Information for the media
At each venue of the St. Thérèse tour, a monk, nun, friar or sister will be available to speak to the media about St. Thérèse and how she continues to inspire religious and lay people. They will also be able to give a personal testimony of their own religious vocation.
To arrange an interview, please contact enquiries@ukvocation.org
Dom Boniface Hill
Benedictine monk of Downside Abbey
I was born in Exeter in 1960. My family and I moved to Salisbury when I was 11. I worked for a year in the public library in Exeter, before going to a seminary.
I left the seminary to join Downside Abbey in 1982 and made my solemn profession five years later before being ordained priest in 1989. I've been a chaplain in our school, an Assistant House Master and House Master. At present I'm a school chaplain, Parish Priest of Chilcompton and Assistant Priest of Stratton-on-the-Fosse. I'm also Sacristan, Assistant Infirmarian and Custodian of Relics.
Fr. Boniface is available for interview at:
17 Sept 09
Plymouth Cathedral
18 Sept 09
St. Teresa of Lisieux, Taunton
23 Sept 09
St. Teresa's, Filton, Bristol
Fr. Emmanuel Mansford
Franciscan Friar of the Renewal
All CFR Friars are called to be "friars minor", that is, "lesser brothers" after the example of Saint Francis himself. Of these, God calls some friars to serve at the holy altar - priests who live out the priestly vocation as Friars of the Renewal. Other friars are called to live as Religious Brothers, or more commonly known as “Lay Brothers". A lay brother is a friar who is consecrated to God through the traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. It is in this consecration that the lay brother finds his identity. Because he is consecrated to God who is Lord and Father of all he in turn becomes a "brother" to all in the Body of Christ.
The Community of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal was recognized in the Church as a religious institute of diocesan right of the 28th of May 1999, which enabled us to open friaries outside the Archdiocese of New York. As Providence led us, we opened our first friary in London diocese, Brentwood, at the invitation of Bishop Thomas McMahon and through the encouragement of Mgr John Armitage.
"The Gospel counsel of poverty, in imitation of Christ, Who became poor for our sakes, means that we live a life which is poor in fact and in spirit. It includes as an essential element, a life of work." The transformation of the old parish hall of St. Margaret's into St. Fidelis Friary took many hours of labour by volunteers and the friars.
Fr Emmanuel Mansford or one of the London-based Fransiscan Friars of the Renewal will be available for interview at:
12 Oct 09
Westminster Cathedral
Wormwood Scrubs Prison
Fr Pat O’Keeffe
Carmelite priest
“As a friar I've been engaged in all sorts of different ministries: youth worker, sports teacher, parish priest, retreat-giver, and prior of a community. For me the ministry of Vocations Director is a delight. It's a privilege to be alongside people like you who are asking big questions in their lives. It enables me to be in regular contact with other members of the Carmelite Province who welcome prospective novices into their communities for a short while.”
The Carmelite Family is one of the ancient religious communities of the Roman Catholic Church. Known officially as the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, the Carmelite Order developed from a group of hermits in thirteenth-century Palestine; priests and lay people living a contemplative life modelled on the prophet Elijah and the Virgin Mary. St Therese herself was a Carmelite nun.
Members of the Carmelite and Discalced Carmelite Orders work, live, and pray together to make up the wider ‘Carmelite Family’, which seeks the face of the Living God in parishes, prisons, university chaplaincies, retreat centres, workplaces, schools, and through many other forms of ministry.
Fr Pat O’Keeffe O. Carm. is available for interview at:
1 Oct 09
York Minster
Sr Marie Henry OP
Dominican Sister
Like St. Thérèse, I was at a school run by Sisters, in my case Dominican Sisters. I was introduced to the life of St. Thérèse by a sister when I was eleven and immediately felt I had a friend in heaven. I took Thérèse as my confirmation name when I was twelve and over the following years, read more about her. She was not too far away in time nor in place and her “Little Way” seemed within my reach though not to the heroic degree in which she practised it.
In 1986 I had the joy of going to Lisieux with another Sister who had a great live for St. Thérèse. As the train pulled into the station and I saw the Basilica, I was quite overwhelmed. We visited the usual places: Carmel, the Basilica, Les Buisonnets, the graves of Louis and Zelie Martin (Thérèse’s parents), but a special moment was being taken into the confessional where the retreat father, as St. Thérèse says “Launched me in full sail on the sea of confidence and of love on which I’d been afraid to venture, though it attracted me so strongly.” Here is something that today’s world is in need of and for which so many long. Thérèse grew up in an atmosphere of love, first and foremost, love of God and that is why at the age of fourteen, she longed to give herself to God as a Carmelite.
I was about fifteen when I began to feel called to be a Dominican but I knew I still had years of study and I was twenty when I asked to enter the Dominican Order. There were no obstacles to my entry as my mother had married again after my father’s death. I later learned that my father’s dying wish was that I should be a Dominican. Had he been alive, I think he would have said, as Louis Martin said to Thérèse, What honour God is doing me.”
May St. Thérèse strengthen our Faith and our families and help many to follow a priestly/ religious vocation.
Sr. Marie Henry is available for interview at:
24 Sept 09
Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King
Liverpool
25 Sept 09
Salford Cathedral
Sr Camilla Oberding and Sr Gabriela Gasch
Community of Our Lady of Walsingham
Sr Camilla and Sr Gabriela are members of a new religious community of sisters and brothers, founded on the 6th January 2004 under the care of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. Whilst rooted in the Carmelite tradition, we are developing a vocational spirituality which is at the heart of our charism. As a contemplative but not enclosed community, the Carmelite saints are of great importance to us and St. Thérèse of Lisieux is patron of our formees.
The new evangelisation must proclaim again the strong sense of life as 'vocation' in its fundamental call to holiness. As sisters and brothers we are aware of God's living presence in the midst of his people and of the unique relationship he has with each one of us. Through prayer, hospitality and accompaniment we help others recognise their being 'called by name':
- to live life as a response to love received
- to union with God
- as Christians, to live fully one's baptismal promises
- to discover one's 'personal' vocation
- to a 'particular' vocation
Prayer is our core ministry, the source of efficacy for all our other works. We currently run Abbotswick, the Diocesan House of Prayer for Brentwood Diocese, and a Vocations Discernment Group that meets regularly at Westminster Cathedral. St. Thérèse understood that ‘love embraces all vocations’ and that her vocation was to be love in the heart of the Church. Our community offers spiritual accompaniment and formation courses to help all people find their vocation and their own unique way of living the call to the fullness of life and love.
Sr Gabriela is available for interview at:
6 Oct 09
Walsingham
7 Oct 09
Oxford
8 Oct 09
Gerrards Cross
9 Oct 09
Aylesford
Sr Camilla is available for interview at:
9/10 Oct 09
Aylesford
11 Oct 09
Carmelite Church Kensington and Notting Hill Carmel