On September 20^th 2019, Gumley students together with FCJ Students in our schools from: Liverpool, The Wirral, London, Jersey, Ireland and France to Australia, Canada and the U.S embarked on the first of many initiatives to celebrate the 200 year founding of a religious congregation, The Faithful Companions of Jesus.

The Congregation of the Faithful Companions of Jesus was founded in France in 1820 and September 21^st marks the birthday of the foundress, Marie Madeleine d’Houët.

The bicentenary celebrations will run from the 21^st September 2019 until the Feast of Christ the King in November 2020.

This historical anniversary will also be marked by action targeting a very modern problem: the climate crisis.
Globally, the Congregation has made care of the environment a priority for mission and in response to the climate emergency, 10 trees will be planted by each FCJ community group in their local areas.

There will be a host of events to celebrate this Bicentenary Year that will include:

• Day of Kindness: To launch the Bicentenary Year of Celebration.
• Climate Crisis: Divesting all our FCJ communities of single-use plastics 
• Planting trees around the world. The sisters in Europe have committed to planting 10 trees for each community group in the bicentenary year.
• Theatre production: The staging of a play based on the life of Marie Madeleine and the expansion of the Society she founded. The play has been commissioned from RISE THEATRE and will be performed in the UK, Ireland and other English-speaking locations where FCJs and their Companions in Mission live and work.
• Various internal celebrations: In FCJ Schools and Spirituality Centres.
• Commemorative painting: Is in preparation and will be published online.
• A new song: Will be composed for use in FCJ schools and in parishes where FCJs and their Companions in Mission live and work.

Liturgical and para-liturgical celebrations: In the locations where FCJ sisters live or have ministered in the past.

“May the celebrations be a source of new life and strengthened hope.” The General Superior of the FCJ Society, Sr Mary Claire Sykes fcJ.