Community News
2019 – A Year in Brief
This year Sister Edith Margaret celebrated her 50th Profession Anniversary in February and in August Sister Jean Mary celebrated her 60th Anniversary.
Sister Catherine visited the CHN Sisters in Lesotho and Zululand in May and June. The visit coincided with the Zululand Province celebrating its 50th anniversary.
In August Sisters Catherine and Monica attended the Greenbelt Festival
In September Sister Jean Mary attended the Anglican Religious Communities Conference
On the 4th September Sister Mary Patricia CHN died in the 56th year of her Profession.
In October Sister Edith Margaret attended the Leaders’ Conference and Sister Julie attended the Bursar’s Conference.
Please click to download a copy of our Winter 2019 newsletter.
So Many Things…
On 31st October 2019 after almost 21 years our branch house in Peterborough closed. The sisters declined gifts but asked if anyone wanted to give something in thanksgiving for the work of the sisters over the years they could donate to the Besotho Educational Trust. Altogether, an amazing £750 was donated.
If you want to know more or would like to make a donation to the Besotho Educational Trust please click below
www.basothoeducationaltrust.org
Here is what Sisters Catherine and Monica wrote to the parish of Christ the Carpenter where CHN sisters have worshipped and worked over the years.
Thank you for being you! Thank you for enabling and encouraging us to take up a new challenge with enthusiasm and joy as we begin our journey to Hull.
Our community has lived on Welland and worshipped at Christ the Carpenter for over 21 years, and we (Catherine and Monica) have lived here since 2013 – and what very special years they have been for us.
Our community sent the two of us as they knew we valued our life of prayer and expressed it with social outreach. You have enabled us to develop and grow both aspects of our life. We love Welland, it’s been a great place to live which has become better and better as the years have gone by. There will be so many things we will miss, especially, of course you who are reading this.
We will miss our gardens back and front, the birds, our neighbours especially the children, Evensong at the Cathedral, shopping at Sainsburys and Monday morning shoppers, trips to the new tip, chatting on the bus and the Night Shelter. Schools, bible studies, prayer and Lent groups, Chatterbox, Monday Eucharists at number 64, Wednesdays Eucharists at Christ the Carpenter. Catherine will miss giving hugs in Cathedral Square; Monica will miss her friends at Foodbank, which is sadly still needed by so many.
Our community in Derby is amazed that we have survived each other for over six years. They thought two very strong minded women with definite views wouldn’t last one year together. So it is really amazing what God can do! It’s you who have helped us to widen our vision and to help us accept that God needs us to move on. So Hull here we come! (with Peterborough still in our hearts).
One thing is certain; we will never again have the opportunity of worshipping in another Christ the Carpenter church. In the entire world you are unique and so very special!
Moving On…
The preparations for our move to Hessle continue. We have to remember to say Hessle rather than Hull because the locals are very definite that Hessle is a different place from Hull! The Community has now exchanged contracts so the house is now ours! However, this is the first step on our journey.
The house needs some work to make it suitable for our needs and we are currently in the process of discussing with architects the alterations required. Once this is agreed other things need to fall into place like finding builders, any planning permissions needed have to be sorted…the rather long list goes on!
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Our new home, Quarry Bank, Hessle
At home in Derby we continue to downsize and clear out. Cupboards have been cleared and the library is beginning to be sorted – the new house does not have a spare room for a dedicated library, so books are going to have to go on bookshelves around the house and that means paring our library down significantly! At some point next year there will be a library ‘sale’; but not for a while yet.
We have had two downsizing ‘sales’ so far and more will happen in the coming months. Keep watch on our website for more details.
Super Soup Day
Saturday 30th November 2019
On a very cold, foggy, frosty morning we opened our doors to our neighbours and friends to offer a warming cup of homemade soup and bread as we held our Super Soup Day to raise funds for the Derby Churches’ Night Shelter run by Derby City Mission.
With the ground so soggy after all the rain we have had, the field for parking was unavailable; we would have been digging cars out for a week. However people were very obliging with each other and there were no problems with accommodating all the cars.
On offer were two soups; tomato and basil or pumpkin, leek and carrot. There was also a more filling offering of pasta Bolognese for the more hungry visitors. As usual, our cook Dee and her assistant Sandra did us proud with two very delicious soups. At the end the two enormous saucepans of soup were reduced to half a pint of tomato and basil. Which somebody had for supper.
Our Fellowship members turned up trumps by coming along to support us, offering very practical help. Sister Lynfa and her two helpers did amazing things with the bric-a-brac stall – they could have sold coals to Newcastle. Sister Barbara was selling her plants as usual, and Pauline and John, members of our Fellowship did spectacularly well selling their home-made cards, which were very beautiful.
All in all, the event was a great success and the total at the end showed the generosity of our visitors with a grand total of £850 raised. Many people said to us they felt so helpless when they saw homeless people and this was a practical way for them to offer help to the desperate in society.