A SERIES OF TALKS AT ST ANNES-ON-THE-SEA

Following the success of the last series of talks on St Paul at Our Lady Star of the Sea, St Annes, the church has planned a further series of talks on the Church’s Social Teaching starting on 1st October this year. 

‘The issues we will be discussing are all very relevant in today’s world, to both catholics and fellow Christians’  said Mgr Aidan Turner. ‘We are very grateful to our speakers for so willingly giving up their time to participate in these talks’.

The talks will be held  at Our Lady Star of the Sea  Parish Centre, 63 St Albans Road, Lytham St Annes FY8 1XD.

(except for 3rd December  - Parish Primary School, Kenilworth Road, St. Annes on Sea FY8 1LB).

Details are as follows:-

2009

1st Oct. Rt Hon John Battle MP – THE GLOBAL IS NOW LOCAL

5th Nov. Susy Brouard (CAFOD) – THE OPTION FOR THE POOR

3rd Dec. Fr Joe Brown S.D.B. – GOOD NEWS IN OUR WORLD TODAY

2010

4th Feb. Francis Davis (Las Casas Inst) – BRITAIN IN CRISIS: A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE

4th Mar. Bruce Kent (CND) – STEPS TOWARDS THE ABOLITION OF WAR

15th Apr. Rt Rev Peter Smith, Archbishop of Cardiff – THE COMMON GOOD

All talks start at 7.30pm. For further information tel. 01253 723661. Additionally, if you can help serve the refreshments, or in fact provide cakes for the refreshments, then please contact Jim Reid, either at church or on 726988.

1st Oct. Rt Hon John Battle MP – THE GLOBAL IS NOW LOCAL

We start our series of talks, on Thursday 1st October with Rt Hon John Battle MP. A former co-ordinator of Church Action on Poverty. John Battle became the Member of Parliament for Leeds West in 1987. He was a Minister of State in the Department of Trade and Industry 1997-1999 and a Foreign Office Minister 1999-2001. He was Faith Adviser to the PM 2001-2005 and is

now an unpaid consultant to the Three Faiths Forum. He will talk on “The Global is now Local” and he will talk about the politics of basic caring communities from his experiences in Inner City West Leeds.

5th Nov. Susy Brouard (CAFOD) – THE OPTION FOR THE POOR

Our series of talks on SOCIAL TEACHING continues with ‘Options for the Poor’ from Susy Brouard (CAFOD) on Thursday 5th November at 7.30pm. Susy Brouard has worked at CAFOD for seven years, in the Spirituality team. Her job as Justice Spirituality facilitator takes her up and down the country, giving workshops and days of reflection on the themes of justice and spirituality. She has a great passion for the social teaching of the Church and tries to promote it whenever she can. She has written an on-line course (in partnership with Ushaw Educational Outreach) on Exploring Catholic Social Teaching and has been one of the tutors at Living Theology on this theme. Susy has been lucky enough to see some of CAFOD’s projects first hand in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Nigeria. In her spare time, Susy likes nothing better than to dance and is hoping that one day she will be famous enough to be invited on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’! In ‘Options for the Poor’ Susy will be exploring what our Christian faith teaches us about options for the poor and how we might be called to live this out in our everyday lives.

3rd Dec. Fr Joe Brown S.D.B. – GOOD NEWS IN OUR WORLD TODAY

Our third talk in the series is, ’Good News in our World Today’. It is on Thursday 3rd December at 7.30pm at the Parish Primary School, Kenilworth Rd, (not the Parish Centre). Our speaker is Fr Joe Brown SDB. Fr Joe was born in Roby Mill, Up Holland, Wigan in 1938, and after attending Thornleigh College Bolton, became a Salesian and was ordained there in 1968. He volunteered for the Missions in 1980 and was sent to Liberia, West Africa, returning to the UK in 2001 to set up a Missions Office in London to support their work in Africa. His talk will concern the time when he was in the civil war in Liberia for 14 years, and the good news about

volunteers who were there and one who courageously gave everything, even his life, for others. It would be great to see as many people there as possible to hear Father Joe.

4th Feb. Francis Davis (Las Casas Inst) – BRITAIN IN CRISIS: A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE

Our series of talks continues on 4th Feb at 7.30pm in the Parish Centre with Britian in Crisis : a Christian response from Francis Davis. Francis Davis is the Director of the Las Casas Institute of ethics, human rights and social responsibility at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. He also works in a senior government advisory role on topics relating to faith and social policy, social cohesion and anti poverty. He will be speaking in a personal capacity, drawing on his research for the Cardinal in London, the Bishops nationally, and the European Commission, to reflect on the topical questions of race, British identity, and the Church’s role in building the common good. Francis is interrupting his heavy schedule of work to come to Lancashire for this talk so it would be great to see as many people there as possible.

Please check back here before each talk, as we will post a little information on each speaker, thank you.