A very happy and healthy new year to all my Friends

My dear Friends

In 1989 I was in Amsterdam for my first real Christmas and New year with two very close friends I had met in Israel in the summer of that year-Liesbeth and Chava. I remember that I was in Chava's mother's house in New Year's Eve. People lit bonfires in the street and my friend was playing the piano. As the bells of midnight struck, I could actually feel the year 'turning' and another close friend back in england came very strongly into my mind.

This will be my third New year in 2013. The first was the Jewish new Year for Trees, on which The Little Sisters of Joy commemorates its anniversary-2014 will be its 15th birthday. A gathering of friends met in (yes you know its my favourite hotel) the Regent Hotel in Cambridge, among them Methodists and Catholics, who were meeting each other for the first time. I gave a little speech about the progress of the Project and we all had tea and cakes and chatted happily. We will do it all over again this coming January, with a few different people this time, with hopefully a lady from the American Orthodox Church.

Then there was my trip to Toronto in June, highly successful and quite emotional for me for as you know I really love the place and hope to return many times in the future. A visit is already planned for September 2015, when my friend Sarah will accompany me and I will show her the beauties of the city, before she goes travelling. And I have a little event in store at that time, which i will reveal to you nearer the time.

In September I celebrated the Jewish new Year, Rosh Hashanah with two dear Friends, Marcellus and Ivona, who celebrated their wedding just two weeks ago. W e were joined by a Russian friend and her daughter and the food and the good will flowed!

Let us hope and pray that this beautiful and creative period will flow into 2014, that Where the Woods meet the Water will be published as planned on 19th october 2014 and that i can keep on singing! No time for a Concert this coming year i fear, but Sue is keen to do another one and lets hope for Spring 2015.

I don't mind planning if I feel it is God'w work-anyhow i was brought up to it as I am the proud daughter of a Jewish businesman!

Every blessing, health and happiness
Go safely wherever you go
Love and shalom
Gila

Happy birthday Gila

My dear Friends

Yesterday i celebrated one of the best birthdays I have ever had. To begin with I discovered, being 62, that i had spent exactly half of my life, thirty one years,in Cambridge. when i came here in 1982 I did not know even one person, but my life changed took off and changed forever when i started on a course at what is now Anglia Ruskin University and what was then known fondly as the Tech.

I think I have grown and matured as a human being in those thirty one years. You may recall that I was unhappy in my twenties and although exciting revolutions were going on around me in the sixties and early seventies, it was a rasher dark period in my life.One good thing though-the music. It was then I learnt to sing and play the guitar in a way that was to carry me through the res of my life and form the basis of the Concerts for Peace and Reconciliation that I have been doing for the last eleven years.

I received many cards from old and new friends yesterday and was showered with affection.I started the day with prayers with the Methodists in Wesley, as I usually do on a Wednesday morning. at coffee in a cafe afterwards, Angela the minister's wife, bought me hot chocolate with a huge amount of cream, which was a great start to all the eating I was to do. for this was quickly followed by a wonderful lunch in the double Tree hotel by the river, where my Canadian friend and i watched the mist turn into lunchtime sunshine. We ate and talked of many things, including Canada, which as you know is my spiritual home.

Later in the Regent Hotel my friends there gave me a beautiful card with some very touching words and a bottle of my favorite tipple-brandy, and very special stuff it was too.

2014 beckons and there are many things to look forward to. Top priority is getting my second little memoir into the light. I thank the Lord for all he has brought and ask him for the strength to continue.

May you all be truly blessed at this holy and special season.
Shalom from Gila

Quiet time

My dear Friends

It has been quite a hectic year. Some major things have been accomplished; I got another newsletter to The Friends of The Little Sisters of Joy out and 700 letters went out to 23 countries. The Royal mail in the UK had just been privatised, but let's hope that most of them got to their destination, and i certainly got some good feedback from some of you, who enjoyed my tale of my time in Toronto. Another trip is planned for September 2015!

This time a friend wants to come with me and I may be going for a special event-will tell you all in due course. but how I long to return although i guess it's getting cold out there by now.

I am spending Christams day very quietly with an old friend I met at a local church lunch. Her name is Mary and she lived in China as a teacher for over thirty years. She has a lovely engaging personality and I look forward to being with her on that special day. Neither of us cooks very well so there will be no turkey, just cold chicken and all the trimmings, with of course mince pies to follow.

Speaking of turkey, we used to have that on Christmas day in my childhood. Nothing unusual you may say, but if you remember we were a Jewish family who don't normally celebrate the birth of Christ. However, my parents were married on Christmas Day in 1929 and so we used to have the turkey to celebrate their anniversary.

My mother used to say that there was a lot of snow on her wedding day and that she had to be carried into the Synagogue. Garnethill Synagogue, which my great grandfatther helped to found, is a listed building and used for services in the Glasgow Jewish community to this day.I visited it exactly a year ago when you may remember that I went to Glasgow to see my family and friends.

Will finish now, keep well and warm and enjoy your quiet days, as i will

Shalom, peace and Blessing
Gila
 

Success at Robinson College chapel

My dear Friends

I am delighted to tell you that the concert last Wednesday wasa a success. The venue was fabulous in robinson college Chapel and about thirty five people of different persuasions turned up, seemed enthousiastic and sang most of the music! It was lovely to see so many Friends in the audience.

Normally I give the audience a little time to warm up, but as i kicked off with Last night I had the strangest dream, that seminal Peace song by Ed McCurdy, father of folk in the modern day, they were encouraged to sing along amyway. it was a magic!

Donna Donna is a moving song anyway, all the more so when I stopped singing and they kept on, as they had in the first Concert for Peace and Reconciliation in Clare College all those years ago.

The evening would not have been such a great success if I had not shared the platform with a very special lady. Sue Gilmaurray is a singer and composer of some distinction, composing her own Peace songs, such as So let Peace Come.She introduce her songs in a very moving way. singing one of Tommy Sands, entitled Music of Healing, she recounted how Tommy Sands grew up as a Catholic in Belfast during the Troubles. As a child he would hear his father play some musical instrument as he was going to sleep; from the window he could hear the sound of the Orange drum, beating and from time to time he says it seemd that the two sounds were in tune together.

I sang a famous love song called Autumn Leaves (which my friend Anne Maddocks says is one of her favourites) and concluded the evening with a little medley of peace songs from the Jewish liturgy. They seemed to go down well and in the final tune from Psalm 33. Behold how good and pleasnat a tribe of brotheres living in uity together, the audience sang in parts.

Grateful thanks goes to Rev Simon Perry, Chaplain of Robinson College. I was able to make a small donation from the generous proceeds to the College. Simon was pleased, says he was sorrry not to make it to the concert, but hopes to come to the next one!

All good wishes and shalom
Gila

CONCERT FOR PEACE AND RECONCILIATION

My dear Friends

This time next week I will be gearing up for my Concert for Peace and Reconciliation. It will take place on Wednesday 6th November 2013 at 7pm. The venue is Robinson College Chapel, Grange Road, Cambridge which is a very beautiful space.Highlight of the chapel is the stained glass window by John Piper, a feast of yellow and greens, with the shape of the sun in one corner. It will be dark outside when my friend and I start playing, but you can still much of the beauty of the window at that time of night from inside.

I sang in the chapel once before-in December 2006 to a small but enthusiastic audience.It was out of term and i had asked the college if the bar could be open in the interval. Everyone went into the bar and afterwards they told me that, mysteriously, smoked salmon sandwiches had appeared from nowhere, to their delight! And I sang well, even waiting for the audience to come in for the second half.

This time I am very pleased and privileged to have someone singing with me. Her name is Sue Gilmurray and she is very active in the Anglican Pacifist Movement and the Movement for the Abolition of War.(MAW). Best of all she composes her own songs on the theme of Peace and will perform a number of them on the night, accompanying herself on the piano. I will sing my usual mix of Jewish songs and songs of the 60's, including the famous and quintessential song about peace - Blowing in the wind by Bob Dylan.

I am beginning to feel excited and hope very much that the audience, who will have some of the words, will join in, as they have in the past and that our communal voices will effect a tiny healing of the world.

Will let you know how it goes
Shalom for now
Your sister Gila

Life at The Haven

My dear Friends

On September 8th I celebrated ten years of living at The Haven.What has this meant to me? For a start I called it a Haven, because i wanted to offer up my little flat as a place for hospitality and prayer. It has been the scene for many gatherings, including the Jewish new year recently and lunch with a friend with some music afterwards, both of us playing Blowing in the wind on our guitars-I will sing this in my concert on November 6th.

My flat has one bedroom and the living room faces a wood of trees, probably planted over thirty years ago when the estate was new, but quite mature now. In different seasons the trees blossom with red berries and they look quite beautiful. I am blessed with a neighbour Tim, who is a gardener at Corpus Christi College - his own garden always looks lovely with several different colourful plants in his garden and in pots.

I did have a silver birch tree but we decided that it was growing too big for its location-as the tree surgeon felled it into the ground I felt a sense of JOY and Resurrection as if the spirit of the tree was intact.

People from the neighbourhood come to my little flat for tea and a chat and I have settled in well in the last ten years. Apart from shops being nearby and a local library. my local church is about 20 minutes walk away; this is the catholic Church of St Laurence, where there are 36 different nationalities worshipping there. This morning I admired the lady beside me in the pew - she was Nigerian with a gorgeous African dress on and two little children in her arms.

September 8th is the Birthday of Mary and the start of the orthodox liturgical year, so a very auspicious date.

While I have an eye for the local scene, I have an eye on the distant scene too-Canada.That is my real spiritual home. I will keep you posted as to news home and abroad.

Have a good week
Shalom from Gila

A busy week

My dear Friends

Here in Cambridge, UK, we are having an Indian summer-lovely hot days nearing the end of September. There are many green spaces in this city, one being Parker's Piece, which is at the back of the Regent Hotel. This where I am writing to you and where I spend many happy hours, drinking tea and talking to my friends at reception.

It has been an exceptionally busy week. For those unable to view the latest newsletter of The Little Sisters of Joy on the Blog (a couple of posts ago), I have prepared a printed copy. This is newsletter no 19-the first was done in 2002. With the help of my friends Marie and Rebecca, not to mention Anthony who puts in its proper format with photos, it has been sent round the world to 700 Associates in 23 countries. These people are of all religions and cultures, whom I have met 'along the way' on buses, trains, planes or in the street. I value each one highly and can remember, mostly, where and how I met them.

I have also been beavering away at the second volume of my autobiography. The first book, if you remember, was called The Moving Swan, and covered my life from childhood until I had just co-founded The Little Sisters of Joy in Provence and Cambridge. this new book will cover the years between 1999 and 2009-my link with Canada is a big feature and the title is 'Where the woods meet the water', which is the real meaning in one of the Native Canadian languages for Toronto.

I hope to have it ready for October 2014 and am planning a launch in Lucy Cavendish College, where I studied Hebrew between 1988 and 1992. It will bring back many happy memories.

All being well, I will give a Concert for Peace and Reconciliation on November 6th in a lovely place where I gave a concert in 2006-Robinson College Chapel, with its gorgeous Piper stained glass windows in green and yellow. On the programme also will be Sue Gilmurray, an accomplished singer and songwriter, singing her own Peace songs.She is involved with various Peace groups inside and outside the Anglican Church.

So, much to look forward to!
Shalom for now
Gila

12th anniversary of 9/11

My dear Friends

We are holding our breath while we wait to see if the superpowers of the world will bring peace, not war to the Middle East. Surely on this important anniversary of the tragedy of the twin towers, they will show restraint. For once, Russia has taken the initiative for Peace and we must applaud it.

I would like to share with you what happened in my life on the day of 9/11 itself. Strangely I was watching a TV screen in Lucy Cavendish College in Cambridge, where I had studied Hebrew between 1988 and 1992.  A young woman, when I told her i was a Catholic, declared herself a humanist and I thought : 'Good, we will go through this together.'

On watching the planes crashing into the towers, my faith 'went out of the window.' then I heard my mother's voice speaking in my head, as she used to speak to me casually, when she was washing the dishes and I had said I was depressed: ' But don't you know that God rules the world.'And I knew that behind those scenes of devastation, the world was still in perfect order.

I was living in Newton Road at the time with Benigna, Her daughter, also a Christian,who was staying with us, said: 'There's always Redemption.' My Jewish friend Natania arrived, weeping uncontrollably and I held her in my arms.She seemed to be weeping for the world.

A few days after, on the Sunday, I went to Mass at the big Catholic Church with my goddaughter, who was from the US. Fr Tony Rogers said in his sermon that the next day, after 9/11, at Ground Zero there was something going on. The onlookers couldn't see clearly so they went a bit nearer. And then they saw-a group of people dancing for the JOY of living.

On this special day, i wish you JOY too
Shalom from Gila

Newsletter no 19 Summer 2013

FRIENDS OF THE LITTLE SISTERS OF JOY

The HARVEST OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS SOWN IN PEACE BY THOSE WHO MAKE PEACE.'
Letter of St James 3:18

My dear Friends

What an incredible start to the summer! I left London Gatwick on Air Transaat at 9.45 am. The plane was full of very diverse human beings and the Captain had a job to get everyone to sit down before taking off-everyone was very laid back and listening to Spanish music on the intercom!

I had a pleasant journey with good company and we arrived on time at 12.55 Canadian time.

If you recall, I had a profound mystical experience in June 1988 in a Shrine on the St Lawrence river near Quebec, and ( I checked with the Captain) I can always tell when we are flying over that magical river-I feel it in my bones just before we go past Quebec, onto Ontario and fly like a  bird to our destination at Pearson airport.

At Pearson I decided to catch a cab in style and my Moroccan driver took me past the beautiful sights on the road from the airport to downtown Toronto. Everything felt spacious and free and I was ready to have some new experiences.

Gary, my host and an old and treasured friend, greeted me warmly at his four-storey brownstone building in the heart of the Annexe-where artists, poets and musicians abound. This neighbourhood has been deemed the most vibrant neighbourhood in the whole of North America.

One place I was really happy to rediscover was the JCC, the Jewish Cultural Centre. This is a fascinating place for Jews and non-Jews alike, where you can swim and take fitness classes, catch up on your Hebrew lessons and go to concerts or simply grab a coffee in the lovely 2nd Cup cafe, which is a regular  meeting place for friends and acquaintances. Sometimes I would place myself there at one of the small tables for breakfast and just see who turned up. Now and again it would be Jewish or Christian ladies with I had something particularly in common.

Just down the street is my favourite bookshop-Ten Editions, run by my friend Susan. You can get just about anything in there in the way of second-hand books and browsing is a delight. Susan and I would have long talks and the store was also frequented by David Brydges, a fellow traveller lodging at Gary's place. He is a poet, amongst many other things, and is trying to arrange a trip by train across Canada for fellow poets and artists, getting them to air their works along the way. What a lovely and novel idea!

An important part of my journey and time in Toronto were my visits to the Native Canadian Centre, right  at the bottom of Bloor and Spadina. This thriving meeting place is the centre and hub for the Native Canadians in Toronto and further afield. There is coffee on tap and a warm welcome every day. Once a week there are special evenings where they meet and play drums and have food.

The Native Canadians are part of a rich tapestry of First Nations peoples  extending all over Canada, the U.S. ,Mexico and beyond. They go by many names, such as Algonquin and Cherokee and each group is totally unique.

I was introduced to them in a very personal way in the street on the first Sunday I arrived. I met Rose, a Christian who was very warm and friendly. Soon I felt right at home, going to the Centre and sharing food, chatting and occasionally buying gifts from the beautiful Cedar Basket Gift Shop, run by Doris.

This is a shop which draws strands of all different Native Canadian arts and crafts together. There are simple cards and bookmarks with Canadian birds in flight, rugs and shawls, carved animals (my favourite is the Bear) and a selection of T-shirts. Doris and the young trainee shared a little about their upbringing and it turns out that Rose's family comes from Manitoulin Island,  a beautiful natural place, shared by Native Canadians and others alike in peace and harmony, and a place of such natural beauty that I long to explore it with Rose one day.

Which seems like a good place to end this newsletter for now.

Shalom
Peace and Friendship
Gila

More sunny days

My dear Friends

Thereisi so much to tell about Toronto that I don't know where to continue. My one of my favourite days was with Helena, someone who has lived in the city for a long time and knows it well. We have much in common and spent a joyful day together. We got a special taxi to the lovely swimming pool at a place called the Y.

Helena chose to go into the smaller pool for exercise movements in the water, and I felt free enough to go to the other pool and just swim. It wqas a lovely feeling and i felt like a bird- I am not a stron swimmer but I managed and felt pleased with myself.

Afterwards I went in the jaccuzzi while Helena relaxed and when we came out we spent time in the lovely cafe and just talked.

Unfortuantely when we got to the waterfront, the restaurant we wanted was closed, but Helena insisted that we go to another restaurant in the city, and we ated and drank together, chattting all the while. Food was delicious and of the Asainn variety.

A perfect end to a perfect day, in the company of a good Friend.

More a little later
Love and shalom
Gila
Shabbat shalom too.

Happy Feast

My dear Friends

I am looking forward to updating you with the rest of the news of Toronto. Just to briefly say that today is the Feast of Our lady of Mount Carmel, which is the spiritual heart of The Little Sisters of Joy. When you view Mount Carmel from the mediterranean it is breathtaking. The Devotion to Our lady of Mount Carmel began a very long time ago, when a group of hermits gathered round the mount to pray. With the coming of St Theresa of Avila in the 16th Century, the Church re-established   an Order and these are the Carmelites of the present day.

Carmel has to be one of the most peaceful places in Israel/Palestine today.Today is also the anniversary of a very close friend of mine, Peggy, who passed away peacefully a few years ago. Today is also the day when our new Bishop of East Anglia, Allan Hopes will be installed as the fourth Bishop of East Anglia, which is my Diocese. He succeeds Michael Evans, Peter Smith and the first Bishop Alan Clark.

A convert from the Anglican Church, he promises to develp new fields of ecumenism and dialogue with other faiths, amongs other things.I hope he will be someone I can talk to and receive a blessing on my Project.

Which of course includes all of you-looking forward to getting back to you about Toronto in the next entry.

With love and shalom
Gila



 

More news from Toronto

My dear Friends

I have been missing Toronto ever since I got back, And looking forward to the next trip. One of my favourite places in the Robarts library in St George Street, where I spent some happy hours reading and resting. Unlike the library here in Cambridge, you don't need a card to enter and you can visit the beautiful reading rooms, and especially the reference library, which has beautiful views over the city.

There are many green and wide open spaces, with lovely places to sit. Many of the days I met wonderful people and had great conversations, including a young woman from India, who has just settled there. One one occasion I went to the Church, which was about to celebrate its hundredth anniversary.

On several occasions I met my friend Helena, who took me swimming and looked after me for a whole day. On the Friday our priest took us for a lovey meal in a Middle Eastern restaurant.

One of my happiest experiences was going to see Bishop Lacey, and elderly Bishop of 96 who had befriended me in previous years. We talked and shared communion together, which was a wonderful experience. He is now in the Retirement home in Scarborough, to the east of the city, and a lady who was at the bus stop guided me there.

This is all for now
Much love from Cambridge
Gila

TORONTO

My dear Friends

Just a short entry to begin with, as it is not yet 48 hours since I flew back over the Pond. Every minute of the two weeks there was amazing, joyful and pretty much action-packed, with a few rest periods in between. The weather suited me perfectly-copious and all encompassing rain, shot through with days of very hot sun in between.

My perameters were very much within the city, with a trip to the East in between. From my window in the Annexe (deemed the most vibrant neighbourhood in North America) I could see the CN Tower, now bright and shiny in the mornings, glistened with flashing lights in the evenings.It became a sort of beacon for me, so much so that i felt uncomfortable if I went so far that I could no longer see it on the horizon.

Must rest now, catch you in a day or two.

Shalom from Gila

Winding down to Toronto

My dear Friends

By this time next week I will be high in the sky and almost in Toronto! I feel calm and excited at the same time. I am blessed with a great place to stay amongst some real good friends who run an international guest house right in the middle of everything in the Annexe, a neighbourhood of artists, poets and musicians which has been described as 'the most vibrant in the whole of North America.'

On the first day I will chill out and maybe take a slow walk down Bloor Street, to just get myself re-oriented. Then have a bite to eat and watch the world go by-I am assuming that the weather will be warm! On the Sunday I hope to go to the Eaton Centre to buy myself a pair of trainers-the Catholic Cathedral is just nearby. It will be the Feast of Corpus Christi and Pope Francis has suggested that we all might like to gather in our respective places and countries and pray in adoration.

The rest that I know I am going to keep a secret and will let you know on my return. My programme will include relatives and friends and - oh - an ice cream every day!

Catch up with you about the 21st of June(if not before)-be well until then.

Shalom and more shalom
Your Friend Gila xx

Free as a bird

My dear Friends

Now that I have got past the stressful stuff, i am feeling quite calm in the run up to Canada. I celebrated the Feast of the Ascension, 6 weeks after Easter, on the usual day last Thursday with my Protestant friends, who welcomed me at their little service in town, where I sat beside and prayed with a Northern Irish Protestant lady. It was very moving. They allowed me to do the reading, Acts 1-11 where we celebrated the Ascension of Jesus into heaven at Bethany and anticipated the coming of the Holy Spirit at the end of this week.

The Catholic church in England and Wales transferred the Feast to Sunday, this morning, so I got a double dose of grace and two wonderful sermons-one from the Protestant minister last Thursday and today from our local Dominican priest.

Speaking of Bethany-after Sister Jane's funeral a few weeks ago, (see a couple of entries ago) I needed some fortification so I went to a large Cambridge hotel to have a brandy-my mother used to carry a small flask around with her for 'medicinal purposes.' A young man was serving behind the bar. He was charming, a Palestinian and - he had been born in Bethany! It is an interesting story, because his uncle and the whole family decided to move to Jericho, where it's extremely hot. I told the young man of my experience way back in 1965 in the summer, my first visit to Israel  We went on a tour bus to the Dead Sea and Jericho-the air conditioning broke down and it was 110 Fahrenheit in the shade!

We started discussing the situation in Israel-Palestine, where Jericho is apparently now part of Palestinian territory, near Gaza. This young man said it was nothing to do with building on the West Bank. The main issue was how to educate the children on both sides not to hate. I told him how my cousin married an Israeli whom she met on a farming programme in Essex, they went out to live in Israel and her husband worked with the Arabs. After the 6 day war, when her children were growing up, her daughter took a very negative view of the Arabs and was horrified when I said (this was on my second visit) that i had a visa to go to Egypt. My poor cousin assured me that she had never brought up her children to hate.

Today we get an overview of the whole of creation and the Trinity ruling over the world. Whatever happens on this earthly plane, we must never give up hope and must always remember, as my mother used to tell me when things went wrong that: 'God rules the world.'

Shalom and more shalom
Gila

The Margolin music shop

My dear Friends

It's a small world. A rather tired-looking Englishman was standing at the corner of the Clare bridge, near the Scholar's Garden, peering into the river at all the punts, as i was crossing the bridge from the college to go to the University library.

I engaged him in conversation and discovered he was on a conference of Spanish literature, which was just coming to an end. In the course of our chat, I discovered that he had lived in Mexico City for over 35 years. I have never been there, but my father's sister had married a GI during the war and i had a feeling that a relative of his had made his way to South America.

'Is it true that there is a music shop in Mexico City, which bears my family name of Margolin?' I asked the nice gentleman. 'Yes indeed,' he replied. 'It has been known for many years as a great centre for classical music. But it is on the point of closing down, as they can't compete with the internet.'

I felt a little sad, and went on my way. Next day i wrote to my sister-in-law in London and asked her to tell my brother this story about the music shop.I am sure that he already knew that it existed. My brother and my late father worked together to build up Dansette Record Players, a firm that was to produce the first hi-fis in the UK in the 1950's.

Music is in my blood and in my genes.It gives me great pleasure that our family name, a Russian Jewish one (my grandfather came from Minsk and was a cabinet maker) has travelled so far and became the name of a music shop in an entirely different continent.

But my heart goes out to the man on the bridge in Clare college, who seemed a little sad too.

Have a good week
Shalom from Gila

My friend Sister Jane

My dear Friends

Recently, as you know, I lost an old and dear Friend, Benigna, someone with whom I lived for sixteen years. Very recently I lost another dear Friend, Sister Jane, who used to come and visit me and got to know Benigna.

Sister Jane, an Irish nun, who lived in community in Cambridge for 60 years  but who made regular trips back home to see her family and revisit the beauties of the Irish countryside, was one of my first Catholic friends when I came into the Church in 1989. I was struck by her deeply prayerful and contemplative nature, which was combined with a love and empathy with the poor and the marginalised and those who were depressed, upset or grieving.

But she could be very joyful too-she loved the Jewish people and was very moved by a visit she made to Israel-Palestine. Perhaps that was why I felt so close to her. When I started co-hosting Passover Seder meals in the traditional way for mainly Catholics in the large Catholic Church in Cambridge, she not only participated in every one over the fifteen years but arrived early to lay out the tables with all the ritual foods.

She had a very simple and pure heart, combined with a curious mind. She loved music and came to some of my concerts. When we were able to have a chapel in Benigna's garden in 2002 and Mass was occasionally celebrated there, she would attend with a few of her fellow Sisters. I remember on one occasion that she was very keen afterwards to sample the Polish vodka I was so fond of. From time to time she would invite me to the convent, for Mass and a bite of supper, making sure that i was well looked after.

She died in Holy Week and on the Jewish Passover, just hours before I was due to attend a communal Seder in the Jewish community-no accident I felt. I had a lovely warm presence to accompany me, just as I had had in all those other Seder meals. Her funeral was full to overflowing, with a lovely Irish hymn amongst others and her presence lives on.

Hallelujah!
Shalom from Gila 

Holy week and Easter Saturday

My dear Friends

I can't believe that we have come to the end of Holy Week and Easter, and the Risen Christ, is upon us. This week has been a bit of a whirlwind, as I have bowed to the Spirit and let god lead me through all sorts of encounters with different faith groups. It started on Palm Sunday, when i was unexpectedly asked to read as the third voice of the Passion, the events leading up to, and including the death of Jesus on the Cross.

Palm Sunday and Good (really meaning Holy) Friday are always difficult and painful days for a Jewish Christian, when you feel torn between your love for your own Jewish people and your love for your Lord(explains why the Gospel of John can be seen as controversial.) But of course they are not contradictory, far from it as the Jews still have a role to play in the history of salvation, something which has meant more to me now that I have been twenty four years in the Catholic Church. (It was on this Saturday that i was baptised and confirmed.) And speaking out the different voices in Church last Sunday  I became more aware of the battle between Good and Evil, which was not just played out on the particular but continues on the universal plane.

Tuesday I was with my friends in the little Independent Evangelical Church round the corner from my home, where i have a close relationship with the Pastor and his wife. Tuesday evening was pure JOY as I joined the Beth Shalom Jewish community round the communal Seder table for the Jewish Passover and relished in the singing. I met friends, old an new as we recounted the Exodus from Egypt, the liberation of the people from bondage to redemption and sorrow to joy-we enjoyed the traditional four cups of wine and opened the door for Elijah and the heralding of the Messiah.

In between these two events I learned that my very dear friend, Sr Jane, had just died. I had no time to grieve as i prepared for the Seder, but reflected it was a most timely moment for her to enter her heavenly home on Passover and Holy week, as she loved the Jewish people and came to all of my passover meals that I presented in the Church, arriving two hours ahead in order to lay out tables with all the ritual food. Not only was she loved in the parish, but in the wider community and as well as having a heart for Israel and justice, she was often helping the poor and marginalised, often in hidden ways.

To be continued!

By the time i write the next instalment it will be Easter ans xtill Passover.

Chag Sameach and Krystos Voskreas-Christ is Risen!

Shalom from Gila 

Habemus papem-we have a Pope!

My dear Friends

There was a cartoon in the paper last week. Coming out of the Papal chimney was smoke-not white or black, but pink! The caption read-'It's a girl!'

Well, the church has not yet become that revolutionary but we do have a slightly unusual man at the top. Pope Francis I seems a holy, good and above all, humble man, who chose the name of Francis after St Francis of Assisi. A Saint devoted to joyful poverty he is beloved round the world and crosses the divide of all religions and cultures. He is the attributed author of Make me a channel of your peace, a poem and song dedicated to bringing love out of hatred, joy out of sorrow, healing and reconciling misunderstandings and anger-so very close to my own heart and mission.

Apparently the new Pope, on his first day at the Vatican, asked the chauffeur to drive him into town. He stopped at the hotel he had stayed in before the Conclave (election of the Pope), paid his bill and carried his own bags out. He paused to talk to passers by, on their way to work or school.

No-one is underestimating the huge task which lies ahead, not only to reform the governing body of cardinals in the Vatican itself, but to heal the wounds of abuse and hopefully address the question of human sexuality in a deeper way, while not compromising the central tenets of the faith. Apparently he has declared that we must respect everyone.

My own deepest wish is that he moves on the process of Jewish Christian reconciliation, begun in earnest in the last fifty years, and that he reaches out to other faiths and to those who have none.He is praying for everyone in his heart.As a Jesuit he has the intellectual capacity, as well his obvious prayerfulness to make inroads into the enormous task he faces. His sense of humour will serve him well.

Shalom from Gila

Benigna

My dear Friends

Since I last posted a text, there has been some sad news. My landlady of sixteen years and my dear friend, Benigna, has passed away.At times she was as close to me as my own mother.

I lived with Benigna for sixteen years, from 1987 until 2003, when i moved over the river from her house in the South of Cambridge to the North and my present flat. The years with her in the big house were important and formative. People from all the world used to stay there and feel welcome.

Born into an upper middle class English family, who could boast Rab Butler amongst its members, Benigna went to the Royal College of Music in her early twenties to study piano. She distinguished herself and became a valued accompanist to many musicians, including myself-I used to sing with her and we gave small concerts together, initially for Peace and Reconciliation.It was in her house the I made the official foundation of The Little Sisters of Joy with the help of a French friend on 7th March 1999.

Benigna was an avid supporter of the Liberal Democrats and the orange flag which used to fly outside our house at election time stood out in what was mainly a Tory neighbourhood.She was a regular attender at Trumpington parish Church and I went to the Midnight Service with her in the Christmas of 1999. When I became a Catholic she was very supportive, being naturally deeply ecumenical.

I have many happy memories of sitting on the lawn in her extensive garden with a variety of friends. Benigna also hosted many of the musical events in the Jewish community, as she had married a German Jew, the distinguished professor Herman Lehmann, during the war. She had four children, three of whom survive-her daughter Fardijah, lives in Cambridge and there is also a granddaughter with several children.

Benigna's passing really marks the end of an era-she shaped and changed many peoples' lives. Her name means kindness and no better person could embody this. She will be truly missed.

Shalom from Gila

Newsletter no 18-Friends of The Little Sisters of Joy

My dear Friends

A very happy and healthy New Year to you all! May it be a peaceful one for us and for the whole world. I have some interesting news of what has passed and of what is to come. I commemorated the eleventh anniversary of 9/11 by giving a concert that day. Our theme of Peace and Reconciliation played itself out reflectively in the music performed and which you are now familiar with.  After Reverend Schilson-Thomas drew us into silence in the beautiful chancel in the Michaelhouse Centre in Cambridge, I started singing ' Last night I had the strangest dream.' This was composed by Ed McCurdy, the father of folk singers such as Dylan, Paxton and Baez. 'I dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to war.' Psalm 23 in Hebrew continued the theme of good coming out of evil and 'Eli, Eli' spoke of the transcendent God, a song written by Hannah Senesh by the Sea of Galilee. She perished in the Second World War but wrote these lines during her life in Palestine.

'The souls who have gone before us light up the way for the rest of mankind.'

I was blessed at the concert with a full house and with many resonant voices joining in the songs of the sixties.

You may know that I was born in London and raised in Glasgow. I had my schooling there from age 11 and in my formative years had my wild youth(while I was at Glasgow university.) I did a lot of singing, in the style that I do now, in those days, in cafes and once at the Edinburgh Festival. So I jumped at the chance to visit my Glaswegian family and friends, especially as my cousin had been unwell in the summer.

They say that Glasgow has changed.  I stayed in the West end, near the University, and I still recognised some pubs from the old days.  I remembered too the cloisters and the sweeping boulevard leading up to the University being a fine match for Cambridge. I went to Glasgow Cathedral, picking up the echoes of its once Catholic heritage and relishing the beauty and peace. Relishing too the Glaswegians and the immediacy of the way they respond to you.  Observing the chiselled faces in the University Cafe, still run by the same Italian family who founded it around 1917.

Highlight of the trip ( as well as a drive through the Campsie Hills) was a visit to Garnethill Synagogue.  Founded in 1879, it is possible that my great-grandfather had a hand in its foundation. Certainly my maternal grandparents, Samuel Solomon Samuel, the first Jewish magistrate in Glasgow and his Swedish wife Anna (Bergson) were regular attenders there. My cousin and I delighted in a stained glass window in their memory. My cousin had a sudden inspiration and pointed to the place where her father, Henry, would have sat, near the Ark with the Torah scrolls. Beside him would have been my father, Joseph, up on a business trip from London. Legend has it that my father, contrary to tradition, raised his eyes to the ladies' gallery opposite and had his first glimpse of my mother. And the rest, as they say, is history...

 This summer, if all goes well, I will be in Toronto for the first time in five years. It is one of my favourite cities in the world and in one sense my spiritual home. You may recall that I was thinking of emigrating there. That didn't quite work out, but I felt it was time to revisit friends and places still dear to me. Bishop Lacey, now in his nineties and fondly known as Father Pearce has issued a welcome, as has my friend John in Cambridge, Ontario. That was the first place I visited in Eastern Canada way back in 1988; it was a result of that visit that I decided to come into the Church.

Tell you all about it in the next newsletter. I hope to have fun and lots of relaxation over there.

I wish you all good things.
Shalom and be well.
Your sister Gila

Dancing in the snow

My dear Friends

The rainbow bridge between Cambridge and Toronto seems even closer now because of the cold weather.Cambridge has been suffering bouts of snow over the last few days and today is the coldest its ever been. I am reminded of all those happy times I visited Toronto in the cold and snow, taking refuge in those marvellous shopping malls in the city where people go to shop, or just hang out and talk to their friends. It's lovely to see the old people sitting on benches and making new friends.

Here the malls are much smaller and not so friendly.Thinking again of Toronto, I paid a visit to the Eaton shopping in the downtown area on one occasion. Beside the fountain, I chatted to a guy of about forty years old who told me he was born and bred in Toronto and how much it had changed. He struck me as a kinda easy going guy, who liked to hang out in the mall in the hope of making new friends.

I want to prepare for this trip well. Going back to this city is like going back to an old friend. They say old friends are like old wine-they mature until they taste better.This time I will be visiting in the summer, where I hope my old friend is waiting for me -to give me an embrace.

Shalom from
Gila

Up, up and away

My dear Friends

Last week I saw a fascinating programme about a balloon journey over Africa. That's what I want to be when I go to Canada this summer-up, up and away.

Travelling gives us a new perspective on life, especailly when you cross the Atlantic.I have done it before at important crossroads in my life and I feel this year is a year of new beginnings. I am going to friends and a place where I was touched by the Divine in a new way: as someone said Canada is my spiritual home.

We all have places which touch us deeply and usually they are connected to the people who live or come from there. I am going to reconnect with a Canadian friend I first met in England almost twenty five years ago. Had it not been for him opening his home in Canada as a place where I could reflect on all the momentous things that happened to me, I might not have come into the Church. His home and its surroundings were the jumping off point for an experience which will remain with me for the rest of my life. And beyond.

There are new friends out there too. And a lovely cousin who plays the harp. I look forward to all the coffee shops we will haunt together. I will raise my glass to all of you.

Shalom from
Gila