United Kingdom: England and Scotland

ENGLAND
In 1939, Holy Rosary Sisters went to Bridgewater, Somerset to open a school and engage in pastoral work. England was one of the three countries where the Holy Rosary Sisters opened missions during the lifetime of their founder, Bishop Shanahan. They opened Holy Rosary Convent that year on October 7— the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary— and a small private school on October 11. Later the sisters also taught in the parish primary school. One sister started a publicity office on a corner of the table in the Community room; publicity became one of the main ministries there until the convent closed in 1994. Parish visitation and instruction for those wanting to join the Catholic Church was integral to the sisters’ lives.

In 2000, retiring missionary sisters returning from Africa looked for a diocese that would welcome MSHR presence. The Archbishop of Birmingham asked them to consider two urban areas that had few sisters. Thus a Holy Rosary community began in January 2002 in Coventry in the English Midlands, providing a new focus for ministry in England. It has been known as the City of Peace and Reconciliation since World War II, when Coventry’s medieval cathedral was bombed and destroyed. The people, led by the provost of the Anglican Cathedral, resolved to seek reconciliation not revenge. The Holy Rosary Sisters continue this commitment to reconciliation.

Today…
Sr. Ruth Kidson— who returned to her own country in 2002 after 38 years in Africa— now consults at the International Centre for Peace and Reconciliation based at Coventry Anglican Cathedral. The Centre has Direct Intervention teams that work with local people to set up processes for reconciliation in countries in conflict. She injects realism into the team’s plans for facilitating reconciliation in Nigeria.

The MSHR community in Coventry is committed to praying for the initiatives of the International Centre, which take place in situations that often seem impossible to resolve. Based on this and previous missions in Zambia, South Africa, and Nigeria, the Holy Rosary Sisters applied to become a Community of the Cross of Nails, a fellowship of organizations, parishes, and communities committed to peace and reconciliation in the spirit of Christ. Sr. Ruth helped organize its World Conference in July 2004.

Sr. Ruth also spends a lot of time with Christians of other denominations at Coventry Cathedral’s Chapel of Unity, at ecumenical services and discussions of wider Christian concerns such as the environment, world debt relief, fair trade, and other justice issues. As a new member of Churches Together in Coventry, she brings an outsider’s perspective to discussions, especially about missions.

• Sr. Anne Bagnall also settled in a city strange to her, after 40 years in Africa. “I do what I can to be present to the joys and sorrows and sometimes the glorious aspects of life in England today.” She visits people who, due to loneliness or sickness, need a good listener. In addition to ministering on the Hospital Chaplaincy team, Sr. Anne encourages faith development for individual children with special needs, works with the community’s ecumenical goals, and channels goods to refugees and asylum seekers. With 13 other Missionary Congregations of women, the sisters bring the good news of their missionary activities to parishes throughout the country, which takes Sr. Anne to more than 20 parishes each year.
  
• Sr. Pam Pegler joined the Coventry community in 2003, after serving in South Africa for many years. Parish involvement is a key interest; she started a Gospel-sharing group and is a member of the local ecumenical prayer group that meets monthly for prayer and sharing. Sr. Pam also visits sick and housebound parishioners.
  
• Sr. Denise McCarthy is attached to the Coventry community and is engaged in pastoral work with the bereaved in Bristol in the southwest of England. 

SCOTLAND
When the Carmelite Sisters of Spylaw Place Convent in Edinburgh, Scotland heard about the new foundation of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary, they undertook to pray for the sisters and the MSHR missions throughout the world. Their prayers continued until that convent closed in 1984. Holy Rosary Sisters remember with gratitude the wonderful support of the Carmelite nuns.

Sr. Ethna O'Connell with Parish Eucharistic Ministers.

Some of the young women called to be Holy Rosary Sisters were already teachers, doctors, nurses, but others needed professional qualifications in addition to their religious formation, to prepare them for religious life. Craiglockhart Teacher Training College in Scotland, run by the Sacred Heart Sisters, enrolled Holy Rosary Sisters in 1932; new groups of sisters enrolled there for the next 40 years. A former student Sister wrote: “The staff had a great missionary spirit and did all in its power to prepare us for our task on the missions. We will always be deeply grateful.” Holy Rosary Sisters also trained as nurses in several Scottish Hospitals: Bangour, Ayr, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. Sisters studied Home Economics at Atholl Crescent College and did graduate and post-graduate studies at Glasgow, Aberdeen, St. Andrews, and Edinburgh Universities.

The missionary ideal also found a generous response in the hearts of Scotland’s youth. Young Scottish girls answered God’s call by becoming Holy Rosary Missionaries. Today, they are on mission in many African countries. Scottish priests and lay missionaries also work with Holy Rosary Sisters in mission lands.

These strong ties with Scotland led to the Holy Rosary foundation at Bathgate, West Lothian. Scottish families, schools, and parishes, are deeply concerned about the people in mission lands for whom they pray and contribute, and to whom their children minister. The Holy Rosary Sisters envisaged a convent in Scotland to accommodate sisters studying there, to host Scottish sisters on leave from the missions, and to promote vocations.

In the 1970s, Holy Rosary Sisters were among the missionaries who were expelled from Nigeria during the Biafran Civil War. These sisters accepted teaching posts in the Archdiocese of Glasgow; the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception kindly provided accommodation. Cardinal Gordon Gray, well known for his progressive missionary zeal, then invited Holy Rosary Sisters into the Archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh to promote missionary interest and involvement in his territory. Fr. J. B. Walsh, PP, St. Mary’s Parish, Bathgate, welcomed them to his parish; the convent was blessed and opened on October 11, 1973.

Today…
Three Sisters at Bathgate are involved in pastoral visitation, vocations promotion, mission awareness, and pastoral care of the sick.

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