Eco Award win for Drumalis Retreat & Conference Centre

Drumalis Retreat and Conference Centre has been presented with the Eco Congregation Award 2018 at a moving and inspiring celebration on February 25.
Sr Margaret Rose McSparran CP receiving  the Eco Congregation Award 2018. award from Sr Catherine Brennan SS.Sr Margaret Rose McSparran CP receiving  the Eco Congregation Award 2018. award from Sr Catherine Brennan SS.
Sr Margaret Rose McSparran CP receiving the Eco Congregation Award 2018. award from Sr Catherine Brennan SS.

Presenting the plaque, crafted from disused church pews, Sr Catherine Brennan SSL, who, as the Catholic Representative on Eco Congregation Ireland has been associated with the ecological activities at Drumalis for the past 20 years, said Drumalis was “a Beacon of Light” showing prophetic leadership in addressing the ecological crisis of our time.

Present at the celebration were representatives of many other groups associated with the environmental activities of Drumalis and Sr Nellie McLaughlin RSM gave a moving summary of the development of the Drumalis Environment Group through the past 20 years.

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Others present shared their own experience of eco events at Drumalis and how they had been awakened in their understanding of the issues at stake, and Joe Furphy from Eco Congregation Ireland read a poem.

Sharon Morrow, Sr Anna Hainey, Councillor Paul Reid (Mayor of Mid and East Antrim), Alderman, Geraldine Mulvenna, Sr Margaret Rose Mc Sparran, pictured at the presentation to Drumalis Retreat and
Conference Centre of  the Eco Congregation Award 2018.Sharon Morrow, Sr Anna Hainey, Councillor Paul Reid (Mayor of Mid and East Antrim), Alderman, Geraldine Mulvenna, Sr Margaret Rose Mc Sparran, pictured at the presentation to Drumalis Retreat and
Conference Centre of  the Eco Congregation Award 2018.
Sharon Morrow, Sr Anna Hainey, Councillor Paul Reid (Mayor of Mid and East Antrim), Alderman, Geraldine Mulvenna, Sr Margaret Rose Mc Sparran, pictured at the presentation to Drumalis Retreat and Conference Centre of the Eco Congregation Award 2018.

The Mayor of Mid and East Antrim, Councillor Paul Reid, attended along with Council officers and public representatives, and he congratulated Drumalis for the contribution they had made within the local community as a place of peace, welcome and inclusion.

Sr Margaret Rose and Sr Anna expressed their thanks for the award, seen as an encouragement to them to continue the vital work for the future of the planet, and, a great honour to be the first Catholic Institution in the North to be recognised for this work. The event closed with an Irish blessing reflecting the final words of Sr Nellie’s address.

She said: “I’m delighted that Eco-congregation Ireland has decided to bestow this award on the Drumalis community, it is so well deserved. I invite us to consciously join with the entire community of creation – the stars, galaxies, Sun, Moon, fish, insects, birds, plants, animal...the flowers and butterflies as we extend heartfelt congratulations to Drumalis and every

blessing into the future.”