GRANNY BARKES - A great stocking-filler for this Christmas...
He succeeds Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who has held the role since 2009 and has stepped down aged 80.
For the past 10 years Richard Moth has been Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, and before that served as Bishop to the Forces.
As Archbishop of Westminster he will become president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and lead an estimated six million Catholics.
Cardinal Nichols reached retirement age when he was 75, but was asked to stay on by Pope Francis. In May he took part in the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.
The search for a replacement for Cardinal Nichols was led by the Apostolic Nuncio, or papal ambassador to the UK, who presented a list of potential candidates to Pope Leo.
Earlier this week, Archbishop Moth released a joint statement calling for empathy for "those who come to this country for their safety", reminding Catholics that Jesus's family fled to Egypt as refugees.
He has been one of the bishops leading the Church's response to social justice issues in the UK, including praising the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap.
Archbishop Moth will face the challenge of declining numbers of people attending churches nationally, though there is growth in some churches with immigrant Catholics.
In response to the growing use of Christian symbols at, for example, rallies organised by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, Bishop Moth has talked of his concern.
Last weekend, Robinson held an event in London saying he wanted to "reclaim" the country's heritage and Christian identity.
"We are concerned about the tensions that are growing in society and the desire by some groups to sow seeds of division within our communities. This does not reflect the spirit or message of Christmas," Bishop Moth said in a statement with the Archbishop of Birmingham.
The Catholic Church has been heavily involved in providing assistance to those who have suffered in the cost of living crisis.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols is stepping down having held the role since 2009
As archbishop, Richard Moth will also lead the Church's constant challenge of dealing with safeguarding issues.
In 2020, a wide-ranging inquiry into child sexual abuse found that between 1970 and 2015 the Catholic Church in England and Wales received more than 3,000 complaints of child sexual abuse against more than 900 individuals connected to the Church.
In fact, the leadership of Archbishop Moth's predecessor, Cardinal Nichols, was criticised in the inquiry report, which said he cared more about the impact of abuse on the Church's reputation than on the victims.
At the time, Cardinal Nichols apologised and said he accepted the report, adding: "That so many suffered is a terrible shame with which I must live and from which I must learn."
Cardinal Nichols retires having led the Church in England and Wales for 16 years, during which it faced enormous change.
He is the son of two teachers and was born in Crosby. The lifelong Liverpool FC fan took up his first role as a priest in Wigan.
In 2010, he welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to England on an official visit.
£65,000 for a pat on the backside! Oh! come on!
A Northern Ireland woman has settled a sexual harassment case against a former employer after being “slapped on the bottom” by a male supervisor.
Jayla Boyd settled her case against her former employer JD Sports Fashion PLC for £65,000.
The company acknowledged and apologised for the significant upset, distress, and injury to feelings experienced by Ms Boyd.
She had worked part-time at a Belfast store while studying for her A-levels. It was during this time she said she was slapped on the bottom by a male supervisor.
Ms Boyd said she reported the incident to her manager that day and was told that CCTV had captured the incident. However, the supervisor was allowed to continue to work alongside her for the rest of the shift.
She said he approached her twice during that time to talk to her and apologised for what he had done, explaining that it was “muscle memory”.
Ms Boyd raised a complaint of sexual harassment, but claims that while she made a written statement, she was not interviewed formally about her experience.
She said she felt upset and distressed that her employer failed to offer her support after the incident, so she used some annual leave to take time away from her job.
When she returned to work, she said no return-to-work meeting was arranged, and she was not updated about the investigation or outcome of her complaint.
Ms Boyd has also claimed that her personal information relating to the incident was seen by other staff on a manager’s computer.
She said she experienced further embarrassment during a staff training session when an example involving a woman being slapped on the bottom by a supervisor was discussed, and felt certain the example referred to her own experience.
She later resigned from her job, and said she hopes by speaking out she can encourage others to challenge this sort of behaviour.
“Like most A-level students, I was working in a part-time job to earn some money. I never expected this to happen to me,” she said.
“The initial incident was embarrassing, but it was made worse because I felt like they were trying to ignore what had happened to me instead of dealing with it properly.
“I had to remain working with this male supervisor after he had sexually harassed me.
“Everyone deserves to feel safe and supported at work.
“I hope that by speaking out I can give others the confidence to challenge this type of behaviour.”
Ms Boyd was supported in her case by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.
Chief commissioner Geraldine McGahey said employers should have clear policies and procedures in place to deal with harassment.
“A zero-tolerance approach by employers to sexual harassment in the workplace will remind everyone how seriously it will be dealt with should any instances arise,” she said.
“In order to prevent it, employers must ensure that all staff know what behaviour is acceptable, and unacceptable, in the workplace.
“Employers must have clear policies and procedures in place to deal with harassment, and managers must be trained to use them appropriately. This type of behaviour must be investigated thoroughly, with the complaint dealt with sensitively and in a timely manner.”
JD Sports Fashion PLC also reaffirmed its strong commitment to the principle of equality of opportunity, and agreed to liaise with the Equality Commission to review its policies, practices and procedures.
MYRTLE THORNBERRY .. HOW WE CAME TO KNOW OF THE TRAGEDY
MYRTLE THORNBERRY R.I.P.
Dear Tessers,
I write with great sadness. My beloved wife Myrtle - who posted on this forum under the username of Myrtle_by_the_Sea - has passed away. She took her own life after months of bullying and harassment by The Clique.
Myrtle, a gentle soul, was a committed music teacher, the Music HOD in her school.
I blame for her death Obergruppenführer Detterling and his lieutenants, Unterführerin Serendipity, an appalling bitch from Glasgow, and Sonderkommando Bigkid, a pathetic Mummy's Boy from Tower Hamlets.
The Clique is thoroughly evil.
NOT LONG AGO JOY ABOUNDED AT CHRISTMAS
“I think the celebration of Christmas has changed within the short span of my own lifetime. Only twenty years ago, before World War II [sic] it seemed that Christmas was still being celebrated with a naive and joyous innocence whereas today you hear the expression, “Christmas comes once a year like taxes”. Christmas was observed all out in my Catholic French-Canadian environment in (the) 1930’s, much as it is today in Mexico. At first I was too young to go to midnight mass, but that was the real big event we hoped to grow up to. Until then we’d stay in our beds pretending to be asleep till we heard the parents leaving for midnight mass and then we’d come down and sneak a look at our toys, touching them and putting them back in place, and rush up again in the dark in gleeful pajamas tittering when we heard them come back again, usually now with a big gang of friends for the open house party.
When we were old enough it was thrilling to be allowed to stay up late on Christmas Eve and put on best suits and dresses and overshoes and ear-muffs and walk with the adults through crunching dried snow to the bell-ringing church. Parties of people laughing down the street, bright throbbing stars of New England winter bending over rooftops sometimes causing long rows of icicles to shimmer as we passed. Near the church you could hear the opening choruses of Bach being sung by child choirs mingled with the grownup choirs usually led by a tenor who inspired laughter more than anything else. But from the wide-open door of the church poured golden light and inside the little girls were lined up for their trumpet choruses caroling Handel.
My favorite object in the church was the statue of the saint holding little Jesus in his arms. This was the statue of St Antoine de Padoue but I always thought it was St. Joseph and felt that it was quite just that I should hold Him in his arms. My eyes always strayed to his statue, he who now with demure plaster countenance, holding the insubstantial child with face too small and body too doll like, pressed cheek against the painted curls, supporting in mid-air lightly against his mysterious infinite breast the Son, downward looking into candles, agony, the foot of the world, where we kneeled in dark vestments of winter, all the angels and calendars and spirey altars behind him, his eyes lowered to a mystery he himself wasn’t let in on, yet he’d go along in the belief that poor St.Joseph was clay to the Hand of God (as I thought), a humble self-admitting truthful saint – with none of the vain freneticisms of the martyrs, a saint without glory, guilt, accomplishment or Franciscan charm – a self-effacing grave and demure ghost in the Arcades of Christendom – he who knew the desert stars, and spat with the Wise Men in back of the barn – arranger of the manger, old hobo saint of haylofts and camel trails – my secret Friend. Now in midnight mass I gloried proudly in his new honorable position at the front of the church, standing over his family in the manger where all eyes were turned
After mass the open house was on. Gangs would troop back home or to other houses. Collectors for a Christmas organization of Medieval origin and preserved by the French of Quebec and New England, called “La Guignolee“, and now sponsored by the Society for the Poor, St.Vincent de Paul, would appear at these open house parties and collect old clothes and food for the poor and never turn down a glass of sweet red wine with a crossignolle (curlier) and even join in singing in the kitchen. They always sang an old canticle of their own before leaving. The Christmas trees were always huge in those days, the presents were all laid out and opened at a given consensus. What glee I’d feel to see the clean white shirts of my adults, their flushed faces, the laughter, the bawdy joking around. Meanwhile the avid women were in the kitchen with aprons over best dresses getting out the tortierres (pork pies) from the icebox. Days of preparation had gone into these sumptuous and delicious pies, which are better cold than hot. Also my mother would make immense ragouts de boulettes (pork meatball stew with carrots and potatoes) and serve that piping hot to crowds of sometimes 12 or 15 friends and relatives: her aluminum drip grind coffee pot made 15 large cups. Also from the icebox came bowls of freshly made freshly cooled cortons (French-Canadian for pate de maison), a spread to go on good fresh crusty bread liberally baked around town at several French bakeries.
In the general uproar of gifts and unwinding of wrappers it was always a delight for me to step out on the porch or even go out on the street a ways at one o’clock in the morning and listen to the silent hum of heaven diamond stars, watch the red and green windows of homes, consider the trees that seemed frozen in sudden devotion, and think over the events of another year passed. Before my mind’s eye was the St.Joseph of my imagination clasping the darling little child.
Perhaps too many battles have been fought on Christmas Eve since then – or maybe I’m wrong and little children of 1957 secretly dig Christmas in their little devotional hearts.”
Jack Kerouac The New York World Telegram and Sun, December 5th 1957
JUST LOVE THIS DEPICTION OF CHRISTMAS ON TYNESIDE
I posted this on the TES website prior to Christmas 2020. It was met with derision from many TESSERS. Nevertheless, I love this wholesome glimpse of Christmas at Chez Detters.
I RATE IT UP THERE WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF CHRISTMAS BY DICKENS, LAURIE LEE et al.
(It was sent to me by Detterling on Christmas Day 2018)
Detterling 25 December 2018 at 14:58
CHRISTMAS 2018
Saturday, a warm and hilarious family gathering with mother-in-law, brother-in-law and partner.
.....Sunday, daughters, husbands and grand-daughters convene at our house for a loud and happy afternoon culminating in acapella carol- singing round the piano which brought the neighbours round with requests for Silent Night and The Angel Gabriel, then all the family to Nine Lessons and Carols at our local church, where my son read a lesson with aplomb, understanding and relish.
.....yesterday, final preparations for the festival and in the evening, playing the organ at a carol service for an old friend whom I have known since she was six weeks old and who is now a vicar in the next parish but two.
.....and today, an early start with our son opening his presents, an afternoon with in-laws and nieces, and tonight Christmas dinner with the family, cooked by me and enjoyed by everyone.
Wishing a happy and holy Christmas to all my readers.
GENE
