – the only secondary school in England so designated – and was invited by the National Secretary to give this address “England the Dowry of Mary: Meaning & Mission” to you today. Thank you very much for the invitation. And it is an auspicious day for our subject. Not just as this date, October 25th, was the Feast Day of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales, but also because it is the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. I realise I am standing in for your first choice, Mgr John Armitage, Rector of the Shrine of Walsingham who cannot be here as he is at this very moment in charge of the Dowry Tour of the Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham at Hexham & Newcastle. I feel Mgr John would approve of the subject of the talk as it is the about the very shine of which he is the most distinguished rector, Walsingham, and also the subject, England as the Dowry of Mary, that he is presently engaged on further north.
CWL Services Committee
First of all I do hope you’ve all had a good journey here today. A special welcome to our guests from the Union of Catholic Mothers and the Mothers’ Union and I do hope you find this report of interest.
Of great excitement last November was the very unexpected alert to the forthcoming auction of the medals of Mrs Charlotte Baynes who was in charge of our huts in France during WW1 with a guide price of £300-£400! We had only known that she had been Mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig’s Despatch in November 1916, so it was a great surprise to learn that she had been created a Member of the British Empire in June 1918 and finally promoted to an officer of the Order of the British Empire in November 1920 ‘for services in connection with the War’. We sought permission from the Trustees to bid for the medals on 6th December with a ceiling of £1,000. Sadly, we didn’t obtain them but, more importantly, we have a lovely picture of them. They remarkably fetched in excess of £2,000, plus VAT and charges, but what the buyer doesn’t have (and he would have bid considerably higher than £2,000 we understand) is the picture we have of Mrs Baynes outside the Boulogne Hut!
We also learnt a lot more about her in the Auctioneers write-up which is of great value to our archives which are fairly sketchy during WW1! She was an early member of the League – do look at the details we have of her life on the Services Display Board! Of note – the campaign medal roll for the Catholic Women’s League shows only 36 names, each receiving a British War Medal as sole entitlement.
We were asked by the Royal British Legion, on behalf of the League, to write a special message of commemoration to those involved with the D-Day landings 75 years ago The message was printed on a poppy card and taken to Normandy as part of this display on the beaches at Aromanches for the veterans to see on 6th June 2019. This was particularly poignant to us as Mary Critchley-Salmonson and her ladies went out on the boats very soon after D-Day to set up canteens in Europe. Our message read ‘In memory of the ladies of the CWL who ran huts and mobile canteens in North West Europe after D-Day’ We were given 100 characters and used every one! Now we keep getting donation requests from the Royal British Legion!
On 12th September last year Margaret Richards and I were privileged to attend the Installation Mass of Bishop Paul Mason as the 8th Bishop-in-Ordinary to HM Forces, after a sede vacante of well over 3 years, where over 100 Bishops and Clergy were in attendance in the lovely pro-Cathedral of St Michael and St George in Aldershot. Bishop Mason was escorted into the Cathedral by the Principal RC Chaplains of the Royal Navy, Army and Air Force.
I had a Christmas Card from Mary Clements (O’Kelly) our Uniform Model in WW2 who is now 98 or so and the only survivor of the 3 lady canteeners who were in a tented canteen together after WW2 – they all lived to a great age and the hard work of canteening certainly didn’t do them any harm!
Contact with the Catholic military chaplaincy is becoming very difficult now that Mgr McFadden, who has become a great friend and of such valuable support to us, has vacated his desk in Portsmouth to return to Paisley Diocese. His successor, Father David Conroy, phoned me one Saturday evening, prior to flying out to the Gulf the next morning, to thank us for our funding of 3 Servicemen to participate in the International Military Pilgrimage to Lourdes in May. I read recently that during WW2 there were 900 Catholic Chaplains in the Armed Forces (who were Reservists) – now we have probably less than 20 who work in an Ordinariate setting. Bishops, even in wartime, didn’t want to lose priests from their Dioceses to the Forces and that is certainly the case now with the shortage of priests.
We also funded the Pension of a Gurkha veteran/widow in Nepal for a year (£900).
In 1916 we rebuilt 3 Gurkha Veterans homes following the devastating earthquakes in Nepal and the Gurkha Welfare Trust are excellent at keeping us informed of what’s happening, so much so that Crystyl Potter our contact with them on the right of the picture, went to visit Mrs Khatri in February who’s home we rebuilt and, as you can see, she is well. We have made grants to 2 individuals – one for a custom-made wheelchair, and a sufferer with Huntington’s disease to take part in an Artist-in-Residence project at a day hospice who went on to have an exhibition of his work in Gloucester Cathedral.
I gave a talk on the Services Committee to a local ladies group in May which they found most interesting and on 7th September I went back up to York, a week after the Pilgrimage, to talk to the ladies of Middlesbrough Branch who were most hospitable and appreciative with their Branch Chaplain, Father David White, in attendance as well – they are lucky to have their chaplain attend their meetings when priests are so busy these days.
To the future. We would like to fund the building of two more homes for Gurkha veterans in Nepal next year, the materials of which would cost £3,000 each plus labour.
Another project is to hopefully fund something (probably some equipment for a games/recreation room) for the new ground breaking (8) Alabare Wilton Hill Veterans village which is nearing completion on the site of the former United Kingdom Land Forces Headquarters outside Salisbury, which is now becoming a very nice housing estate, where I started work with the Ministry of Defence in 1962 and where I met Bob! Thanks to funding allocated by the Chancellor from the Armed Forces LIBOR Fund and partners including Our Wilton Trust and Redrow Homes, the Veterans campus will be the UK’s first purpose-built community for vulnerable Veterans, helping them get back on their feet after suffering difficulties in their civilian lives. The campus will include an Enterprise Hub, training facilities and a community cafe. The initiative will support over 300 veterans in ten years, each of whom will be recovering from challenges such as mental ill-health, debt issues, substance addiction and relationship breakdown. It should be ready for occupation shortly and Alabare Christian Care and Support are going to ask the residents what they want and let us know. We hope to donate a substantial sum to this venture and will keep the League informed. There have been archive queries, the last one being a week ago when the Army Chaplain at Catterick Garrison asked about the work of the CWL during WW1 for a history he is compiling about the Catholic Church of St Joseph which opened there in 1918 and I was able to provide him with quite a bit of information.
Thank you for your continued funding of the Services Committee. I am most happy to talk to Branches and Sections about the fascinating history of the Services Committee if it is feasible – but if not I can make available the power point talk that I give, with handouts of particular interest, that you can do yourselves.
