Memorial Garden

It is with great pleasure that we report the breaking of ground for a St John Ambulance Garden at the National Memorial Arboretum. It may not be terribly interesting to those confrères outside of the United Kingdom, but it should be a beautiful memorial to the work of the VOSJ and the hospitaller movement in general. The ceremony at which work officially started on the garden took place last week. Currently, it is difficult to make out much of the layout, but we certainly look forward to seeing the promised Maltese cross which is proposed to play a key role in the design. As soon as we have photographs of the garden, we will share them with our readers.

Pro Utilitate Hominum

Well Deserved

Here at the VOSJ Source, we enjoy recognizing those that have been given awards by the Order. We are members, after all, of a confraternity whose main objective is service. A few weeks ago, the Priory of Australia rewarded Margaret Hunt for more than a half century of service to the Order. She was invested as a Dame of Grace of the Order by the Governor of Queensland, Penelope Wensley, on 10 July 2009.

Such news would probably not even reach our ears but for the fact that it was noted in the local media. This is another great point about this event. It has given publicity to the wonderful work that our Order does around the world.

Pro Utilitate Hominum

Master of the Hospitallers

As our first substantive post since returning to the world of blogging, we thought that we'd share some information about a new chance to further your education. The University of Malta has announced that it will begin offering a course of study in October leading to a master of arts degree in Hospitaller Studies. It would seem that we are a little bit slow on the uptake here as the application deadline was a couple of days ago. If anyone is interested, they should e-mail the University to see about starting the course next year.

Pro Utilitate Hominum

Back...

Firstly, we would like to apologize for our extended absence from the wonderful world of blogging. Our original plan had been to return to the pursuit after a short holiday over Christmas. Unfortunately, two of us fell ill shortly after the New Year and were unable to contribute to the musings on the blog. Familial and other constraints limited the time that the third of us could devote and the VOSJ Source fell by the wayside in all of our lives. We have now agreed that we would like to continue and hope to keep updating the blog much more regularly in future. If anyone has interesting or important news of the Venerable Order of St John that passes our notice, please do contact us.

Pro Utilitate Hominum