Olive set to be installed as the President of Methodist Women in Ireland

Fermanagh woman looking forward to undertaking two-year role, with a number of good causes to focus on

THIS weekend Olive Rowe from Boa Island, Fermanagh will be installed as the new President of Methodist Women in Ireland (MWI), an all-ireland post which she will hold for two years.

The special installation service will take place in Darling Street Methodist Church in Enniskillen on Saturday, October 1 at 2.30pm and everyone is welcome to attend.

During the service, Olive will be inducted as President of MWI by the President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, Rev. David Nixon, who is originally from Blacklion.

“We will also have Bishop David Mcclay, who is a personal friend of mine from our teenage years. He’s going to be the speaker at the service.

“We will have representatives from the various denominations in Enniskillen; there will be special singing items and various people taking part in the service,” said Olive, speaking to The Impartial Reporter.

Originally from Co. Donegal, Olive previously attended Ballintra Methodist Church.

“That’s where I first got involved in Methodist woman’s work,” she told this newspaper.

Olive now lives on the Boa Island, between Kesh and Belleek, with Douglas, her husband of 40-odd years.

The couple have one son, Stephen, who is married to Claire.

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We will have representatives from the various denominations in Enniskillen; there will be special singing items and various people taking part in the service

Retired

Olive was a music teacher all of her working life and retired just before the Covid-19 pandemic. She enjoys gardening and is very interested in crafts.

Talking about her previous roles in the MWI, Olive said: “I have been Lakelands District President of MWI twice, from 2004 to 2006, and then also in 2018 to 2019.

“It was known as the Lakelands District, which was mainly Fermanagh. The Methodist Church in Ireland would have had eight districts but three years ago it was made into three districts; North Western, North Eastern and Southern,” she explained, going on to note that following this change, the term of district president was changed to vice-president, with a vice-president overseeing each of the three districts.

“But really, you do the work of a president. So I was the vice-president of the North Western district for about three years there. That took in a lot of counties, and there were 37 branches of Methodist women’s groups in the North,” said Olive.

During the Covid-19 lockdowns, Olive explained that her duties as vice-president changed.

“The normal pattern of work changed; you would normally go out and visit these branches and talk at MWI services but because of Covid-19, we had to rethink and we started doing Zoom online meetings every month.

“We were able to connect with the large district in a way that we hadn’t thought of, and at some of those meetings we would have had up to 100 ladies Zooming in, from Donegal up to Limavady across to Newry.”

In her new post of President of MWI across the island of Ireland, Olive will be attending MWI branches in the three districts. She will also represent Methodist women on various committees.

During her two-year post, Olive will oversee two charitable projects which she has chosen.

“The President picks a project that the branches can support and raise funds for and my project for this next coming year is entitled ‘I Am Girl’.

“It is sponsored by Fields of Life where we will be helping young girls in Uganda to educate them on their monthly cycles [and to help tackle period poverty],” said Olive, adding: “For my second year, I’m going to ask branches to support mental health in Ireland.”