CHAIRMAN'S REPORT

JUNE 2007 

Thornhill Centre is an established Ministry site of the Northern Province of the Sisters of Mercy.  The original vision for the Centre  (“to go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News”) continues to be foundational to the active life of Thornhill.  We are committed to working in collaboration with others so that that vision can grow and be realized in ways which nourish the spirit, give peace to the soul and help fulfil the mission of Christ.

The Sisters of Mercy of the Province support the Centre by:

Being the Company Members

Individual Sisters serving on the Board of Directors

Providing personnel to manage the Centre

Financial support

The Sisters who live and work in the Centre and the staff (paid and voluntary) are committed to the stewardship of the house.  The fabric of the building is constantly cared for; the meeting and function rooms and the catering are maintained to a high standard. There is ongoing refurbishment in process to some of the bedrooms. As with the general public areas of this beautiful and historic building, we continue to try to ensure that the ministry environment of the Centre is attractive, comfortable and conducive to the care of all.

Prayer Guidance

Training and Ongoing Development

One of the key ministries of Thornhill Centre is the promotion and support of individuals and groups into ways of prayer. Through the Centre, prayer guidance in the North-West has been established and continues to grow. There are forty guides whose work is based in Omagh and Derry. These guides received their initial formation into the ministry through the auspices of Thornhill Centre where they continue to be given on-going formation and support as well as supervision in their work. As many of these guides are also working in a parish context, the Centre is in the process of having the guides receive clearance for working in this ministry within the Diocese of Derry.

The full compliment of guides convene for on-going formation days which in the last year were delivered by Sister Marie (Thornhill Centre) and Sister Dervilla Byrne (South Central Province) The guides continue to meet in their cluster groups in Derry and Omagh on a monthly basis throughout the year.

Ministry Involvement

The following prayer guidance was carried out in the last year by Thornhill Centre Guides:

Four weeks of Guided Prayer (Limavady, Creggan and Omagh)

Weekly Group Guided Prayer (Creggan, Ballymagroarty, Limavady, Dungiven)

Guided Prayer for Lent & Advent  (Thornhill Centre, Steelstown, Omagh, Creggan, Ballymagroarty)

Guided Prayer for Young People (Schools in Omagh area and St. Brigid’s Carnhill)

Continual on-going prayer guidance to individuals takes place.

Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Direction is offered to individuals from the Thornhill Centre team who are trained in this discipline. A Belfast-based director visits the Centre once a month to minister in this regard. Because of growth in this area, the Centre is exploring the possibility of a second guest director offering a day a month in this ministry.

Adult Faith Development

At one level, many of the individuals who come to Thornhill Centre are people who have a sense of the spiritual dimension within. Supporting faith development in adults is very much at the heart of the work and ministry here at the Centre.

In the last year, thirty people attended a one-year course in Spirituality on Monday evenings from October ’06 through to June ’07. The course was most successful and there was a great variety of speakers and topics explored:- traditional established spiritualities,  contemporary spiritualities, spirituality accessed through the creative arts, spirituality in relation to justice, gender and care of the earth. The course was planned with an experiential dimension. Ritual and gathering evenings helped participants harvest the fruits of their experiences and learnings.

A further one-year course is at the planning stage and will hopefully support another group of adults in the in-coming year.

In addition to the substantial spirituality course, there were other opportunities for adult faith development work at/through the Centre. The Lenten Thursdays – a series of morning workshops throughout Lent was well-supported. Again, this series was planned and facilitated by the Centre personnel. The constituents of the workshops were group work, input, reflection, prayer and ritual.

Shorter faith-related courses offered this year included ‘An Introduction to the Gospel of Luke,’ and the ‘Dread going to Confession’ Course (which was massively over-subscribed.) 

Sister Marie delivered a four-part series of talks on ‘Aspects of Prayer’ in Dungiven, Omagh, Strabane and Derry. Approximately forty-five people attended each session. Marie was also guest speaker at the Parish Mission in St. Mary’s, Creggan last month.

In conjunction with the Catechetical Office, Perpetua has worked on retreat days for the staff of six different schools. These days have been different because the needs of the personnel have been different. The agendas have been concerned with topics that have included:- coping with bereavement, understanding community, the call to work in forming young people in the ways of faith.

The Centre has also hosted and partly in-putted to in-service training days for teachers of both Primary and Post-Primary level.   Similarly the Centre has part in-putted and hosted Study days for the Light Life Course. This is a seminar for young teachers who are seeking to acquire a Certificate in the Teaching of Religious Education.

The ACCORD organisation hires Thornhill Centre’s facilities for its pre-marriage courses.  While Thornhill personnel have no input into these courses, through our hospitality and practical support, 77 couples this year have benefited from a time of reflection here at the Centre in advance of this significant moment in their lives.

Young People

The Centre, with the assistance of volunteer co-workers offers days of reflection to young people in second-level schooling. This year in excess of six hundred students participated in these days.

Much – though not all - of the retreat work with younger school children happens in conjunction with the Catechetical Centre. Again, in the region of six hundred pupils were involved in these days.

As an off-shoot of work done with teaching staff on in-service training days, a few schools have requested an experience of ‘Prayer through Movement’ for their pupils. This has been particularly enjoyable work to have become engaged in. 

Parish Ministry

There continues to be a demand for training courses and/or days of reflection for men and women who are directly involved in Church ministries of one kind or other.

Support programmes for those who exercise a particular ministry in the Church are organised in response to the needs of a variety of groups.  In the last year, approximately three hundred people have participated in such days.  Occasionally, a group will come to the Centre, however, there are times when Centre personnel go the group’s base. This year, as well as facilitating such days at the Centre, we have also worked with groups in parts of Inishown and Tyrone.

In addition to explicit parish ministry days, we planned, developed and facilitated a renewal and outreach development programme for a parish group here in Derry. This was most successful. Through this programme a people-to-people approach has been established by this group who are committed to seeking out ways of reaching out to the wider community.

A group in a different area of Derry City has since requested similar support from the Centre and we are in the process of addressing the needs of this group also.

Retreats

The Centre hosted two residential retreats this year; the three-day Advent Retreat attracted eighteen participants and the six-day Summer Retreat attracted nineteen people. The retreats are open to all.  The retreat directors were Father Richard O Dwyer (A Jesuit priest based at Manresa) and  Father Oliver Holt ( A Benedictine priest based at Douai Abbey in Reading)

Throughout the year, occasionally an individual may come to the Centre to have a quiet day of personal reflection. The Centre makes every effort to ensure that the necessary practicalities are in place to facilitate this type of experience.

Reconciliation

The hope that the Centre would be a place where inter-faith groups might meet, or where inter-Church  relations could be fostered, was very much part of the original vision of the Centre.  We are very happy to report that the relationship between the Centre and the Church of Ireland continues to grow.  The Centre has worked closely with Mrs Mary Good and has supported the setting up of The Quiet Garden at the See House. We are now hoping to develop some events which will be shared by Thornhill Centre and The See House Quiet Garden (Church of Ireland Bishop’s residence, Culmore Road.)

Thornhill hosted the Women’s World Day of Prayer at the start of March. Many of those who attended had never been in the Centre previously and were thoroughly enamoured by the experience. As a consequence, sixty-three ladies from the Church of Ireland Mother’s Union had a quiet day in Thornhill later that month. Two of the women who attended that day have now expressed a wish to be included in the next prayer guidance training course here.

Following on the experience of last year’s ordinands, five deacons from the Church of Ireland, with their Retreat Director availed of the Centre’s facilities for their pre-ordination retreat.

Courses

Sister Elizabeth Devine facilitated the Myers-Briggs workshop at the Centre after Easter.  This is a personal and human development course. Once more, the enthusiasm of the participants reflected their engagement with the course and their appreciation of the  excellence of Elizabeth’s teaching.

Mary Murphy is very committed to delivering poetry courses at Thornhill. Thought these continue to attract a smaller number of participants, they are nevertheless very stimulated by the courses which they so obviously enjoy. There is an inner exploration that happens for these participants through the beauty of poetic imagery and language.

Congregational Use

This year, there have been three congregational meetings of groups of Sisters of Mercy at the Centre.  Two “Circle of Mercy” groups use the premises for their monthly meetings.

Other Uses

A number of groups hire the Centre for meetings. These groups are independent of the Centre but their meetings are a source of income.

• NEST
• The Lourdes Hospitalité Committee
• Derry Diocesan Charismatic Services
• Derry Diocesan Child Protection Committee
• Derry Diocesan Vocations Committee
• Post-Primary Principals of Derry City Schools
• The Hickey School of Music

2007/2008

Initial planning is already in hand for courses/projects for the incoming year.

Throughout this past year the Board of Directors has been aware of the heavy work-load for Sisters Marie and Perpetua. We have encouraged the initiative to employ Charlene Doherty in a part-time basis for one-year as a team member. Charlene is graduating from Strawberry Hill College this summer and hopes to undertake post-grad studies in Adult Faith Development at Milltown Institute, Dublin. This is a most welcome development. It is both an indication of the growing strength of Thornhill Centre as an enterprise and a commitment to its future development.