The Augustinian Friars in Britain

Our Hearts are Restless until they Rest in You, Lord

Around our Augustinian Parishes; September 2010

Woodvale

Churches Together in Ainsdale had a Service of Celebration in the Ainsdale Show tent, including the Roger Jones musical about Pentecost.

Journeys and Pilgrimages : Having been to San Gimignano and to Oberammergau for the Passion Play, now the indefatigable travellers are planning to follow in the footsteps of St Paul during June 2011, including a three-night cruise along the coast of Greece and the old Asia Minor.

AYE  The parish raised over £7,000 for AYE.  Sadly, the young people from Ishiara in Kenya, whom the parish had planned to host were refused visas and could not come.  From the parish nine young people travelled by minibus to London Colney.

 

Irish Support and Advice Centre

is housed in Blacks Road, Hammersmith.  It recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of the founding of what was then the Irish Welfare Bureau by Brian Lawlor OSA, using a temporary building in the car park of St Augustine’s.   

Brian was an honoured guest at the celebration at which the principal speaker was Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland.  She was very supportive of the venture during the early years and in her speech was lavish in her praise of all that had been achieved for the Irish in London.  Over the years, 90,000 people had been helped.  During the past year, the centre was able to get £1 million in otherwise unclaimed benefits for people.

From the Bureau, Brian developed the hostels in Hammersmith Grove, acquiring eventually three houses to provide short-term accommodation for immigrants arriving in London unprepared.  It was all achieved by massive fund-raising.  The Irish influx has long since ceased on anything like the scale of the 60s and 70s, and other social uses are being made of the hostels.

 

The future of the Irish Support and Advice Centre has question marks hanging over it.  The property belongs to the council who lease it to the Irish Government.  The lease expires in 2012.  What then?  Nobody knows, causing much anxiety among the staff .  The past however will always glow warmly.

 

A Legacy from an old friend.

Michael Aidan Power’s brother Dick was a pupil at Good Counsel College New Ross during the early 1940s, contemporary with several friars of the Province.  He became a very successful orthopaedic surgeon in the US.  He died on 30 July 2002.  He left £15,000 to our provincial central fund.

 

Hammersmith

Hear the Other Side :  was the title of an exhibition of paintings and sculptures held in St Augustine’s Church Hall, on 19-24 July.  The artists were  three recent postgraduates of the Slade College of Art—Tessa Whitehead, Robert Phillips and our own Gianni Notarianni OSA.

Large display boards were prepared in the recently decorated hall.  The exhibition attracted a large number of visitors, including other artists who were full of admiration for the hall and enquired about the possibility of exhibiting there.