A Good Cause For Celebration
A New Year Message from C-BERS Chairperson Dr Maria Harries


We had hoped to have this newsletter in your mailboxes before Christmas — but a last minute computer glitch interfered with our best of intentions.

However, as the heading above suggests, perhaps there are as many good reasons to reflect on what we have to celebrate in our lives at the start of the new year as there are at year’s end.

Anniversaries provide a wonderful opportunity, and occasion, to celebrate “the marking of a milestone” — this is where we are now, this is where we’ve come from, and this is where we’re heading to.

All of us would wish, and are hopefully able, to celebrate the anniversary of our own birth, as well as the birth of significant others; perhaps also the anniversary of our unions through marriage and other strong bonds; and, sometimes, even the anniversary of a loved one’s death (as a celebration of the life they have lived).

In the spirit, however, of celebrating milestones and in the process of reviewing previous editions of the C-BERS EX-PRESS newsletter, I was reminded of other anniversaries.

For example, in January 2005 it is ten years since C-BERS was established by the Christian Brothers Order to provide some support and healing for those who were hurt by their experiences as former child migrants.

December 2004 was the seventh anniversary of our own C-BERS news-letter providing a forum for you to share your stories with each other (and may I extend my congratulations to those who have had the courage to do so in support of others who may still be working to that point of reconciliation).

Which is not to forget the anniversary that unites us all in shared celebration at this time of year. Beyond the commercialism of Christmas, this is a time when we also celebrate the birth of a remarkable man who offered us love and forgiveness beyond bitterness and vengeance for wrong-doing.

May the same spirit of peace, healing and forgiveness live with you all at this time and throughout the coming year.

God Bless — Maria

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