A message from our President

It is an honour to be elected president to the National Board of Catholic Women, I am very aware that I stand on the shoulders of the giants who have gone before me. There have been generations of strong Catholic women leading within this organisation since it began in 1938. My aim going forward is to ensure the NBCW is dynamic and agile for the changing needs of Catholic women, to ensure even the busiest of women can be supported and nurtured and find their voice according to their baptismal calling.

As an organisation that empowers women and gives them a voice, my priority is to ensure the NBCW is fit for purpose in a changing landscape. The Church is calling for us all at this time to walk together and to discern together. I want to ensure that leadership doesn't sit with one person in this organisation but that it is a shared role that gives opportunities to individuals according to their gifting. I am so pleased that Susan Longhurst and Jacintha Bowe have been elected co-vice presidents at this time and collectively we intend to share leadership in empowering others.

It is an apt time for the NBCW to be reviewing itself and to be looking outward for the areas of need for the women of today. It is a privilege to be able to lead and accompany this organisation as it strives to amplify the voices of women, forming and supporting them to be fit for Christ's mission.

Amy Cameron, April 2023

Susan Longhurst writes:

I feel privileged to have been elected as co Vice-President of the National Board of Catholic Women, a role I am delighted to share with Jacintha Bowe. The NBCW has been steeped in the history and profound contributions of Catholic women for more than eighty years and I am keenly aware of the responsibility we have been given to safeguard and nurture this communal wisdom as we embark on an exciting new phase.

I am committed to the work of the NBCW as a platform to listen to the needs, hopes and aspirations of women and to be a representative and impactful voice within the Catholic Church in England and Wales. I feel blessed to be working alongside Jacintha and Amy Cameron, as President, and with all members of the NBCW in a way that is collaborative, empowering and supportive. As a team, we appreciate the need to nurture a community which listens, understands and responds to the needs of women in contemporary culture, equipping its members in such a way that allows us to reach our full potential by harnessing our collective identity, our gifts and talents.

Our vision is that the NBCW will play a guiding role in the lives of Catholic women so that they may fully participate in the life and mission of the Church, as entrusted to us through Christ Jesus.

Jacintha Bowe writes:

As a recently retired teacher and lecturer of Theology and Philosophy, I was invited to join the NBCW in 2021 to convene the Education Committee, which had lain dormant for a few years. As ongoing education and formation of women is one of the key aims of the NBCW and a personal one of my own, the task looked exciting and I gladly took up the offer.

Since then, I have been engaged in giving many lectures, facilitating talks and organising the NBCW conference. As Co-Vice President, I look forward to working with a new leadership team to reshape the organisation so that it can move forward with confidence and remain the organisation that can walk with, and lend support to, Catholic women of all ages so that their voices may be amplified as they fulfil their mission and become effective witnesses to the Gospel in a changing world.