As we prepare to say goodbye to our two volunteer interns at the end of this month after a very busy and fruitful year, we take a look back on the visits made by Theresa Boettcher to a few UK CCN partners earlier this summer....
Earlier this summer, I was sent out around the UK to three of the partners and friends in the CCN, to visit and learn and help out a bit.
My first stop along the way was the Ammerdown Retreat Centre which is located south of Bath. The Centre always has events, from Jane Austen Courses to a program called Meet My Neighbour, where the local people have a chance to go to places of worship of different religions. Basically, any event or meeting you want to hold there, they will accommodate you and without making any profit. All the money they earn, they put into the Centre or for example use to help Ukrainian Refugees.
So as soon as I arrived it felt like a home, everyone was very friendly and helpful and so nice. Over the couple of days I spent there, I met with many different people that work there. At first, I met with Lauren, who is doing a social justice gap year at the Centre. She organizes many different events, like ‘Trash 2 Treasure’ which gives an opportunity for children to learn about the importance of recycling. After that I met with one of the Trustees, a very nice Scottish man named Bill and he told me a lot about the history of the Centre, of how it was originally run by nuns and about the owner of the grounds, Lord Hylton. I then met with the gardener at the Centre and he is doing some amazing work in getting the garden to be much more environmentally friendly, like making a compost for the food waste from the kitchen, only growing local plants and many other things. I talked to a lot of the other staff like Tina, who is responsible for marketing and Christine, who is the lead manager of Ammerdown. I joined morning prayer each morning, which was led by Christine and it was located in a little chapel next to the Centre, and it was really interesting to see a morning prayer outside of the Cathedral. On my last day there, Christine and I read the prayer tree together, which is a little tree carved out of wood where people who are passing through can hang some of the prayers, wishes or concerns that are on their mind. In my free time I walked around the ground a lot, which are just huge and incredibly gorgeous and I enjoyed the nature.
After I had to leave again, I went back to Coventry for a day and then went on to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, which is a very small island located a little bit south of the border to Scotland and you can only reach it during certain hours of the day because of the tide. I stayed there with Sarah Hills, who was until three years ago the Canon for Reconciliation her at Coventry Cathedral and is now the vicar of the Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin. It was so nice staying with her, her husband Richard and their dog Finn. They live in the vicarage and they have the most beautiful garden with little ducks and chickens in it and it’s looking out towards the mainland. I helped the next day with prepping for the Sunday service, which was really nice because Sarah played the organ during the service and the sermon was held by a Reverend Brad Whittaker, who works in Chattanooga in the USA. He and his family came over a day later and it was really nice to talk to them. On the next day I met with Revd Canon Kate Tristam, who is a retired priest and historian and still sometimes preaches at St. Mary’s. She told me about her life, about how she saw the old Cathedral burn down in 1940 when she was a child, about how she went on to study history at Oxford and then found her way to God and studied Theology as the only woman between 200 men. Then 40 years later she was one of the first women to become ordained in the 1990s. She also told me about the history of the island, about St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert, their journeys and the Vikings. After talking to her, I went on to talk to Revd Sam Quilty, who is a curate at St. Mary’s and runs the Marygate Retreat House, which is a Christian non-profit house. Basically, anyone who wants to stay there can pay as much or as little as they want. This is a huge leap of faith and also an amazing opportunity for people who normally wouldn’t be able to afford such a stay. Her work with her husband is so great and I am amazed by how she does all of what she is doing. They are actually in the process of becoming CCN partners at the moment. I then went on with Sarah to an island meeting called Holy Island 2050, on how to make life on the island more sustainable for the future. The next day Sarah and I met with Mary Taylor, who is on the UK CCN Board and she told mainly me about her work for the Flodden Peace Garden, who are CCN partners. She had many photos and was an incredibly nice person.
After I had to leave, I went on to Liverpool to the team parish of St. Luke in the City. I joined the service in one of the three churches and then had a tour around Liverpool Cathedral with Lilly Nelson and Charlotte from the Tsedaqah Community. They are a community that is in place for the so-called triangle of hope. This is a bond between the diocese of Liverpool, the diocese of Kumasi, Ghana and the diocese of Virginia, USA. Together they were once one of the biggest slave routes and now form the so-called Triangle of Hope. Their mission is repentance and reconciliation and they send volunteers from both Ghana and the United States to Liverpool to do projects around social justice and God. In the evening I went and to the house where they live together and I got to talk to them about everything they’re doing and we hope to be able to welcome them at some point to the Cathedral. On the next day I went to help at a food bank that is giving out food every week in one of the churches, St. Bride’s, which was an amazing and at the same time heartbreaking experience. All of the volunteers are really passionate about their work, but they are really struggling at the moment, because as food prices go up, the people’s need for food banks goes up as well, at the same time there are less people donating food because it is more expensive. After I was done there, I went to their other Church, St. Dunstan’s, where there was a Roma Children’s Group. The children that come to this get the opportunity to do fun crafts, play games and get to let out all of their energy.
After that was finished I went to the train station and back home to Coventry. My three trips were an absolutely amazing opportunity and I feel so honoured that the Cathedral sent me there. The trips were very long and intense, yet went by so fast. I will cherish everything I have learned within those days and am very excited to see what the next interns are going to be doing.
