Thanks to our all our members who came to the annual Chapter Meeting on Saturday at St Catherine's in Lancashire.
It was great to welcome our new members from last years splendid Investiture
We have much good news to celebrate under our Grand Prior, HE Anthony Dickinson: most especially that we have now been recognised as an Association of the Faithful by Archbishop Malcolm McMahon. This enables us to have a firm footing among the other Green Cross associations and we join with our brethren in many other countries where this has already happened, either in individual dioceses or by Bishop's Conferences. We continue to support the Archbishop of Liverpool - our next event with him is in December, when he will preside at a Carol Concert arranged for the Archdiocese to support St Joseph's Hospice, founded in Liverpool by Fr Francis O'Leary.
We are looking forward to our Investiture on 13th and 14th July in Burscough, near Southport, where our guest of honour will be Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, the well known sculptor, Mr Charles Hadcock and his wife, Camilla.
Members agreed to putting forward two more charities to support this coming year:
St Catherine's Hospice in Leyland
and
The Army Benevolent Fund, through the Merseyside support group "The Centurions".
We remembered most especially in our prayers Malcolm Cardinal Ranith, the Archbishop of Colombo, in whose diocese two are two of the churches so appallingly bombed on Easter Sunday.
We have a long association with the Cardinal though our support of his leprosy charity, SUROL. The Grand Priory of Great Britain has sent a total of £134,000 to him for this great work in the last several years.
Cardinal Ranjith being presented with the Order of Merit.
The Chaplain General with the Cardinal at the original meeting in Rome with the Cardinal which initiated our association with him and the Archdiocese of Colombo.
ATAVIS ET ARMIS
