ACTA getting busy in Arundel and Brighton. Wakey wakey!

A friend of mine agreed to attend this ACTA meeting and took brief notes. I have abbreviated the full names to initials. ACTA officially stands for "A Call to Action". But in reality it stands for, "A Call to Apostasize".

Here is a brief report on the ACTA A@B meeting held at Our Lady of Ransom, Eastbourne on January 29th 2014. Present 25 people, including 2 diocesan priests.

(This was a very low-key meeting - A@B ACTA  maintain they are only interested  in collaborative ministry - nothing more).

BP, national delegate for A@B, updated the meeting on what is happening nationally.    They had produced a draft constitution, a document sent to the Bishops Conference, and were waiting a reply.   An acknowledgement had been received from Vincent Nicolls.   There were 18 diocesan groups.   Membership of ACTA is membership of local groups    (So if you go to a meeting and give your name, you automatically become a member and receive e-mail updates).   Next National Conference, 25th October 2014, Liverpool.

Discussion under chairmanship of MO. He referred to the origins of ACTA - the letter sent to the Tablet in June 2012, and the follow up meeting at Heythrop College where 350 people turned up.  Said the A@B group had had a meeting with Bishop Kieran, who said they had "every right to form groups and have meetings."     He referred to the Bishops' 1993 book "The Sign We Give" which refers to the importance of collaborative ministry.    Said ACTA had no connection with the American one - he understood the name come via the Tablet letter, which had been headed "A Call to Action". 

Asked about further aims, dissatisfaction with the new translation of the Mass was mentioned but not pursued.   Asked about "developing a theology of sexuality" (mentioned in the Tablet letter)   said that wasn't the aim of A@B ACTA.   (Slightly shocked that this should be raised, I thought.   They quickly distributed a leaflet which gave alternative groups which pursued aims like this).

The final part of the meeting was to accept the proposal in the agenda "That ACTAA@B makes the promoting of collaborative ministry in parishes of the diocese the main focus of its programme"  There were several amendments, but since there were no facilities to see written proposals, it was agreed to e-mail these and ask members to vote.

Next meeting, March 25th Horsham.   (There are two other chairmen, PM (Horsham) and JF (Cobham).  

End of the meeting.

For a very good precis of ACTA's deeper aims I recommend you look at Fr Eddie Tomlinson's and Fr Ray Blake's blogs on this topic.

For my part - I wish fellow Catholics would realise that the Catholic Church is NOT a democracy. That is not what Our Lord intended. As Cardinal Ratzinger used the say - "Truth is not determined by the majority vote". The Truth is the Truth even if 95% don't believe it. The gate is narrow to heaven - it isn't a picnic. We have to earn our salvation. ACTA want to remove all the 'hard' teachings and bring it 'in line' with all the other protestant denominations. Catholics wake up!

Here is a link to the ACTA March newsletter - do have a look!

http://www.acalltoaction.org.uk/documents/doc_download/110-march-2014-newsletterhttp://www.acalltoaction.org.uk/documents/doc_download/110-march-2014-newsletter

One seven year old, one pound and the amusement arcade in Eastbourne Pier.

My husband goes shooting every other Saturday in the shooting season - which is around 3 months. 

Our recent custom is that I take my 7 year old on an outing on shoot days (his siblings are adults, so he is like an only child). I tell him these outings are for his "social and cultural development". What we do is we troll through the Kent and Sussex attractions leaflet (from the library), and we choose one taking into account the weather etc.

Today was our last outing for this season and I asked him what we should do - it was a dry and sunny day. He said he wanted to go to Eastbourne and find a slot machine place - you know - the ones that have the cascading 2 - pence machines. Crumbs - do they still have those? I remember them when I was small.

Anyway we drove down to Eastbourne and parked practically opposite the pier - which is rather quaint and pretty with the sea in view.

The Pier houses the amusement arcade so when we walked to the end of the pier to have a look at what was on offer (most shoppes are closed as it's out of season), we went to the amusement arcade.

I gave Henry his pocket money of £1 - I have no idea what other children get of his age. Anyway I told him that he could choose what to do with it, and when it was gone - no more slot machines or you can get addicted!. We went to the change machine to get change. There is a lesson in all this - he had to work out how much change he would get  from a pound. There was also a choice between the 10p machines and the 2p ones. He soon worked out that the 10p one wasn't as fun as 5x2p goes.

On every machine there is a gamblers addiction number - I pointed this out to Henry, saying that some people put all their wages in and can't buy food. So - when you have spent your pound - over and out matey!

One lady looked like an expert - she was middle aged and she was concentrating on one slot machine and doing rather well! She was strategically putting the money in at just the right moment and direction, clearly having had lots of practice. She must have chosen one which had the most coins dangling over the edge. 

Another lesson was timings - how to time the coin so that it lands on the blank space and not on the other coins. Henry had a little success and his delight when the coins came tumbling down - about 10 in all.

I asked him if he wanted to quit after his winnings? No - he wanted to continue and spend it all. After one hour it was game over and he had had enough anyway. But it was a fun hour which cost a pound.

We walked on the seafront for an icecream and teacake in the full sunlight - golly it was quite warm for a January day!

My car ticket ran out so after 2 hours in Eastbourne we left.