Presidents

Welcome back to CWL after a beautiful summer of vacationing, visiting and enjoying life in general. I hope everyone is well rested and ready for all the meetings, workshops, and reports. I look forward to the next two years as your provincial president and hope we can work together as a team. I know many of you in the 4 dioceses, but look forward to meeting many others.

We are very blessed that Father Stanislas Paulin has been reappointed to the NB Provincial Council as our Spiritual Advisor. It will be a pleasure to work with him and I look forward to our meetings together. The liturgies are very faith filled spiritual celebrations.

Our 63^rd provincial convention held in Perth-Andover took place on a beautiful, sunny weekend. You could feel the warmth inside and out of the St. Mary of the Angels Church.

Reports were given on the March for Life, the Provincial Right to Life Conference, the 40 Days for Life Vigil, and No Hot Cargo to Argentina 1979: Ann Doucet and Connie Firlotte were invited to attend the Award Ceremony in March 13, 2010.

Since our national focus for 2010 has been Palliative Care, it was appropriate that Sister Arlene Brawley and Sister Mary Beth McCurdy spoke to us about the Sophia Recovery Centre, Saint John. This is a non-residential house where women can go for on-going support after they have completed a program to help with addictions they are suffering from. All addictions be they drug, alcohol or shopping related, require the same type of treatment. Sisters Arlene and Mary Beth assist in giving these women purpose in their lives, helping them get a GED, apply to university, or welcoming their assistance as volunteers in the centre. The special collection of $600.00 for Sophia Centre was presented to Sr. Arlene.

June Brown and Joyce Green gave a mini workshop on Annual Reporting. Their presentation was followed by a lively discussion with the delegates.

There were two Resolutions brought forward before this convention: Prescribing Statin Drugs to Children and Youth and the Addition of Chrysotile Asbestos to Rotterdam Convention List of Hazardous Chemicals for Prior Informed Consent (PIC). These both passed at provincial, and were forwarded to national convention, but only the Chrysotile Asbestos resolution was passed at national.

Two bills of interest were dealt with: by government C-268 – minimum sentence for offences involving trafficking of persons under the age of 18 was passed and C-384 Right to Die with Dignity was defeated.

Mary Dobbelsteyn encourages everyone to come to the fall retreat at the Villa Madonna October 18-20. Sister Eleanor McClusky will present ‘Jesus and His Questions.’

Three members of our provincial council are national sub-committee members: Ann Doucet Christian Family Life CGL (Canadian Girls League) She did a survey and the councils organized are doing very well, she challenges us to form a council in New Brunswick; Mary Ryan Spiritual Development focus on spiritual development to be woven into the meetings of the council; and Anne-Marie Gorman Community Life. As a result of her focus being on developing countries, she formulated the resolution on chrysotile asbestos. We are very proud of all of you thank you for your gift of time.

Gail Finnamore gave a demonstration on the on-line membership process. There is a secure web site http://secure.cwl.ca/admin. Only 1 member per council has access to the account and must have a user name and password.

The provincial election took place in the context of a prayer service; the results were a full slate of provincial officers, several were appointed by President Joyce Green. The executive page is being updated and you can go and read about your new provincial executive on the NB website http://cwl.nb.ca. There are several new faces and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome them all, as well as welcome back the ladies continuing to serve. May God guide you as you go forth and remember ‘Be Not Afraid’.

I am sorry to report the death of Life Member Christine Harper; she was dedicated to the League and worked tirelessly in her community. She always attended all the conventions; she will be truly missed.

I would like to give a brief description of our 90^th National Convention, August 8-11, 2010 in Ottawa. We all dressed in the fashion of a different decade and wore and brought props to depict this time. Some ladies came in ‘Roaring 20s’ costume, some punks had pink hair; one group wore jewelry made up of computers parts. It was quite an event.

Sister Dr. Nuala Kenny worked many years as a pediatrician. She spoke about the scandal in the church today. She tells us that ‘suffering brings patience unless it brings despair. Don’t give up perseverance brings hope’. She says we must heal the whole person-body, mind and spirit. She says the CWL are astounding women. We are not the women God wants us to be, but we can be.

A play preformed by one woman, led us through the steps leading up to the first Eucharistic celebration from the perspective of a woman who was serving the 12 apostles and Jesus.

Archbishop Martin Currie is our National Spiritual Advisor. He says we are all one in Jesus and he wants us to ‘see the face of Jesus in a baby, old man, the ill or street people’.

We are being encouraged to send membership lists to national by using the new ‘On-line Membership’ program. The secure sight is given above. There are many errors made transferring names and addresses and the cost of returning The League Magazine is in the thousands.

Cecile Miller and Velma Harasen went on a trip to India. They gave a very interesting talk. They wore traditional Indian dress. Mary Nordick and a delegation from Development & Peace went to Africa. Her talk was very informative.

Communication Chairperson Betty-Anne Brown-Davidson wants us to communicate our faith and ‘catch the fire’. The new name of the e-newsletter is ‘Be League’

A lengthy discussion concluded in a motion being made to support Mater Care as a national initiative by keeping Mater Care on the list of Voluntary Funds for an additional three years.

Two resolutions were brought to the floor of the national convention: Chrysotile Asbestos and Income Tax Credit for Children’s Participation in Arts and Cultural Activities. Both resolutions passed with amendments and will be presented to the federal government in the coming year.

The new theme was announced; Women of Peace and Hope Centred on Faith and Justice will begin January 1, 2011.

The election of national officers produced an excellent slate of officers and I look forward to working with them. They appear on the national web site: http://cwl.ca Congratulations to Anne-Marie Gorman the newly-elected National Resolutions Chairperson.

Faithfully,

Joyce Green

NB Provincial President