National Executive

National Elective Chapter 2018

rogerofs 1 Comment

National Elective Chapter 2018

The new executive council team taking the air after the election, and preparing for action …..
Front row (left to right): Fr Donal, Theresa, Betsy, Christine, Kathy, Dorothy, Fr John, Fr Jesmond.
Back row (left to right): Dianne, Michael, Terry.

Results of the Elective Chapter held last weekend: Minister: Betsy Hart (Southern Region), Vice Minister: Kathy Maskens (South East Region), Secretary: Dianne Fisher (London Region: Gibraltar), Treasurer: Michael Martin (Midland Region), Formation: Terry Mortimer (Midland Region), JPIC: Dorothy Harte (North West Region), Youth: Christine Frendo (London Region: Gibraltar), Communication: Theresa Caddy (North West Region).

And the 100 Club

2018 Draw
The 2018 draw took place at the National Executive Council meeting held on 21st July. Four prizes of £50 each went to Oxford Fraternity, Blackpool Fraternity, Theresa Caddy (York), and ‘San Damiano’ fraternity (Inverness).

2019 Draw
For the 2019 draw, entries will be accepted to the end of June 2019. The draw will take place in the 3rd or 4th quarter 2019. We are continuing a drive to restore the previous levels of participation.
For full details of the 100 Club click here

Read More

Around the Regions September 2018

info 2 Comments

If regions would send us information about their activities and events they can be included in a monthly “Around the Regions” post. Please contact info@ofsgb.org

National Elective Chapter
Later today (Friday, 14th September) our National Elective Chapter will begin at the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. The Chapter will last until Sunday afternoon, and a new National Executive will be elected by the delegates who will come from each region in the UK. Please pray for discernment so that the delegates choose wisely an executive to serve the order in this country for the period to 2021.

3rd European OFS and YouFra Congress
The 3rd European OFS and YouFra Congress took place in Kaunas, Lithuania between 20 to 26 August 2018. There was a substantial delegation from this country. I am told that it was an inspiring event, and I understand that a report will follow here shortly.

Southern Region: Wintershall
In August, Southern region held a celebration “Loving God’s Creation” at Wintershall, near Guildford, Surrey. The event was open to members from other regions, though none attended.
This is the summary of the day.

We have another opportunity to join the Southern region in November at the Park Place Pastoral Centre near Fareham, Hants for a weekend retreat “Be Still and Know”. Events such as these offer valuable opportunities for affirming, supporting and encouraging one another on our Franciscan journey, for an enriching inter-regional fraternal exchange of views and for exploring the Franciscan way forward in unity and friendship. They can be inspirational. See the diary entry for the Park Place Pastoral Centre retreat here.

Other Upcoming Events
The autumn Arkley Day of Recollection on Sunday 7th October will be led by Fr Jesmond Pawley ofm Conv. These Arkley Days of Recollection are generally well supported by members from the London and the East Anglian regions. They are open to all, and so may well interest members from other regions: the South East and Southern regions in particular. It would also be convenient for members of the Oxford fraternity. If you are interested please do notify Ursula Mott: details on the flyer to be found at the above link.

The Franciscan Action Network have been active in the USA for some years. They are now considering a launch in the UK, and have convened a meeting on Thursday 25th October in Bishopsgate, London, at the very interesting St Ethelburga’s Church. This should be of interest to those active in Presence of the World / JPIC, and those wishing to become more active.

Requiescant in Pace

Celia Brigstocke
We have been told that on Thursday 16th August 2018 Celia Brigstocke, niece to John Bradburne, and secretary of the John Bradburne Memorial Society, passed away at the Royal Surrey County Hospital. She had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer a couple of months previously and after 72 hours of fighting she died with her family around her. She was the most caring mother of the three daughters, Tim, her husband has lost his best friend of fifty years and the seven grandchildren will miss their wonderful granny so much. The funeral was held on Monday 10th September 2018 at St Joseph Church, Milford, Surrey. Should any member or fraternity wish to make a donation to the work of the JBMS, please go here.

London Region: Maria Hilton & Kathleen Crowe
Both Maria Hilton (Stratford Fraternity), and Kathleen Crowe (Arkley Fraternity) have died recently. Maria’s funeral was held at St Francis, Stratford earlier this week, and the requiem for Kathleen is planned to take place at St Joseph’s Church, Highgate on Thursday 27th September. More details on both Maria and Kathleen will appear soon on our Requiescant in Pace page.

And Finally ….
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): “the most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years”. The following action has been taken, and we believe that this website is now fully, or substantially, GDPR compliant. I understand that the new National Executive will appoint a Data Protection Officer, and that person will, no doubt, wish to review all this.

Privacy Policy
Our Privacy Policy may be found here. It surely needs to be refined. It will be updated as and when necessary.

Cookie Banner
The cookie banner is in place and should be fully GDPR compliant. It will be seen each time the website is accessed.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)
When transmitting data from our website, it is our responsibility to send it securely, or so James, our technical wizard, tells me. The site has always been https secure. However, James has implemented a code on the server to divert users to the https version on 99% of the site (we cannot control outside links to images etc). This should also help with SEO (especially Google) and site speed.

Email Subscriptions
We understand that we are not required to send an Opt-in email as our system has always had an Opt-in requirement on sign-up, and recorded the person doing so. James has altered the email content the users receive, giving the URL to the privacy policy of this site. This text now reads:

” Howdy. You recently followed this blog’s posts. This means you will receive each new post by email. To activate, click confirm below. If you believe this is an error, ignore this message and we’ll never bother you again. By confirming below I accept the terms and conditions found here: https://ofsgb.org/privacy-policy/

I consent ofsgb.org to use the information submitted to provide me with marketing communications and information relating to the business. Your data can be deleted at anytime by request and you can unsubscribe from any mailings immediately. ”

We will, no doubt, wish to refine this text rather more, and certainly to replace the standard WordPress “Howdy” with something rather more English. We progress?

Read More

What have we been up to at National?

Paula Pearce 4 Comments

What have we been up to at National?

You heard about the National Seat from Andrea and I have to admit this has been taking quite a lot of energy. You will hear a lot more about this soon. Otherwise I have been occupied with the National Executive which met from Wednesday to Friday last week. We are already preparing for the National Council meeting which will be at the beginning of March. This is when the council will all see our new premises. We are having a weekend meeting and have managed to arrange accommodation – close by was too costly, so we are going to be staying about 3 miles away.
 
This post is just a sketch, as many final decisions await national approval. First I want to say how welcome we were at Cold Ash. The sisters make us feel very much part of the same family. We had time to catch up with their news and work. The food was really good and plentiful. For anyone interested, it is possible to arrange to stay there as individuals or in small groups for a retreat time.
 
All members attended the National Executive meeting, including our 3 national Spiritual Assistants. We all worked very hard. Every time I went into the conference room I found people working, often a couple of members helping one another or in dialogue about something.
 
A lot of work is pending:

  • Handbook survey and follow up – a good response to this so far
  • CIOFS questions on “Managing an Order like Ours” – a reminder is probably helpful and timely as I have to meet a deadline on this
  • Completed work on amending National Statutes as required was agreed and will be brought to National for approval
  • Candidacy Module of the Initial Formation programme. We intend to agree the core topics in March. John has been working on this with a team since the election
  • Moving archives and setting up the National Seat – for which we will be seeking donations. You will be updated fully after the March meeting
  • The new website will be a main item in March. Roger will give practical help and give more insight into the workings and what we need to know.
  • We have made good progress on the database – more on this to follow

 
Good news
As usual, we were delighted to hear from Christine Frendo on the rapid development of the young Franciscan group in Gibraltar. This local fraternity is in a unique situation as we know but, nonetheless, their commitment, prayer, formation, range of activities, generosity, celebration – in a nutshell, the spirit of fraternity – is inspirational and very encouraging. Anyone who has access to the National Fraternity Facebook will see how much they do.
 
We asked Michael for a draft budget which he brought and we discussed in detail. This enabled us to see how things stand. We know that there is a three year cycle, given the nature of our Order, and it was helpful to see a plan emerging for this three year term.
 
Debbie is another new member on the executive. She has decided to promote the new day of prayer for the environment which will be annually celebrated on September 1st. Debbie will be sending a novena and making suggestions about how we might become involved locally and/or regionally.
 
Andrea has been doing a lot of good work in dialogue with Michael Hagger (who administered the old website) and did much other valuable work for our national fraternity. More on this after the national council – keep some time free to digest all these things I am promising you!
 
For the present, Pam is visiting the national seat to deal with correspondence and stock. This seat address will come to be used more and it makes sense to keep stock there.
 
It emerged that there are two consecutive weekend meetings on Mercy, marking the Jubilee year. As it happens they will both be in Wales. It is possible that another event will be held later in the year, perhaps in Manchester. For now, you can find details of these weekends on the website.
 
We watched the new DVD “Finding St Francis” during the first evening. It is an interesting presentation of Francis’ life, telling the human story rather than the inner journey and spiritual growth of Francis. It led to a good discussion and some ideas about how we might prepare future audiences. By the way, we were all struck by the Anglicisation of Italian names. This came from the Anglican Franciscans and it is intriguing to discuss different emphases.
 
Our Spiritual Assistants were able to give us their perspective on Ofsgb. They work very hard on our behalf and contributed a lot in the group that will help us reflect on the state of our national fraternity today.
 
All of us appreciated having time to get to know one another, time to discuss and consider. It is not our intention to always have overnight meetings but this was a very positive experience. As Francis rejoiced when the brothers gathered for a chapter, we sensed that we are truly a fraternity and time well spent together can only be to the benefit of Ofsgb.
 
Please pray for us as we continue preparing for the National Council in a very different setting. As you will realise, if you have read this far, we have much to do in a weekend.
Paula ofs

Read More