The Culture of Life

Our own contribution to the weekend was a ‘Culture of Life’ evening, intended more as a positive celebration of life rather than a commemoration of the anniversary.

The evening began, somewhat unusually, with Umoya (’spirits’) a Zulu gospel choir, and featured the reading of a pro-life short story, another performance of ‘Dance for your Life’ and the inspiring words of Catholic pro-life leaders including the Popes, Mother Teresa and our own Cardinal Winning.

The evening was extremely enjoyable, despite a few slight technical hitches, and well worth the weeks of frenzied preparation. It was lovely to see so many friends and (something of a theme recently) so many young people. It is only with the prayers and support of many that we are able to do our work here and so it was wonderful to have the opportunity to see them and celebrate life with them.

The next big event here at the Initiative is the Advent Bazaar on 1 December and the preparations have already began, so watch this space for more information.

SPUC Scotland Conference

Saturday saw the annual SPUC Scotland conference. Rev Dr John Fleming, director of the Southern Cross Bioethics Institute gave a fascinating and comprehensive account of the issues surrounding end of life decisions.

Fr Fleming was followed by Dr Calum McKellar, director of the Scottish Council for Human Bioethics. Dr McKellar’s talk was an excellent introduction to the issue of Human-Nonhuman hybrids, a topic on which the wonderful SCHB is a world leader.

The final guest speaker was Kathy Sinnott, an MEP for Ireland and tireless campaigner on family, disability and pro-life issues, who spoke to the conference on attitudes and progress on pro-life matters in European politics.

Ian Murray, Kaye Smith, Lucy McCully and Donna Nicholson of SPUC provided updates on SPUC campaigning and educational activities, as well as their thoughts on the future priorities of the pro-life movement.

The day came to a close with the premiere performance of ‘Dance for your Life’ a fantastic new initiative of the Arts Project for the Arch-Diocese of Glasgow, which tells the story of a young girl facing a crisis pregnancy, by means of drama and interpretive dance, pictured below.

‘Dance for your Life’

March for Life

Once again, apologies that posts have been a bit thin on the ground over the last few days. The last weekend has been extremely busy with 40th anniversary events.

On Thursday evening we attended the ‘March for Life’, which included a candle-lit vigil in George Square followed by a pro-life prayer service in the Cathedral. Speakers included representatives from SPUC and Life, as well as our own Sr Roseann. The turn-out was excellent, and an atmosphere of determination and hope prevailed.

It was great to see so many familiar faces, and even better to see so many unknown faces, especially young people. The presence of so many young people at this weekend’s events was particularly striking and incredibly encouraging.

Some of the marchers.

Fr Paul Francis also has an account of the march (featuring a picture of Sr Andrea) at Laus Crucis.

New blog!

Tomorrow will see the launch of the Initiative blog, which will stand alongside this blog. As well as news, help requests, etc, the blog will contain a lot of the information previously found on our now defunct website. So do have a look at: cardinalwinningprolifeinitiative.wordpress.com

Fortieth Anniversry event.

As many of you will know tomorrow (Saturday 27 October) marks the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act of 1967. The last four decades have seen seven million abortions taking place in Britain. To mark the anniversary, pro-life groups across the country have organised a variety of events, and we urge you all to get involved, to discuss, and most of all to pray.
For those of you in Scotland - On Sunday we will be hosting a ‘Culture of Life’ event here at the Initiative. As part of the on-going Meaning of Life series, the event is an opportunity for young - and not so young - people to celebrate the culture of life. The evening will include performances of poetry, drama, dance and singing, and will be an excellent opportunity to meet like-minded individuals and rejoice in the miracle of life!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support.

God bless.

The Meaning of Life

The Meaning of Life series continued on Sunday with a talk on ‘Jesus Christ and the fulfilment of man’ by Sr Roseann. Despite the half-term holiday, the talk attracted a large audience, and it was again wonderful to see so many young people. It has been a great privilege over the last months to see these young people meet the challenges offered by the various speakers and to continue to develop and grow in their faith. We also hear that on the journey home, the bus once again featured on the Real Radio phone-in!

The series will resume in four weeks time with a talk entitled ‘I am with you always’. On the 28th of October instead of a talk, we will be hosting a ‘Culture of Life’ event to mark the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act. If any you live in the Glasgow area, it would be wonderful to see you at the Initiative.

Friends of the Cardinal Winning Pro-Life Initiative

Our work here at the Initiative relies very much on the constant goodwill and prayers of our many generous friends and supporters. It would be impossible for us to continue without the people who give us their time, their support and their prayers.

In recognition of this fact we maintain a database of contacts, to whom we send our news, notification of up-coming events and most importantly, requests for prayers.

As well as one annual mailing, we send occasional emails and text messages - usually detailing talks and other events here at the Initiative or asking for prayers for the women we work with.

Many of you will already be among those who receive these updates, by post, email or text message, but if you would like to be added please send your details to info@prolifeinitiative.org, stating the means by which you would like to keep in touch.

Thank you and God bless.

Stephanie

Today was the day Stephanie had her appointment to make arrangements to go to England for an abortion. Let us pray that she will make the right decision.

Kerry-Anne

You may remember a few weeks ago we asked for prayers for Kerry-Anne. Unfortunately we’ve received word that she has gone ahead with the abortion. We’re sure however that all of the prayers offered for her will not have been and vain and we ask you to continue to pray for her.

Thank you and God bless.

Pro-Life Resources

A quick help request…

As part of the 40th anniversary events we’re organizing, we’re putting together a number of pro-life slide-shows on different themes. What we’re looking for are sound-bites from people like Cardinal Winning, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI speaking on specifically pro-life related issues. These would be sound clips that we could play over PowerPoint presentations. If you know of good sites on the internet or if you would be able to email clips to us, please leave a comment on this post or email us at info@prolifeinitiative.org

Thank you and God bless.

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PLEASE NOTE: The email address featured in the original post has been altered- where it previously ended ‘.com’ it now ends ‘.org’ - Apologies for any confusion caused.