Provincial Convention 2010: Kamloops Diocese Oral Report

Submitted by: Sharon Geiger

I stand her before you, wondering where my year as Diocesan president has gone so quickly! Did I begin to accomplish my goals that I set out to do for my term? I wanted to help members grow more spiritually, learn more about CWL, make new friends, and laugh a little.

Our Diocesan council has grown by one more Parish council, which is Our Lady of the Valley in Cold Stream. It is exciting to have a new council with a lot of young women as members.

We now have two councils, which have started the Catholic Girls League, these are exciting times. The Kamloops Diocesan members enjoyed having the Vernon Catholic Girls League participate at our convention.

How many of you know about the lives of St. Frances Cabrini, St. Dymphna, St. Marguerite Bourgeois, St. Anthony of Padua or Saint Josephine Bakhita?

At our Fall meeting I held a short workshop on Saint’s and asked the Parish councils to choose a Saint and learn about their lives. They also played a game in which they had to connect the Saints to what they were the patron Saint of. Now the councils have been teaching the rest of the members of the Diocese about these Saints at our Spring and Fall meetings and at the convention. This has been quite a learning experience.

At our Diocesan convention we were honored to have Marianna Caldwell in attendance. She held a workshop on Leading and Outreaching into our Communities with the help of Marilyn Van Dongen, which was wonderful.

How many of you know what L’ Arche is? Our guest speaker at the convention was Nathan Ball Executive director of L’Arche Canada Foundation, (who tried to convince us that he was Harrison Ford). At the end of his presentation we all new what L’Arche was and had a new respect for mentally challenged adults who live there. For those who don’t know L’Arche was founded by Jean Vanier and L’Arche has homes in all parts of the world.

A resolution was passed at our Diocesan convention and I am excited about this resolution because it came from my own parish and it is called the Safe Haven Law.

I had the pleasure of helping Nancy Simms present a leadership workshop in Vernon in the Fall. It was a great learning experience for me and hopefully the members learned more about themselves and the CWL. This same workshop was presented by Nancy Simms and Doreen Gowans in Kamloops.

As I visit different councils, I am meeting many new ladies and seeing the variety of struggles that councils are having. I also see how parish councils are coping with their struggles and how much they are doing for their parish, community and nation. Many members are also using and sharing their gifts with other members and other people.

The Catholic Women’s League is a wonderful organization to belong to – look how many of you are here renewing friendships, making new friends, learning more and having fun. May our Lady of Good Counsel guide our good works for God and Canada as we Serve with Faith and Joy and become Women of Peace and Hope.