The Newman Association managed at last to hold its AGM face to face in the County Hotel Newcastle despite the impact of rail strikes on the day. We needed 25 full members to make a quorum and the mood very much lightened as we signed in the twenty-fifth, an elderly retired priest — it was most fitting that the clergy sealed the deal. A few more were able to come, with a large contingent from the local Tyneside Circle, so well done to them and to Terry Wright who let them all know the urgency of the meeting. Once together and in good spirits we set off to do the necessary administrative business of the day.
The minutes of the meeting in January 2021 were approved as accurate and after couple of points under Matters Arising we moved on to the Acting President's Report. Brian had been Acting President for a couple of months owing to the elected President, Winifred Flanagan, stepping down in view health issues. He began, as is appropriate, with thanks to all those who had contributed so much to keeping the Association going during the period of the pandemic. The first is in line for thanks were the Officers and members of the Circles and then he passed on to some individuals for special thanks.
Special thanks
Kevin Lambert was first since he was stepping down as Newsletter editor, the culmination of many years of faithful service including a stint as National President.
He thanked Patricia Egerton and Harcourt Concannon for their work on Council over the past four years, the first for exemplary work as Membership Secretary, and John Duddington for all his work on our status as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation which was well on the way towards approval by the Charity Commission, with some alterations to be voted on at the meeting. Janet Evers was also due thanks for her representation of the Newman on the National Board of Catholic Women, a post which she was now relinquishing owing to other commitments.
Of the present Council, Anthony Baker (Treasurer) and Sophie Rudge (Secretary) will remain while in post while Winifred moves on to become Past President and Alex Mthobi has agreed to stand as Vice President. As prospective newcomers to Council we have Terry Wright of the Tyneside Circle and John Duckett of the Coventry Circle. After mentioning the difficulties over the past two years, Brian was able to call to mind some positive moves for the future.
The Manchester Newman Lecture would go ahead in September when Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald would deliver his postponed lecture on FRATERNITY: A PROPOSAL AND A PROJECT FOR RELATIONS BETWEEN CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS and there were hopes for the postponed London Newman Lecture presented by Austin Ivereigh also to take place, perhaps by Zoom. On a more sustained level, he drew attention to the Awards Scheme which was being organised by Patricia Egerton. This was a scheme to bring the Newman Association more openly into the view of students in our Catholic higher education institutions, hopefully stimulating an interest which could be fostered. Two national events had taken place recently — the Newman pilgrimage to Ravenna in September and the Retreat at Douai Abbey in Advent. The numbers were not very large but all enjoyed and appreciated the presence and leadership on both occasions of our Newman Chaplain, Mgr Patrick Kilgarriff, to whom we owe special thanks for his inspiring work contributions. Brian offered a final word of thanks to Barry Riley and his editorial team for their work on the Newman Journal which had continued to come out at the usual regular intervals during the pandemic. It was necessary in the circumstances to look forward rather than backwards and to seek to make its 80th anniversary year, 2022, a really creative and positive year.
Sophie in her Secretary's Report gave due thanks for all the support she had received over the last eighteen months in all the trying circumstances. Anthony reported how the management of our finances had changed somewhat since the last AGM. Since there was no-one available to take over the full Treasurer's role, after the resignation of Kevin Ryan, Council had decided to split the work involved between Anthony and David Swallow's firm. David, as our Independent Examiner, would take over the operational role of Treasurer, with Anthony, as a member of Council, acting as Treasurer in a supervising/responsibility role.
Total assets
The total assets at February 1st 2021 were £128,774, of which £86,025 was held in the COIF account, £25,881 in banks under central control and nearly £16,000 held by Circles. So the Association was clearly both solvent and liquid in terms of its funds. There was a large operational surplus for the year, mainly owing to the non-payment of donation to Circles and the very favourable stock market trend over that period of time. He remarked that the value of our investments, in the light of national events, would certainly reduce in the future. Also on a negative note, there continued to be some difficulty in obtaining Treasurer's Annual Returns from some Circles. Anthony completed his report by giving special thanks to Patricia for all her work and help as Membership Secretary in the arrangements over the Direct Debit payments by members. The Accounts were approved unanimously, and then David Swallow was reappointed as our Independent Examiner.
We then moved on to the Special Resolutions which confirmed our wish to become a CIO and also to enable us to hold our meetings online. Finally, the various ballots for election of Officers and members of Council were conducted and all those proposed were duly elected. Brian Hamill was confirmed as President and Alex Mthobi as Vice President with Anthony Baker as Treasurer and Sophie Rudge as Secretary. Winifred Flanagan was welcomed as Past President with Terry Wright and John Duckett as new members of Council.
Brian then agreed to send our annual report with our usual greeting to the Hierarchy, which Gabriella Quirke and Janet Ward requested should be in the style of collaborative ministry.
As a final note, Father Pat Kilgarriff drew everyone's attention to the forthcoming pilgrimage to Padua, May 18th-25th 2023, and the Retreat at Ampleforth on April 28th-30th 2023, which he recommended as wonderful occasions for fellowship within the Society.
With all the business now complete, Brian closed the meeting and we moved on to a fine buffet lunch to be followed by Greg Ryan's talk on Synodality.