A visit to Merry Old England!

Greetings!
I was in London, England last week and had the pleasure of meeting with Reg Bailey, our Mothers' Union CEO and seeing the Mothers' Union Home Base: Mary Sumner House. 

I spent quite some time in the attractive store housed under the blue canopies in the photo - some MU products are sold there but it's mostly a stationery/toys store -- surprisingly little overt Christian content but positive messaging and energy.  I ordered a variety of MU products which the clerk was happy to bring from the warehouse.
The main business of MSH takes place through a door just past the left-hand blue canopy. If you walk through there, you get to a reception desk with a very busy lady attending.  To increase funds to MU,  the rooms on the bottom floors are now rented out for conferences and meetings.  The MU offices are on the top two floors.  There was a constant stream of attendees signing in for various meetings as I waited in the small reception area. Not to mention the phone ringing with various enquiries. Just behind the reception desk there is a chapel which I doubt gets rented out!  The staff meet at noon each day for noonday prayers there.

I was too early for my appointment with Reg so took a stroll and it took less than 5 minutes to get to this bridge crossing the Thames.  That's the Parliament buildings and Big Ben in the background.  MSH is Very Downtown!!  The couple that I randomly accosted to take my photo happened to be from Nova Scotia and were in town for General Synod!
And then I spent a lovely hour with Reg, getting to know him and covering conference details.  I brought my camera specifically to take a picture of us together, and then completely forgot - argh. 

Reg is very engaging and comfortable to talk to and all conference registrants will get to hear him speak at the opening business meeting when he delivers the keynote address and at the banquet on Saturday night. He will also be leading a workshop that you can sign up for on the Friday afternoon.  He will be staying in the residence with us, so there should also be 'casual time' to chat with him as an extra bonus.  He has been the MU CEO for 12 years and has travelled extensively for Mothers' Union so is a fountain of information and a really nice guy to boot!

Thank you Niagara!

I was delighted to receive a lovely white scarf with an embroidered MU symbol at each end from the Diocese of Niagara this week.  They have had 80 such scarves made by an MU group in Madagascar that has a long connection with their diocese.  Niagara supplied the seed money for the project and then will send the profits back to the group when the scarves are sold.  They will be available at the conference for $10 each.
I used mine to grace the worship center during our conference prayer session yesterday but it could be worn around one's neck as well -- perhaps with conference pins attached!  For those who haven't been to a conference before, many members bring pins from their province, city or town to distribute to new friends.  These can be quite the coveted items and would look smashing on a pristine MU scarf!