Second Carmelite nun planning new order

BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
ANOTHER former Carmelite nun is planning to establish a new order. A month after Sister
Margaret Rowe left for Canada to found a contemplative order in British Columbia, Miss J. E. Patterson is setting out to establish a similar community in Sunderland, Co. Durham.
Miss Patterson is calling meetings among interested people and explaining her ideas for a new form of contemplative order in a community. but with no enclosure.
She hopes that the order will not only live a contemplative life, but that the house will become a centre for those seeking a time of spiritual renewal.
She realises that members may have to work to provide financial assistance for the venture and considers the manufacture of soft toys and similar activities would be suitable.
"PAX HOUSE"
If the project proves successful and sufficient women and girls come forward, Miss Patterson plans to start her community in a building to he named Pax House and formed out of what were once stables attached to Corby hall, the Jesuit retreat house in Sunderland.
Miss Patterson's address is Pax House. Corby Hall. Ashbrooke Road, Sunderland.
Sister Margaret Rowe, who as reported on June 27 has gone to Canada, renounced her canonical status after 20 years as a member of the Carmelite community at Bridell, Cardiganshire, to found a contemplative community without material enclosure.
Teachers' service of unity
ASERVICE OF UNITY for teachers and prospective teachers of all denominations. decided on at the Church Schools' Conference in May, will be held in Westminster Cathedral on September 25 at 6.30 p.m., at the invitation of Canon Francis Bartlett. Administrator of the Cathedral. Cardinal Heenan will preach, and Mr. Edward Short, Secretary of State for Education. will read a Lesson.
Anglican church transfer plan
THE York Redundant Churches Uses Committee in a statement agreed with Bishop McClean of Middlesbrough, have asked the Church Commissioners to prepare a scheme whereby St. Leonard's Anglican Church, New Ma1ton, shall be transferred to the Catholic Church for use for religious worship. The Catholic Church is prepared to meet the fees of the expenses and the transfer.
`Business mergers hit charity'
THE Salvation Army expresses concern in its annual report at the loss of donations by "corner shopkeepers" whose businesses are taken over by chain stores and mergers.
The report says that the sad practical fact is that all too often the corner shopkeeper's gift of his annual "fiver" is replaced by "profound regrets that the board can no longer continue this contribution."
"This is generalising, of course, and there are numbers of large firms without whose sustained support through the years the Salvation Army would have found it difficult to maintain its work.
"But there are enough specific instances of the kind men tioned to cause very real anxiety, and one can only hope that boards of directors, secre taries of firms' charitable funds or others charged with the handling of contributions to worthy causes, will. with no lesser resources, try to match or improve on the corner shopkeeper's generosity."
Chapel of Unity wedding service
AFTER being married at the Church of the Holy Family, Coventry, last week by Fr. Arthur Diamond, the Rural Dean, a French Catholic girl, Anne Clevy, of Nancy, and Mr. Wilfred Hammond, an Anglican, of Dudley. attended an ecumenical service in the Chapel of Unity at Coventry Cathedral. It was planned and conducted by Fr. Diamond and the Rev. Geoffrey Beck, the Warden of the Chapel of Unity, who is a Congregationalist.
Children's swim to aid Peru poor
CHILDREN of St. Catherine's Primary School, Sheffield. have collected £110 through a sponsored swim for, Sister Carmela, of Burngreave Road Convent, to help her in her new work in Peru, where she is to join the Columbian Fathers' mission to the poor. She is one of three nuns from Yorkshire going there for at least three years.
Priest's plea for kidney patients
FR. JOHN W. FLANAGAN, of Polcgate, Sussex, is inviting people willing to donate their kidneys after death for transplants to send him their names, addresses and ages so that, after other formalities are complete, he can pass on the details to the nearest hospital where transplants can be performed.
He is also offering to open a subscription list, to which he will contribute the first f50, for the purchase of a kidney machine for those in need of dialysis.
Fr. Flanagan, who himself has only one kidney—and that not fully functional—says the donation of kidneys is "a great act of charity" and one which also gives others the chance of access to a kidney machine. His address is St. George's Presbytery, Eastbourne Road. Polegate.
Teacher shortage threat to school
1VOTRE DAME preparatory
school, St. Helen's, Lanes, may have to close at the end of the summer term next year because of the difficulty of recruiting teaching nuns.
A number of parents are already expressing concern at the possible closure. The school, founded in 1858. has 150 pupils.
Welsh woman's award
MISS Winefride Loughlin has received from Bishop Petit of Menevia the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award which was made in recognition of her efforts towards spreading the faith in Wales through the Cyfellion Cymru society.
A mosaic mural of "Christ Enthroned" at Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, U.S., designed and executed by Hans Unger, F.S.I.A., and Eberhard Schulze in London.
The mosaic measures 173 feet by 12 feet and is made of about 150,000 pieces of Venetian "smaiti" in turquoise, blue and lemon yellow and copper blocks. Eberhard Schulze is seen putting the finishing touches after it had been installed.
S. African clinic threatened
ACLINIC in Grahamstown, South Africa, run by the Missionary Sisters of the Assumption for the past six years, is in danger of closing through lack of funds. It is in the heart of the town's African location, and has treated thousands of general and maternity cases. There is no subsidy. and the patients can rarely afford to pay
The Sisters' small secondhand car, used for rounds and bringing in patients, broke down recently and funds do not permit a replacement. Anyone who would like to help should send donations to the Sister Superior, Assumption Convent, Ballynahinch, Co. Down.
Plowden group to study civil law
THE Plowden Legal Society, which was formed last March, has, with the concurrence of the Newman Association, assumed the functions of the association's former Legal Studies Group, appointed in May, 1960, to consider the relationships between Christianity and the civil law of Britain.
Publication of Quis Custodiet?, the quarterly periodical, has been committed to the Edmund Plowden Trust. a charitable trust set up in 1968, for which the Plowden Legal Society will act as managers.
Student protest `a Christian atti hide'
STUDENT hostility to injustice is little different from the attitude of many Christians, states a leaflet on student protest issued by the education department of the British Council of Churches.
Christians should accept their share of responsibility for injustice and violence, and support students who want orderly change.
The leaflet, "Understanding Student Protest," says most institutions in Britain are undergoing scrutiny and renewal, and that staff, especially young staff. are as interested as students.
"The vociferous, actively protesting and demonstrating students arc usually (though not always) in a minority. This need not, however, necessarily invalidate the changes they seek to bring about."
The leaflet, costing 3d., is available from the British Council of Churches, 10 Eaton Gate. London. S.W.I.
Shelter collects 4km. halfpennies
SHELTER has collected fourand-a-half-million halfpennies during the past year in its Ha'penny Appeal, it was announced on Wednesday, the day before the coin ceased to be legal tender. Thousands of
children throughout the country have taken part in the appeal.
Four pupils from St. Mary's junior school, Woodford Green. Essex, collected £132 in halfpennies and other efforts have included trails of the coins round school playgrounds, sports fields and up staircases. One school collected the weight in halfpennies of their heaviest teacher.