St Peters & Holy Trinity MU Groups (Formby)

United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Awareness Gathering 25th November 2011

 November was a busy month for our MU groups in Formby!

Early November, our new ‘family’ of Silent Witnesses arrived kindly loaned by the White Ribbon Campaign.  Each cut-out represented a victim of domestic violence.  They were particularly poignant because our family group also included two males, age 24 and 52 when they died, and a child, Holly age 7.  They accompanied some of our members to a Sunday morning service at St Peters and helped us campaign in Formby Village.

On Saturday 19th a group of our members campaigned in our high street, handing out leaflets and answering questions from mystified onlookers.  We had a very positive response both to our cutouts, and to MU being out and about in the village!  In addition posters were distributed across Formby and we had a mention in our local paper ‘Mothers unite to end incidents of violence against all women’, article below (Formby Times).

Our gathering took place on 25th November at Holy Trinity.  We had a respectable turnout, including Sefton Ladies Choir who performed several pieces which all agreed really lifted the occasion.  Helen Clarey, Womens Issues Advisor for the Diocese and Ruth Brewer Vice President of Liverpool Guild of Students & Advocate of Women’s Affairs were our guest speakers, and Fr Jeff Engel led us in prayer for the victims of violence.

The feedback we have had from people who attended has been very positive and a further news article has now appeared in our local paper showing us campaigning.  So all in all a busy but positive month for MU in Formby.  Thank you to all from the Diocese who supported us - see you next year!