London - Wanstead
Wanstead Convent
The Story of the House
The Sisters of Mercy came to Wanstead in December 1917. This was in response to a request from Fr. W. 0' Grady, Parish Priest of St. George's, Walthamstow who recognised that there was a great need in Wanstead for Catholic Education. The sisters came from Commercial Road in East London and the Convent was purchased for £2,000.
The Sisters today
Making Mercy the business of our lives
Wanstead Community with Care
We are making Mercy the 'business of our lives' today by our outreach work of service to those in need. With the help of our lay staff we care for our Sisters in Community for as long as possible. This is done in a spirit of service and in appreciation for all our Sisters have given in various mercy ministries over many years.
Our Vision Statement
As Sisters of Mercy, strengthened by our relationship with God, we commit ourselves anew to:
Be a hospitable Community, treating each other with respect and sensitivity, supporting and encouraging all ministries, being a quality presence to our sick and elderly Sisters and using the earth's resources responsibly.
Ministries today include:
Acceptance of suffering Parish ministry
Prison work Retreat work
School Governors Spiritual direction
Supervision Teaching
Work with the homeless Missions support
Prayer Hospice work
Counselling Adult literacy
Communications work Listening ear
Mercy Associates
Parting farewell for Pat who has been a wonderful
friend to the Wanstead Community over the years.
A Health and Safety Training Day was hosted by St. Joseph's Convent, Wanstead on the 22nd February 2012. It was for Care and Maintenance Staff from both St. Mary's Convent, Hornchurch and St. Joseph's Convent , Wanstead.
Sr. Lyndsay Spendelow, one of our Trustees also attended the day, which was arranged by Mrs. Marion Maclin, Area Manager for the South East.
The day was facilitated by a member of the Carlton Trainers Team. It was most successful and enjoyed by all who attended.
Praying Through Art Workshop
Members of St. Joseph's Convent enjoying an Art workshop facilitated by Sr. Patricia Henry. The theme of the Workshop was 'Praying Through Art'. Recently Patricia attended an Art and Prayer Workshop in Crewe. She found it very liberating and enriching.
Wanstead Community enjoyed a lovely visit from our Sisters in Eltham on Sunday 18th March. They joined us for lunch before engaging us in a PowerPoint presentation and talk on the ‘Bags of Courage’ project in support of Women @ the Well.
The Sisters really inspired us to become more involved by knitting, sewing, card making etc as well as continuing to collect goodies for Coffee Mornings or Prizes for Raffles.
We were very pleased to be able to present them with four boxes of saleable goods which we collected over the Lenten period.
We were delighted to be engaged in the project which would be dear to Venerable Catherine’s heart and to networking with our sisters.
Food Safety/ Hygiene Training at St. Joseph’s, Wanstead
Maureen, from Carlton Training, London gave a comprehensive mandatory day course for the Sisters and Staff at Wanstead. Eleven members took part and did the examination at the end.
Topics such as the following were covered:
How to recognize and prevent food contamination
Food storage and temperature control
Stock rotation
How to recognize and deal with food pests
The law and how it affects you etc.
The day was very productive and enjoyed by all.
Jenny, our new part time cook finds her way around the kitchen.