Archives Committee Meeting at Bermondsey

Mercy Heritage Centre, Bermondsey, was the venue for the recent Mercy International Archives Committee meeting. For Committee members the occasion was an opportunity to experience wonderful London hospitality and to see how the chapel and chapel entrance of the Bermondsey Convent of Mercy (Catherine McAuley’s first foundation in England) have been adapted to form a beautiful heritage centre, conference facility and flexibly-sized chapel.

In the course of the meeting the Committee noted the momentum gathering for the first international conference of Mercy Researchers; made preliminary plans for the 2009 Mercy Archivists’ Conference; recorded the enrichment of the Mercy International Association collection at Baggot Street by the recent gift of Catherine’s cloak, coif, prayer book, lock of hair, and 29 letters from the South Central and Western Provinces of the Congregation in Ireland; and discussed the next steps in the gathering of the inventory of the worldwide holdings of the writings of all Sisters of Mercy who entered before 1850.

Throughout the meeting the brilliantly displayed story of Mercy women who have ministered for almost 170 years in the London immortalised in the novels of Charles Dickens was an inspiring context in which to discuss today’s ways of retelling the Mercy story so that it is an inspiration for contemporary and future Mercy mission.

See also http://www.mercyworld.org/news/article.asp?id=293 Bermondsey, Catherine’s first foundation in England

Messages to Sister Patricia Bell rsm