Invitation to Evening Prayer with the Margaret Beaufort Association

Dear Friends,

I am writing on behalf of the Margaret Beaufort Association [MBA] to extend a personal invitation to you. As you may know, the Association was founded to create an extended community of prayer and support for "current and former students and lecturers, staff, friends, and benefactors who support the work of the Margaret Beaufort Institute."

At its founding in 1993, the Institute was intended to be both an academic/ intellectual centre and a sacred space for personal and communal spiritual growth and transformation. In MBI's first decades such growth was nurtured after classes in weekly gatherings for Mass and supper. Both the liturgies and the meals were facilitated by students and lecturers. Eventually, the MBA was formed to help maintain those connections with graduates and it has become a co-ordinating structure for other special programmes and pilgrimages. During the pandemic, we made the transition to virtual Evening Prayer with more of our alumnae and alumni able to join us from around the world. That tradition continues.

We now invite you to consider becoming a more active member of the MBA. If you haven't yet joined us in prayer, please know that you are very welcome. Led by volunteers from the MBA, Evening Prayer convenes for about 20 minutes on Thursdays during termtime at 18:00 (6:00 pm) GMT. In the US and Canada, that is 1:00 pm ET. The Zoom link is printed in the MBI Newsletter. Our next Evening Prayer will be on 23 January 2025.

MBA has planned our next pilgrimage for the weekend of 10-12 October, 2025. It will include holy sites in and around York, with accommodation at nearby Ampleforth Abbey. Registration details will be published in the spring issues of the Newsletter. We hope you will consider joining us then and for Evening Prayer this term.

We look forward to being present with you in prayer. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me at association@mbit.cam.ac.uk.

Most sincerely and with warm wishes for the New Year,

Melanie-Préjean Sullivan, DMin

Chair, Margaret Beaufort Association