Being away

Lots of things have happened since I published my last blog. I had troubles with our website mixing it up somehow, not knowing how to restore what I had done wrong.  In the end we decided to renew it altogether.  Our old website had still been designed by Carl some six years ago while we were still living in Princethorpe, no small feat for one not trained for the job. Now we are waiting for the first draft of a new design created by the son of a friend who has made computers his living. We will let you know when the new website is ready to be revealed.

What was most important for me personally was my trip to the Philippines. I had been a missionary there from 1968 till 1991 and had only be back for a short visit in 1998. The Parish of Buenavista, my first assignment in the Philippines, celebrated the 75th anniversary of its establishment in 1937 and I was lucky enough to be able to accept their invitation. I was a bit worried that my good memories of the past would be disturbed by the many changes that had taken place in the meantime. But my worries disappeared on the first day by the warm welcome we received.  I say We, because my youngest brother went with me on this wonderful trip. Of course, things have changed considerably and not all changes were to my liking, but the Church in the Philippines is very much alive and all generations are involved.

My trip to the Philippines was not my only trip lately, I have been to Germany as well. This visit was mostly work. For over ten years I have been a member of the Financial Advisory Board of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. We meet twice a year, once in spring and then in autumn. We discuss the financial reports and budgets of our international leadership team and of entities directly under their responsibility.

Being away from Aston is not without its problems. I have been involved in English language classes with three groups of people: Bangladeshi men, Eritrean women and a mixed group of Roma people from the Czech Republic. The interruption is bad for their perseverance. Language study is a a hard job and learners need all the encouragement they can get in order to keep on it. A little difficulty is enough for many of them to stay away. After all, you don't see much of a difference if you miss a class or two. True, but it is easier to stay away than to come back.

Ton

Multicultural

Our Sacred Heart church in Aston is becoming more and more multicultural. The Easter weekend was telling in this respect. We had four baptims: a man and a boy from Nigeria, a girl from the Gambia and a baby from Vietnam. After the Sunday morning Mass I was approached by a family from Ethiopia who wanted to introduce themselves having newly arrived in the parish. They were followed by two Roma women from Eastern Europe, each carrying a bunch of red roses which they wanted to leave as an offering.

The increase of people from all over the world is not typical for our Aston parish. It happens to all innercity parishes. On the one hand it is encouraging to have new blood coming in and see young families lowering the average age of our elderly church congregation. On the other hand, I wonder what the future will bring. The Diocese of Birmingham is about to start a consultation about the restructuring of the diocese and I am afraid that the innercity parishes  will be more than equally affected by it.

For one thing innercity parishes are relatively close together with no more than a mile or two separating one church from another.  Moreover, public transportation (busses, ring and ride) is widely available in the city area and many parishioners make use of it already. It will be more troublesome to travel farther or even to change busses, but it may be argued that these difficulties are not insuperable.

Financial considerations may play a big part too. Innercity parishes are poor parishes located in deprived neighbourhoods which cannot afford the services of a full-time priest. It is rather striking that the Sacred Heart parish together with the two parishes of Nechells have priests with a double function. Apart from their parish ministry they are active as a diocesan functionary or as a school chaplain.

In short,  innercity parishes seem strong candidates, if it becomes necessary in the future to combine parishes or to close some altogether. Nevertheless, what should not be lost in the process is the opportunity offered by the presence of parishioners of diverse cultural backgrounds.  They should be more than welcomed. They are a Godsend to give new vigour to an old church and to make it truly “Catholic”, meaning “universal”.


Ton

   

Buildings closed and reopened

It has been some time– actually back in October 2010 - that I wrote a blog about four monumental buildings in Aston that had been closed or were about to be closed and I wondered what would happen to them. Would they just be boarded up and pose a challenge to local boy groups to break into them? Or would alternative uses be found transforming the buildings once more into something alive and not just derelict?

Well, I can report now that three of the four buildings have reopened or are presently being refurbished for re-use.  The first to do so was the former City Academy, a building only constructed in 2004 and in good condition.  It is now being used by the Birmingham City Council. The offices of the Birmingham Adult Education Service are there, as is the Aston Community Learning Centre and the Aston Library. There were fears that the Aston Library would be closed altogether or be replaced by a mobile library going around not just in Aston but in the adjacent neighbourhoods as well. Fortunately , this did not happen and the Library just moved to its new location, even though it has  less opening hours than before. Somehow cuts needed to be made.

The second building that has reopened is the old Aston Library and Aston Council House. It is being transformed by the Mohiuddin Trust, located nearby at Victoria Road, into an international college for girls, the second all girls school in Aston, both owned by sections of the Muslim community. The Trust acquired the building at a public auction and reportedly paid the amount of £450,000 for it.  Parts of the building are in good condtion but other parts need a lot of investment to make it into a functional  school.

The building that has been left boarded up longest is the M&B Guild Arms, the former pub at the corner of Witton Road and Ettington Road. It was already closed before we arrived in Aston over four years ago and our house has in fact been erected, as one of six, on the former parking and play ground of the pub. At present, construction work is going on both inside and outside and according to the new owner the pub will be remodelled into apartments.

That leaves the old Broadway School Annexe at Whitehead Road. The Area Action Plan of Aston, Newtown and Lozells, September 2009, lists the building together with the Firestation which, the report says, is programmed for closure and relocation.  Two options are given for the whole complex: the one is community use, for instance an education centre, and the second is conversion of the buildings into residential housing. Nothing has happened so far. Perhaps the reason is that the School Annexe is in a bad condition and this may deter potential developers.

Even so, I must admit that the reopening of three out of four closed buildings is much better than I expected two years ago.

Ton  

Cigarette

Yesterday when I walked the streets near Broadway School, the biggest secondary school in Aston with about 1,300 pupils, I was asked for a cigarette by one of the students. He just stepped out of the group he was in and put his question to me: do you have a cigarette? I had never seen him before and the other way around is likely true as well. So, I assume that he made his request to a complete stranger.

I wondered a lot about this happening. Was there some intimidation going on? After all, he was not alone and meeting groups of boys in the street can be threatening. On the other hand, it did not seem to be a group decision to ask for a cigarette, just this one boy who wanted something from me. He did not glance around to see whether the others were listening and when he found them attentive put his question to me.

I happen not to smoke and that was my immediate answer trying to say it in a friendly way accompanied by a smile. I don’t think the others even heard my reply, they just walked on. It was only he who got my answer and he accepted it with a nod and that was all.

What was his real purpose? Was he truly after a cigarette or was it something else that he wanted? Was the phrase about the cigarette a kind of code for weed or other drugs? To be honest I have no idea and no way of finding out either. Whatever the purpose behind the little incident, I feel that friendliness should be the answer to any question, even to those that seem strange and out of place.

Ton