Two events in the same evening

A truly country girls' effort

Friday night - we don't often go out because we are being taxi-parents and just too tired at the end of the week! But this time I had 2 events to attend.

The first was the official launch of a great initiative in our little country town. A group of women started a magazine; women with no previous journalistic training, most of whom are looking for regular work and who decided to launch this magazine to gain professional experience. They have done a great job! Their goal is to reveal all the richness of the human stories in our Ardèche region and to prove that country women are not backward, but vital and creative.

Their effort has brought acclaim already through 2 national TV stations running a brief story about them and the magazine Elle awarding them a prize from its foundation which will help them run the magazine for a year. WELL DONE, LADIES!

It's the sort of energy, vitality and peps that I would love to see more of in our churches. Openness to the variety and charm of the world around us; the preciousness of the people we live by. Appreciating each other and being full of life.

The second event was the showing of the film "Luther". The other Protestant Church was showing it as part of the 500 year anniversary celebrations, and acknowledging the union now confirmed between the Reformed and Lutheran churches.

In the small audience were : the Reformed pastor and his wife, us with 2 of our kids, the local parish priest and all the nuns from a local convent! We wondered just how much of this amazing story was known by the Catholic contingent. But more to the point, how did they feel seeing the obvious criticism of the Catholic Church ? This year also marks 50 years since Vatican 2 took place and the changes advocated then are well and truly in place in the Catholic Church today. So the face of the Catholic Church has changed, but the things Luther wanted to see changed 500 years ago are only now in place - including the Bible accessible to all in their own language, mass in their own language ...