A Message from your President

“I must say that I felt very flattered when approached about the possibility of being elected President of the Old Ratcliffian Association for this year. It softened the blow of realizing that it is already 40 years since my year left the College. I do not really mind being the age that I am but I am slightly alarmed at the speed with which I have arrived at 58! Where did those decades go?

The reunion at the College in June brought together a great variety of characters from my year – about half of the students of ’71 were able to put in an appearance over the weekend. It was wonderful to see them again. Life has treated us differently and our journeys showed a great variety of careers and experiences. Some might have said that their lives had followed something of their ambitions and expectations as they left Ratcliffe; others had certainly found themselves going in very unexpected directions.

My year as president of the Association coincides with my becoming Chair of trustees of Cafod. I feel privileged to represent the bishops of England and Wales in Cafod’s work which I must say I find encouraging and challenging. In recent years I have been able to meet Cafod’s partners in Sri Lanka, East Timor, Uganda and Kenya but this summer I have travelled with them to Congo, Rwanda and the drought-ridden area of Kenya. In a sense this recent trip was different from others. Until now, I had seen places where Cafod partnership had made significant contributions to development and change. In Sri Lanka we were able to give the keys to new houses to families who had lost everything in the Tsunami. In Uganda there were new farming communities showing their produce which not only met their need but left them with surplus for trading in local markets. In East Timor there were cooperatives that not only trained people with new skills but also provided wages for families.

In the Congo there was much good work going on but against the backdrop of a lack of security. Villages in rural areas are still threatened by bandits and local militia forces and women in particular face kidnap and violence. Here rape is regarded as a weapon. We visited a beautiful Benedictine convent but the sisters admitted that they did not feel safe – indeed one of their community had been shot and killed in the convent’s cloister just months previously. The evident lack of peace undermined so much work for the good.

In Rwanda there was undeniable prosperity, with few living in poverty and Kigali, as its capital, boasting fine development and sophisticated services. But below the surface runs the trauma of the genocide of 1994, when one in seven of the entire population of the country – over one million people – were massacred by their fellow citizens because they belonged to the wrong tribe. There is much trauma still among the generation of those who survived.

Kenya presented a complete contrast within itself. An imaginary line runs from Northwest to Southeast and divides an impressively fertile region from a place of drought and dust and death. Although I was some five hundred miles from the well-publicised refugee camps of Northern Kenya I met with Turkana tribe people who have found survival increasingly difficult for the three last years as boreholes have failed and livestock died. Their welcome was warm and friendly, full of singing and dancing, and their parting gesture was to give us their best goat and best chicken, from the few that they had left.
I thank Cafod for its constant reminder to us all that we can make a difference and that our gifts, no matter how small, can change people’s lives. Seeing the work of Cafod and meeting with the generosity of people like the Turkana also challenge me about the way I live, and my priorities.

Thinking in terms of Ratcliffe; I hope that the school will continue to challenge each one to discover the gifts that they have and to use those gifts to make a difference in our world. And my keenest hope will be that those leaving the College will take with them a lively sense of Faith and a realization that each has the privilege and the challenge of being nothing less than, St Paul would have it, “Ambassadors for Christ”. Gifts, Faith and Mission will transform our world.

Bishop John Arnold (71)
Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster
President of the Ratcliffian Association