President:  Mrs Carole Cooper  
Vice-President:  Mrs Christine Pugh
Treasurer:  Mrs Teresa Combes
Secretary:  Mrs Gill Moodie
Chaplain:  Fr Gerard Skinner

 

Branch Annual General Meeting 22nd May 2010

A beautiful day dawned and around 60 members arrived at St Bart's for the AGM.  Our Chaplain Fr Gerard and Fr Tim Edgar concelebrated  Mass.  The retiring collection raised £146 for the World Union of Catholic Women's Organisations.  After we consumed our packed lunches and enjoyed the cakes, tea and coffee provided we got down to business.  New officers were elected - see above - with a special welcome to Teresa Combes who is taking over as Branch Treasurer from Charmaine Jayasuria who fulfilled this role so valiantly for 8 years!   Our appreciation goes to Charmaine and may she enjoy her free time.  As usual, Fr Gerard had wise words for us, talking about the forthcoming visit of Pope Benedict later in the year with particular reference to the media coverage both before and during his visit.

Many thanks to St Bart's section and Fr Tim for their warm welcome and hospitality. 

 

Branch Officers past & present.

 

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It is with great sadness that we report the death of Maureen Hopkins on 24th February 2010.  Maureen was a pioneer member of the Boxmoor section where she was chairman twice, living the CWL motto of Charity, Work and Loyalty to the full. During her term as Branch President in the 1980s she opened another section in Hemel Hempstead at Our Lady Queen of All Creation parish. After much suffering in recent years may she rest in peace and may God grant her numerous blessings.

 

Brenda Luker, a longstanding member of three Sections, sadly died in April 2010 aged 67 years. For the last 10 years she was a faithful member of the Royston Section as well as an active member in the Parish. Previously she had belonged to Buntingford Section for 2 years and prior to that Bishops Stortford Section.  Rest in peace, Brenda.

 

Evelyn Greer, founder member of Harringay Section, passed away after a long illness on 29th April 2010, 88 years old.  She was hard working, very loyal to the League and held the offices of Secretary and Treasurer. She will be sorely missed by members, family and friends. 

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Our branch meeting on 13th Feb 2010, which was held at St Vincent's, was a very special occasion celebrating 50 years of Cafod.

We were very pleased to welcome Tony Sheen from the Cafod Office Westminster at Cockfosters who warmly thanked CWL members for their part in starting up the Family Fast days and for their continued unstinting support.  He spoke movingly of his recent trip to Brazil which has the biggest disparity in the world between the rich and poor. He had visited the poorest areas in Sao Paulo where a new shanty town springs up each week. He told us about two of the wonderful women he met who are bravely working to improve health and housing conditions.  A co-operative has been set up to provide housing - doing up some of the 300,000 derelict buildings.  

Tony also brought us up to date on the situation in Haiti where they are working in unison with Caritas and expect to remain for at least 5 years.  Also, as a result of their campaign to release developing countries from their debt, Gambia now offers free primary education.

A shocking statistic - globally there are 1.4 billion people living on less than 80p per day.  He assured us that money from Cafod goes directly through various church networks to the workers on the ground.

We watched the new Cafod promotional film 'Give it up' for Lent, which features our own vivacious Adeyfield section who are giving up biscuits!  After the lunch break our treasurer Charmaine presented Tony with a cheque for £170 collected from the members present and we all enjoyed the '50th birthday' cake he brought to share. 

 

 

 

 

Happy birthday CAFOD!

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P S from above

Adeyfield Section carried through with their promise to 'give up biscuits' for Lent and also held a Lenten Soup Event every Tuesday.  This was very successful, supported well by many parishioners and raised a total of £655  for CAFOD.

Over 1,000 members come to Westminster

How pleased we are that Doreen Pooley chose Westminster Cathedral as the venue for the 2009 National Pilgrimage to mark her presidency,  and what a wonderful response from the members!  As part of Region 5 we, in Westminster Branch, along with Brentwood, Southwark and Northampton Branches, were the hosts for this pilgrimage and readily took on the organisation, working with the National Executive.  All the planning and hard work paid off well with everyone enjoying the event.

Special thanks must go to Gill Moodie and Meg Hardy for preparing  the liturgical aspects, starting at the Officers’ Annual Meeting in Swanwick in February and culminating in the prayerful and joyous Mass on Saturday 6th June.

A very big thank you to our President Christine Pugh and to every one of you who helped in whatever way to make the day such a success, including the members of the Knights of Saint Columba who gave sterling support.

Some of the one thousand picnic bags we helped to prepare

St Bart’s Section gathered on the Cathedral steps after Mass

Branch Officers with the Branch Banner

National Conference / AGM Oct/Nov 2009

What a good turn out again this year, 65 Westminster Branch members attending – to be beaten only by Devon, one of the host branches. We travelled by car, coach and train to spend a fruitful and happy few days in the 'English Riviera' seaside town of Torquay. It was certainly very warm for the time of year!

A full report will doubtless appear elsewhere on the website so just to thank the members from Cornwall, Devon and Dorset for organising such a splendid weekend and to tell those who could not be with us that we had a grand time – see the photos! How pleased we were to have Bishop John Crowley with us for the weekend. Do join us in Southport October 2010!

Bishop John with members and friends

Bishop Peter finds a time to relax

Westminster Branch Banner

Breakfast before a day at the Conference

Almost 40 members braved the 'challenging' elements and made their way from all around the diocese to the church of Our Lady, Queen of Apostles, at Welwyn Garden City. We were greeted by section members and gathered in the church for the annual Mass for departed members of the Westminster Branch of the CWL. We were warmly welcomed by Fr Norbert Fernandes, Parish Priest, who concelebrated Mass with Fr Gerard Skinner, our chaplain. During the Mass candles were lit and placed upon the altar in remembrance of deceased members of current and previous sections, independent members and chaplains.

Afterwards the hot soup, rolls, and mince pies went down a treat, then we went into the hall for the meeting. Very many thanks to our 'sisters' at WGC together with Fr Norbert and Fr Gerard for providing so well for our spiritual as well as our physical needs.

History
Margaret Fletcher began the CWL in 1906 when she set up The Central Branch in Westminster.  In 1912 its name was changed to The London Branch which, in 1927, split into two Diocesan branches of Westminster and Southwark.  The first Westminster Executive Meeting was held in the offices at 116 Victoria Street on April 6th 1927 with Mrs Ethel Murray in the chair.  Since those days 29 enthusiastic ladies have carried on the work of presiding over our branch – right up to our present President – Mrs Christine Pugh.

Throughout the years there have been many Sections active across the Diocese.  Currently we have 14 Sections where members meet regularly.  These are at Bishops Stortford, Buntingford, Carpenders Park, Cockfosters, Haringay/Wood Green, Hemel Hempstead – Adeyfield and Boxmoor, Mill Hill, Royston, Southall, St Albans – Ss Alban & Stephen and St Bart’s, Watford and Welwyn Garden City.  Including our 12 independent members we number approximately 300.

In their Sections members do much to support their Parish Priests.  As well as being active in their parishes they raise funds for many worthy causes such as Cafod, Life, CWL charities and many other charities whose prime concern is looking after those who are less fortunate – be they ‘round the corner’ or ‘across the world’.  There are also opportunities for prayer, widening our knowledge as well as ‘having a good time’!  Friendship and care for each other is very important. 

Branch Meetings are held 4 times a year, often hosted by Sections – particularly for our AGM in May and our Mass for Deceased Members in November.  This enables more members to experience ‘Branch’ at first hand as well as developing links with other Sections.  Westminster Branch celebrated the League’s Centenary in 2006 with a wonderful Mass in the Cathedral followed by a sumptuous lunch and our AGM in the adjoining hall where Margaret Fletcher celebrated the League’s first AGM.