A Tribute to Margaret Scroope rsm
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By the time you receive this newsletter it is expected that Margaret will be back in Australia and working through her two weeks of isolation due to the pandemic regulations. We regret that it was not possible to acknowledge Margaret’s wonderful work at Mercy International Centre as well as we would have liked to have done.
A Mass and staff function which had been planned had to be cancelled because of recent changes in the regulations around gathering.
However, an on-line gathering was held for the MIA Members, Directors and Staff to pray a blessing for Margaret and acknowledge something of her contribution to MIA. Ron Ashworth, Chairman of the Board, and other speakers spoke to their experience of working with Margaret and their appreciation of her skills, gracious hospitality and welcoming smile among other attributes. Ron presented a plaque which will be added to the wall in the Sacred Garden. It reads “With grateful thanks for the dedication and generous commitment of Sr Margaret Scroope RSM, during her years of service at MIA, Dublin”.
We were grateful to Anna Nicholls rsm, MIA Head of Heritage and Spirituality, for her preparation of the blessing prayer which she led from New Zealand. Margaret was most appreciative of those who attended in spite of the early morning or late night involved!
If I can add a personal note here, I have greatly valued Margaret’s wisdom, knowledge, and advice as I have settled into my role at MIA in what has been anything but a typical period. I will miss her as a colleague but also as a companion and am very grateful that she generously offered to stay on in Dublin several months beyond when she originally planned to return to Australia.
Margaret, we wish you every blessing, kindness and grace as you settle back to life in Australia.
—Berneice
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