Religious Sisters of Charity

Congregational Workshops 2011

During February to June this year the Congregation held workshops in every Province and Region and invited the sisters to look more deeply at our Charism and also Ignatian Spirituality. The theme of the workshops was 'Opening to the Gift of the Now! In the English/Scottish Province we had two wonderful workshops in April and May. Here is an account of what happened:
Its hard to know where to begin when writing about those days with which the Province was so gifted. Srs Una O’Neill and Liz Dodds gave us the opportunity to explore, reflect on and share aspects of our spirituality which we as women and daughters of Mary Aikenhead live out in our lives on a daily basis. The themes they offered us were already old familiar friends but were now being presented in the context of a new awakening to our place in the universe and the world of technology. As Una said, the themes of past chapters which were discussed with such energy at the time are only now beginning to be understood by us. eg: our relationship to our planet.
The workshops opened with a ritual entitled “Opening to the Now”. This ritual placed us firmly in the present because we were invited to gather in geographical groups of north, south, east and west and to respond as a group to a reading on each of the themes of the General Chapter 2007 with the words: We are open to the gift of the Now. Some sisters have been sharing on what the workshops meant for them and what it is that remains with them today, several months later.
One sister was struck by the response to the questions about the positive/negative in our society.
Different groups representing different geographical parts of the Province pored over these questions and here are some of the answers received:

The positives:
We are welcoming nations and have been so for many decades
We enjoy the freedoms which a true democracy engenders
Ecumenism has flourished in the land
We live in a beautiful countries
The negatives:
Consumerism which encourages people to want the ‘latest’
Negative attitudes towards the Church which is seen as irrelevant
Poor weather!
The need for political reform
Sectarianism in some areas

Talking about our foremothers and in particular the sisters who inspired us personally was a very powerful and moving experience. By naming them we brought them into the room and realised how much their lives had influenced ours. This activity brought home to us the line of continuity stretching down the centuries and into the future and we knew that if this was repeated twenty years from now some of those sisters among us today would most certainly be named for their inspirational lives.
The video of the flash mob, used by Liz to illustrate Charism was a wonderful reminder of how people are drawn in to the life of the congregation. The dance, which began with one person then another, then others joining in in different ways and at different times, putting down their belongings to free themselves up to dance, onlookers swaying to the music until there was a whole range of people engaged at different levels.
We were deeply grateful to the sisters in Australia for sharing with us their understanding of our shared Charism.
Listening to the people who came to talk to us about their experience of the charism and of the Sisters of Charity was very humbling. In Hackney a member of the parish in Bristol where our sisters live, spoke very movingly of her contact with the sisters over many years, of the difficult times she had experienced and of how the sisters had supported her and many others in the parish through those times.
Two employees of St Margaret of Scotland Hospice and a retiring member of the board at St Andrews Hospice spoke of the influence of the hospice in the local community where there has in the past been a tendency towards sectarianism. As the hospices stand to care and to serve all regardless of religious affiliation they have been beacons in Clydebank and Airdrie for a long time.
Both workshops were interrupted by an event, one glad, the Royal wedding which took place during the Hackney workshop and one sad, the funeral of Sr Maeve Kelly which happened while the workshop was taking place in Clydebank, Scotland. In both cases it was important to give time to respond and the Province was united more deeply as a result of our shared joy in the case of the wedding and shared sorrow as we said goodbye to Maeve.
The workshops were characterised by a relaxed and joyful atmosphere. At the end of the workshops, when the participants were invited to say what they had enjoyed most about the time the majority of the sisters said that it was great to be with everyone and to share and to laugh together.
Click here to see a slideshow of the workshop in Hackney.
Click here to see a slideshow of the workshop in Clydebank.

Time For Tea

Several Sisters of Charity recently took some “Time for Tea!” with their local Members of Parliament. They had some important issues they wished to discuss with them over a ‘cuppa’. In a lobby of Parliament organised by seven charities they discussed their concerns about the plight of billions of people living well below the poverty line. Click HERE to read more…

A Golden Day

Sr Geraldine O’Connor celebrates her Golden Jubilee this year. For Geraldine this is a time of deep gratitude to God for his faithfulness over her fifty years of religious life. For our Province it is a time for us to express our gratitude to her for the commitment she has shown over the years and for the person she is and has been to the Province and to each of us.
Geraldine chose May 21st to be the day on which she would celebrate her jubilee with her friends and with the sisters of the Province. We began the day by gathering in our convent in Acton for morning coffee. It was a beautiful day outside and inside this was reflected in the warm, welcoming atmosphere created by the community. While we had tea, coffee, homemade cakes and biscuits we relaxed and chatted, and had our photographs taken! (click here to see a slideshow). Sisters and friends had come from different parts of the country so it was an opportunity to catch up and also to reflect back on past shared experiences. Three of the sisters present are also celebrating their Golden Jubilees this year and two of these sisters had travelled from Ireland to be with Geraldine.
The Eucharistic celebration followed at 12.30. at Holy Souls Church, West Acton. This continued in the same relaxed vein. It was a simple, prayerful time. During the Mass Geraldine and her three jubilarian companions renewed their vows in a spirit of gratitude to God for fifty years of religious life. The meal that followed was very leisurely. Towards the end of the meal Geraldine thanked everyone for being present at the celebration. Then she cut her cake. By the time the tea and coffee came the cake was ready to be distributed too.
The words of one sister sums up the many comments made about the day “It was a truly enjoyable occasion I was so pleased to be present”.

Good News Story – The End of a Five Year Campaign

On 18 March 2011, St Margaret of Scotland Hospice, Scotland’s first and largest Hospice, received welcome news from the Health Board that they had lifted the notice to remove the beds caring for the patients with complex medical, nursing and end of life needs in the new purpose built Mary Aikenhead Centre at the Hospice. Hospice Chairman Professor Leo Martin said,
“This is tremendous news for our patients, their families, our staff and everyone associated with the Hospice. We look forward to now receiving a long term contract from the Health Board that will secure the excellent provision for our patients and families at St Margaret’s.”
Special tribute is paid to all our campaigners and supporters and in particular to Provost Denis Agnew, Councillor Marie McNair, Des McNulty, Jackson Carlaw, Ross Finnie, Gil Paterson, Hugh Henry, Jackie Baillie and Margo MacDonald, who have all been staunch supporters of the Hospice during a very stressful and challenging time. They are to be commended for their tenacity, courage, persistence, loyalty and above all, their own personal commitment to securing Hospice care for all those who need it at a most difficult time in their lives.

TELCO campaigns at TESCO

On Saturday June 4th some members of the Telco (The East London Community Organisation) group congregated outside Tesco in Bow in East London to make a peaceful demonstration on behalf of some of the Tesco work force who are underpaid. The Telco group was formed in 1994 mainly by Church leaders of varying denominations to support the people in London’s East End particularly in Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Newham where there is a huge dearth of proper housing with numerous families having to depend on hand-outs to survive. It is good that these people know that they have the support of their Church leaders as they do their utmost to help members of government to see and understand their plight.
Through bringing constant pressure to bear on employers, the members of Telco did succeed in getting The Minimum Wage for workers in the area, which was £7.20 an hour. With the cost of living rising, our aim now is to press for a proper Living Wage which is regarded as being £8.30 an hour. These efforts have spanned ten years. Only now are they beginning to succeed.
TELCO focuses on local issues and has been successful in many campaigns particularly with regard to those employees who are working on the building of the Olympic Stadium 2012. They are now paid £2.00 more per hour above what is regarded as a living wage. However with regard to Tesco Supermarkets, they are not yet paying their cleaning staff or their security staff a Living Wage while their profits have risen to billions. This is such a glaring injustice. That was the motivation of our meeting and travelling to Tesco at Bow in East London on Saturday 4th June. Tesco stores have been chosen as places to demonstrate because they would seem to be the biggest of these super hyper-markets.
We gathered outside and before going into the store the young Muslim woman Rahina who organised the event briefed us on proceedings. From our group of just over twenty, three were chosen to speak to the Manager and explain to him the nature of our concern. A second group was chosen to lead us in song. Fr. Tom O’Brien our curate at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Bethnal Green had adapted a hymn “Oh Lord all the world belongs to you” and used it to tell the Tesco Management in a clever way that if they paid their workers a proper wage, they would be turning the world upside down for them.
We walked into the Store as if we were about to do our normal shopping taking a shopping basket on our way. We viewed the goods in various areas. After about ten minutes of ‘normality’ Fr. Tom started to sing. We all joined in lustily causing many shoppers to stand and stare. The Deputy Manager came to meet the delegation. He had the grace to listen to the delegation and took a copy of the hymn together with a letter addressed to Philip Clarke the Chief Executive of Tesco. Unfortunately, the Manager of that particular store had not informed his deputy about what was going to happen on that Saturday morning although he himself had be notified. As the singing and representation were happening some of the group walked among the shoppers offering them sweets. Rahina had engaged a professional photographer from a free magazine ‘The Advertiser’ which is distributed far and wide in the East End. We hope that concern for their image will cause Tesco to have a change of heart and treat all their workers fairly and justly. Their motivation may not be the best but at least the end result should be good.

25th Anniversary of St. Andrew's Hospice, Airdrie

Many sisters throughout the Congregation will remember, and especially those who ministered to the elderly in Assumption House, Airdrie, when the idea of building a purpose built Hospice to care for terminally people was first mooted. Their thoughts will go back to the planning that went into the awesome idea of building a Hospice. They will remember that no help was available from our Local Health Board. Yet they believed that if the need for such care was essential then somehow, as our Foundress Mary Aikenhead said on many occasions, ‘God would provide’ and make the dream a reality.
April 26th marked the mile stone of our first 25 years of Hospice Care for it was on that date in 1986 that the 20 elderly care patients were transferred from Assumption House where we had been since 1957. This was accomplished by so many wonderful volunteers and helpers who gave of their time and energy.
I think it is true to say that the hospice has grown beyond all expectation over the years and to-day we provide specialist palliative care for 30 terminally ill patients and offer rolling respite for another two patients.
The Day Hospice offers care to15 patients four days per week and on Thursdays we have a drop-in service for Patients and their carers where they can avail of support and complimentary therapies.
The palliative care Consultants also have input into our three local hospitals providing advice for those suffering with terminal illness and symptom control issues.
The support of the senior medical staff provides advice and expertise to the local Macmillan Nurses who care for people in their own homes.
Bereavement support is available and we accept referrals from out with the Hospice also, from G.P’s and other agencies. We also offer support for bereaved children with the ‘Seasons for Growth programme’.
Somehow all this is achieved through our hard working staff within the fundraising team who manages to find £44,000 each week!
On April 26th Canon Michael Walsh celebrated Mass with us. He has been involved from the early days and was a member of the first appeals committee and has supported the work of the Hospice ever since.
The evening celebration was an Ecumenical Service held within the Hospice grounds and was attended by people from all over Lanarkshire. Refreshments were served and the local bakery donated a cake for the celebration.
On May 10th 2011 invited guests attended a Concelebrated Mass of thanksgiving with Bishop Devine and 12 priests from the Dioceses. This Mass was sung, with Sr. Agnes Morgan as cantor. The CEO Mr Geoff Sage did a reading along with Sr. May Commins. The community were all involved in the liturgy. Sr. Mary McKeon did the floral arrangements.
The Sisters involved in the early days of the Hospice were invited to the celebration and we as a community were delighted to see them present. We were so pleased that our Congregational Leader, Sr. Mary Christian and our Provincial, Sr. Jacinta Boland were present too.
Bishop Devine spoke of the work the Sisters had done over the years and their influence through their work in breaking down sectarian barriers in the community. The Hospice cares for people of all denominations and none. Indeed the first chairperson of the Hospice appeals committee was a member of the Church of Scotland.
At this celebration Bishop Devine presented Mr Terry Dunne with the Diocesan Medal. This was in recognition of his voluntary work. He gave almost 28 years’ service to the Hospice and the Sisters of Charity. As Terry himself said whilst talking to Sister Magdalene Joseph Moore ‘if there was ever anything he could do for Assumption House and the planning of the new Hospice to get in touch with him’. So more than 28 years later, Terry, an accountant, is retiring as a volunteer! For eighteen years he was chair of the Board of Trustees and has given countless hours to the Hospice. He was presented with a Papal Blessing from the Community.
The Dunne family were present. They are pictured below with Terry’s mother, who is a patient in the Hospice, his wife Margaret, children and grandchildren were also present at the Mass.
After the Mass there was a delicious dinner prepared by the kitchen staff and enjoyed by all. Each table was covered with white table clothes and a band of blue – the colours of the Saltire (Scottish flag) a beautiful white rose and a thistle.
All the events of the Silver Jubilee were detailed in the local papers.
May 19th marked another day of celebration, the morning began with a breakfast meeting with senior members of Lanarkshire Health Board, representatives from North and South Lanarkshire Councils, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service. Geoff Sage our CEO and Hospice Directors attended to meet and greet and Geoff updated those present on the work of the Hospice.
Mid morning we were delighted to welcome our corporate sponsors and members of the public who have been so supportive in all our fundraising events all through the years. All those who attended had the opportunity to view a PowerPoint presentation covering the building and the expansion of St Andrew’s down through the years.
The afternoon was devoted to our volunteers (we have 423) this was our acknowledgement and a way to say thanks to them for their dedication and commitment in the many services they provide both within the Hospice and in our 9 charity shops situated in Lanarkshire.
We are grateful for all that has been achieved and say Thank-you one and all.

World Record Breakers

On 17 April 2011 St Margaret of Scotland Hospice became a Guinness World Record Breaker for “the Most Participants in an Easter Themed Hat Competition”. We had almost 300 competitors participating with Provost Denis Agnew adjudicating on the day.

Technology News

St. Margaret of Scotland Hospice are delighted to announce the release of our Official Hospice App - As a native app for Android Smartphone users and as an HTML5 Live App for iPhone Users. Distribution of the app is via the official hospice website ONLY. To register for your copy of this FREE app please see our website at http://www.smh.org.uk/app.
The Hospice Facebook page has also proven to be very successful, not only in highlighting the exciting forthcoming fundraising events, but also providing a platform for people to leave comments regarding their experience of the Hospice. The Hospice Facebook page can be visited at http://www.facebook.com/stmargaretofscotlandhospice..

BBC Radio features St. Joseph's Hospice

St. Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney, London was the subject of a recent BBC Radio 4 documentary in the series ‘Case Notes’. You can listen to the programme on the BBC iPlayer HERE… The Hospice began when 5 Sisters of Charity arrived in Hackney, in the east end of London on 2nd July 1900. They had come to England through the efforts of Father Gallwey, a distinguished Jesuit who was familiar with their work in Ireland. He was instrumental in obtaining St Joseph's Hospice (the sisters had originally settled in King Edward's Road but the house soon proved to be too small) The sisters moved to 6 Cambridge Villas and within two years the Sisters came into possession of surrounding villas and a lodge. The donor of the house, a woman who remained anonymous, asked that the property be used as a Hospice of the dying. The endless demand for beds at the hospice resulted in repeated extensions to the hospice over the years. The Sisters also engaged in domiciliary nursing and social work. This work and their teaching in local schools kept the sisters in intimate daily contact with people in their homes, and this in turn, had immense value for the work they did at St Joseph's. Beside the care of the very ill and terminally ill people, St Joseph's also provided care for older people in St Patrick's wing. Poor men and women came daily for food and clothes were also provided if they wished to have them. Jumble sales, bazaars and summer fetes were a wonderful opportunity for local people to come and buy clothes, furniture, toys and crockery at a very reasonable cost. Over the past 100+ years the hospice has grown and developed and now provides a full range of community and inpatient services to the people of Hackney, City of London, Newham and Tower Hamlets, as well as inpatient care for people in Camden, Enfield, Harringey, Islington, Redbridge and Waltham Forest. Visit the Hospice’s website HERE.

Launch of CEDAR

The launch of Cedar (Catholics Experiencing Domestic Abuse Resources) www.cedar.uk.net took place in St. Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham on 2nd November 2010 in partnership with Celebrating Family, Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service (CSAS), National Board of Catholic Women (NBCW) and Catholic Social Action Network (CSAN).
Cedar is not a resource aimed directly at victims of domestic abuse but rather a resource for all those engaged in ministry in the Catholic Church. It offers a collection of resources to aid in:

• Raising awareness of domestic abuse among the Catholic community
• Enabling everyone to respond correctly and confidently when they suspect someone is experiencing domestic abuse
• Creating an environment within the Catholic community in which domestic abuse is understood and recognised as unacceptable and where appropriate responses are available

Fruits of the Earth

For some years now our sisters in the English/Scottish Province have been trying hard to reduce the amount of the Earth’s wealth they use by recycling, cutting down on water usage and using low energy bulbs and energy efficient equipment. They have also taken steps to reduce the amount of carbon they release into the atmosphere to limit the effects of global warming. Damage reduction, by reducing our Carbon Footprint, has been the approach we have taken so far but we are now embarking on a more ambitious strategy, to engage in action to enhance the Earth’s wellbeing, to enlarge our Green Footprint. The first tentative step was taken when the ‘Care For The Earth’ group invited each sister to grow something - flower, fruit or vegetable from scratch! To see the results of our efforts CLICK HERE.

Launch of University of Local Knowledge in Knowle West, Bristol

University of Local Knowledge (ULK) celebrates the skills, talents and local knowledge that exists within the Community of Knowle West (in Bristol) and surrounding areas. Its aim is to show others the value of knowledge gained through life experience as opposed to academic qualifications.
The Launch took place on 26th June 2010 with a celebratory meal on the Green in Filwood Broadway. Local cooks and the Community Kitchen cooked and served a delicious meal to a hundred local people seated around ten tables with a local person acting as host at each table. The Sisters hosted one of the tables and also cooked an Irish Stew. In addition to the people seated at tables there was a Hog Roast for the other hundred people or so who were milling around and enjoying the day. Towards the end of the main course of the meal there was a parade of scrumptious deserts with the local cooks showing off their cooking skills.
Throughout the afternoon film crews were on hand to record the stories and knowledge shared by local people. The gathering and filming of local stories will continue during the months of July and August at the Knowle West Media Centre. By Autumn 2010, one thousand pieces of local knowledge will be collected and filmed across Knowle West with support from the BBC. Residents are invited to come forward to share their experience in a particular subject area by recording a "class" on camera. These short films or "classes" each between thirty seconds to four minutes long will be uploaded to a specially designed website and will become part of a course of study resembling the structure of a university.
A unique Knowle West Wiki has been created for the University of Local Knowledge project as part of online giant Wikipedia.
For photos see this story on the Congregational website.

Golden Jubilee celebration in the Province

There were great celebrations in Hackney, London on 12th June when Sr. Brigid Naulty celebrated her Golden Jubilee (50 years) as a Sister of Charity. Brigid just wanted a simple celebration with the Sisters - she'd had a celebration with her family in Ireland in May.
The day in Hackney was as Brigid wanted it. She herself, arranged for the Sisters to share the various parts of the Mass and it gave her great pleasure to have Fr. Jeremiah O'Mahony from Leeds to concelebrate the Mass with Fr. Brian. Fr. O’Mahony and Sr. Brigid have been friends since her time in Sowerby Bridge. At the meal that followed, Sr. Jacinta Boland, the Provincial Leader, thanked Brigid for her many years of service to the Province in both ministry and community life. Many of the Sisters present were “ex Sowerbys” and they spent a long time after the meal reminiscing on the old days. The day was a great success because the Sisters enjoyed the time just being together exchanging memories. For photos see this story on the Congregational website.

Where On Earth Are We Going?
And What Can We Do About It?

These are the two questions at the heart of the “Be The Change Symposium”. The Symposium is a profound enquiry into a bold vision to bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on earth. If you are ready to explore what this vision means for you, and the opportunity to create an inspiring future,- take a look at the “Be The Change” website.