American Committees

Keeping up with our American theme, we've received word (though, admittedly a bit late) that the VOSJ's Priory in the United States of America has now appointed regional committee chairs in several metropolitan areas around the country. These regional committees had been approved by the Priory's board of governers earlier in the year, but the chairs in each region were appointed this June by the prior, Marshall Acuff.

There are now official representatives of the VOSJ stationed in Atlanta, Charleston/Savannah, Connecticut, Dallas, New York, St Louis, San Diego, San Francisco, and the Washington, DC area. In our opinion, this is a most welcome development. It accompanies the recent move of the Priory offices to Washington, DC in giving the Order's work in the United States a more organized, national feel. In a Priory that has no St John Ambulance presence, it is very difficult to maintain visibility among average Americans. With this move towards greater organization and mobility, it may be possible to increase the membership (it currently stands at about 1,100 confrères) and the support to the St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem.
Pro Utilitate Hominum

Déjà Vu

About a week ago, we recognized the promotion of Margaret Hunt to the grade of Dame of Grace. It would seem that the local press in Queensland is enjoying sharing stories of VOSJ awards. In this case, the South-East Advertiser notes that Rosemary Moran was made a member of the VOSJ after nearly two decades of volunteer work. She was a prominent feature at public events in and around Brisbane providing first aid and assistance as so many St John Ambulance members do around the world. Well done! Below you can see the Governor of Queensland, Penelope Wensley, standing with the new confrère after the investiture.

Pro Utilitate Hominum

More Recognition

Here at the VOSJ Source, we do our best to shine light on the work that the Order does all over the world. To date, the Priory of Scotland has largely been out of our view. We wanted to recognize a confrère who was awarded a couple of weeks ago with the Service Medal of the Order.

After 15 years of service, one John Brown was awarded the medal by Sir James Stirling of Garden, the Prior for Scotland, at Inverness Cathedral. As always, it is wonderful to recognize the great work the confrères do all over the world.

Pro Utilitate Hominum

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

Australian Minister Promoted

We saw in the London Gazette recently that Dr Richard Westwood Worth was recently promoted to the grade of knight in the VOSJ. Dr Worth is the Minister of Internal Affairs in Australia and has been continually and quietly serving with the St John Ambulance in that Priory. This is a well-deserved honour--coming fast on the heals of his appointment as Minister. It is always a pleasure to see high-ranking government officials involved in the VOSJ, because it helps to give some visibility to the Order's mission.

Follow-Up on SJA Logo

One of our readers (or possibly, our one reader) posted a comment a couple of days ago regarding the newly designed logo of the St John Ambulance. You can see the rationale behind the change here. One thing that is not mentioned on that page is the disappearance of the lions and unicorns from the principle angles of the Order's cross. We have been asking around, but have not yet heard any official word on the subject, but we'd speculate that it is part of a national (and possibly worldwide) trend of getting rid of all things historical and replacing them with the work of graphic designers. We'll be sure to let you know as we find out more.

Youth in the Membership

We were perusing the news in New Zealand recently and found a nice story about a dedicated young member of the VOSJ. Sonya Gale has been involved with the SJA since the age of six. Now that she is 27 years old, she has been made a member of the Order. It is great to see someone being so involved with charity and helping others at this stage in her life. According to the article in the Otago Daily Times, it is unusual for someone to be admitted to the Order at such a young age. It would be interesting to compare this with other Priories. We know that we've seen young people at investitures, but they may not have been members of the VOSJ. At any rate, you can see a picture of Ms Gale below with the Governor-General of New Zealand, Anand Satyanand. Mr Satyanand is also a Knight of Justice and the Prior of the New Zealand Priory.

Order of Supreme Loyalty

In our last blog post, we discussed the Service Medal of the Venerable Order of St John. It is interesting to note that individual priories, commanderies, and other foundations of the Order have their own decorations and awards. One such example is the St John Ambulance in Malaysia. This foundation has a completely unique scheme of awards that are available to members of the SJA in that nation.

After the award of membership in the VOSJ, the highest honour one can achieve in the SJAM is the Darjah Setia Utama or Order of Supreme Loyalty. According to the SJAM statutes, only one of these awards will be given in any year and only 10 living recipients are allowed.

The next award is the Darjah Bakti Perkasa of Order of Supreme Merit. This comes with similar stipulations: only three awards are conferred in any year and it is limited to 30 living recipients at a time.

Next is the Pingat Jasa Gemilang or Splendid Service Medal (the best name of them all, in our opinion), of which only five are distributed in any year.

After the Splendid Service Medal comes the Pingat Jasa Cemerlang or Distinguished Service Medal (five per year again).

Finally, individuals are eligible for the Pingat Jasa Terpuji or Meritorious Service Medal.

In the order of precedence for the SJAM, after the Pingat Jasa Terpuji comes the Life-Saving Medal of the VOSJ, and then a unique Medal for Bravery of the SJAM. This Pingat Gagah Berani is awarded in three classes (gold, silver, and bronze).

Finally, after all of these other medals and awards, is the Service Medal that we discussed on Friday. This is quite a developed system of awards that is more or less separate from the rest of the VOSJ and its foundations.

Tragic Loss

Two weeks ago, the Canadian Priory of the VOSJ lost a dedicated member. Larry Bosiak was an Alberta native that volunteered with the St John Ambulance for more than 35 years. Bosiak was made a commander of the Venerable Order. In a very sad turn of events, Mr Bosiak was murdered in an apparent botched robbery attempt outside of his home. Mr Bosiak was clearly a confrère that attempted to live out the Order's two mottoes. Pro Fide (for the faith) and Pro Utilitate Hominum (in the service of humanity). He will be missed in Canada and in the Order at large.