NEWS:
Choral Evensong at St James’ Church, King Street, Sydney – 3.30pm on Sunday, 25 May, 2008: a special commemoration of Caroline Chisholm will be held at this service, a few days before the bicentennial of her birth. Rev Allwood of St James was a valued supporter of Mrs Chisholm’s Female Immigrants’ Home from the outset in 1841. Everyone is welcome.

30 May, 2008 Celebrations of Caroline Chisholm’s life and work: It appears that no coordinated Catholic liturgical celebrations will be held on or close to 30 May, 2008, the bicentennial of Caroline Chisholm’s birth. The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference has ignored a written request for celebrations similar to those held nationally in 1977 on the centenary of the saintly woman’s death.

The proposed Reflective Booklet has been delayed until later in 2008. Other initiatives are being considered, including an exhibition of images of colonial life and Caroline and Archibald Chisholm. Your ideas would be welcome – please send them to webmaster@mrschisholm.com or, if you prefer, GPO Box 2171, Sydney. NSW. 2001.


A Working Dray
If you have a working dray or know where one can be found, please let us know by email or post (see last entry for contact details) or phone (02) 9955 9320 during business hours. Alternatively, if you have or know where to find a plan for building a working dray, please let mrschisholm.com know.
Drays were the usual means of transporting goods in colonial times, when roads were non-existent or very rough. Drays often took Caroline Chisholm’s bush parties to country areas, when they would otherwise be returning empty from Sydney, having delivered wool, wheat and other produce for export or local consumption. A bush party’s possessions were loaded on the dray, and the excited girls and other new settlers took turns walking and then riding on the dray. This was known as walk-and-ride.
We’d like to have historical re-enactments in mid to late 2008 in, say, Liverpool, Goulburn and Maitland – and you could see walk-and-ride in action . . . or even be involved . . . in costume!


F.A.Q's:
Can Mrs Chisholm be called Servant of God?
A reasonable number of Catholics see Servant of God as a restricted term, because it is an honorific accorded deceased individuals whose lives are being officially investigated for evidence of heroic virtue or martyrdom and, what’s more, part of a papal title (Servus Servorum Dei – Servant of the Servants of God). This is a narrow view, indeed, and it is also non-scriptural. The Apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 3:9, “For we are God’s servants, working together” [NRSV, Catholic edition, 1993]. He was referring to those working to make Christ known and to help realize the kingdom of God on earth. In the scriptures, particularly the psalms, there are numerous references to Servants of the Lord or, depending on the translation, Servants of God, none of whom come within the current narrow view of the term. Besides, Caroline Chisholm, a tireless worker for the kingdom, acknowledged her work was given her “by One who never allows his servants to stand still for want of materials”.
[ Quotation sourced from: www.sydney.catholic.org.au/Archdiocese/History/Chisholm.shtml – the website of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, where much of her wonderful work was centered.]

Why mrschisholm.com? Isn’t that a little sexist?
The practical answer is: the main Caroline Chisholm domain names were taken before early 2007, when our website was being planned. Anyway, “Mrs Chisholm” is how she was called during her public life and use of “Mrs” implicitly acknowledges her marriage to Archibald, a most supportive, loving spouse and co-worker.

The emigrant’s friend? Shouldn’t that be, the immigrant’s friend?
Good point. During and after her lifetime, Caroline Chisholm was known across the world as “the emigrant’s friend”. We’re continuing that historic use, which is that an emigrant is a person leaving their country of origin to settle in another. That person became known as an immigrant upon their arrival in the new country. The word immigrant now covers both meanings in everyday English. Historically, too, the title describing Mrs Chisholm’s solicitude and care for those migrating – most of whom were escaping poverty and, at times, famine – was invariably in the singular form. This was apt, as her charitable attention focused on the person, not on anonymous groups of humanity.