## **CENTRE FOR MARIAN STUDIES**
## **Registered Charity 1183579**
## **ANNUAL REPORT 2023**
The Centre for Marian Studies (the CMS), established in 1995, provides educational courses, promotes research and maintains a library, on subjects relating to the theology and wider cult of the Virgin Mary. It has no religious affiliation and is open to members of any religious tradition or none. Members of the CMS are dedicated to interdisciplinary collaboration to support and advance Marian scholarship.
The CMS was originally registered with a Trust Deed in 1997 as The Marian Study Centre (Registered Charity 1066253). In 2019 the decision was taken to register the charity as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, whose only voting members are its charity trustees. Our registration was confirmed on 24th May 2019. This annual report covers the period from 1st September 2022 to 31st August 2023, as the latter is our accounting end of year date.
## **OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES**
The CMS aims to advance the education of the public in all matters related to the Virgin Mary, including any theology, devotion, and other social and cultural activities pertaining to her, in particular for the provision of a library, a picture collection, and other material resources, the undertaking of academic research and the dissemination of the useful results to the public and the provision of educational courses and lectures.
In April 2021 the CMS signed a Memorandum of Understanding with St Mary’s University in Twickenham to develop mutual agreements for cooperation based on our respective academic and educational needs. St Mary’s University is now the official home of the CMS, and the CMS library collection has been established in the crypt of the church on the university campus. The collection enhances the theological resources held at the university and is available to researchers in Marian Studies.
The trustees have cross-referenced these objectives and activities with the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit.
## **ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE**
The CMS website, which is maintained on a voluntary basis by a member of the CMS Management Committee, provides information on Marian news and events: www.marianstudies.ac.uk.
The Trustees and members of the Management Committee of the CMS are actively engaged in Marian Studies and examples of their publications are listed on the charity’s website: https://www.marianstudies.ac.uk/publications
In order to promote research, we have also now developed a scheme that allows people to apply to become Fellows, Members and Associates of the CMS. The full details are posted online on our website: https://www.marianstudies.ac.uk/membership
## **CONFERENCES AND ONLINE EVENTS**
We are now able to organise in-person conferences (with a Zoom option) but we have continued to offer some free online events so as to give as many people as possible the opportunity to attend. The in-person conferences offer a reduced rate of £10 for students and attendees on reduced income.
## **10[th] September 2022**
**Alone of all her sex? A Marian Study Day on 'Mary and Gender'** with guest speakers Sr Dr Cathy Jones (St Mary’s University), Dr Mary McCaughey (St Mary’s College, Oscott), Dr Catherine O'Brien (The Centre for Marian Studies) and Dr Karen O’Donnell (Westcott House, Cambridge).
## **1[st] February 2023**
## **Candlemas Lecture (via Zoom)**
Thanks to the generosity of one of the CMS Trustees, we have reinstated our annual Candlemas lecture, with the event now being held in honour of the late Dr Cathy Oakes, who was an art historian and one of the founding members of our charity. Cathy was an expert in medieval Marian iconography and her untimely death in 2019 was a great loss to the CMS on both a personal and academic level. The second lecture (via Zoom) in this new series took place on 1st February 2023. The invited speaker was Dr Cecelia Dorger, an art historian and adjunct professor at the Mount St. Mary Seminary and School of Theology in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Dr. Dorger gave a paper entitled "Soul Sisters: Late Medieval and Renaissance Nuns’ Devotion to the Nursing Madonna image". 200 people registered for this free online event.
## **25[th] March 2023**
## **New Beginnings: A Celebration of Marian Scholarship**
On the Feast of the Annunciation, we formally celebrated the establishment of the Centre for Marian Studies at St Mary’s University, and the new location of the Marian library collection. It was also the occasion on which we welcomed our first Honorary Fellows: Professor Tina Beattie, Rev. Professor Andrew Louth and Rev. Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch. They shared their expertise during this one-day conference alongside Dr Chris Maunder and Dr Sarah Jane Boss, who founded the Centre for Marian Studies in 1995.
## **10[th] – 12[th] May 2023**
## **More Universal than Catholicism? Mary among Asian religions (via Zoom)**
We co-organised an online conference with the Initiative for the Study of Asian Catholics - (ISAC) in Singapore: https://www.isac research.org
270 people registered for this free event, and we heard excellent papers on a rich range of Marian topics. Speakers joined us from the US, Mexico, Portugal, Germany, Japan, China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan and Australia. We are grateful to Dr Michel Chambon of ISAC who ran the Zoom meeting from the National University of Singapore.
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## **JOURNAL**
In 2021 the CMS relaunched _Maria: A Journal of Marian Studies_ as a peer reviewed, online and open access journal. During the period covered by this report, the CMS published one issue of the journal in May 2023 (3.1) that contains articles on Marian apparitions, Mary in Asia, and a Pneumatological recentring of Mary’s ecclesial motherhood; translations of three Marian texts; and two book reviews. We have joined the mEDRA scheme in order to register the journal content for the Digital Object Identifier System. The journal contributes to our commitment to publish innovative Marian research in the fields of theology, philosophy, literature, history, visual culture, music, sociology, anthropology and psychology.
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## **FINANCIAL REVIEW**
## **Centre for Marian Studies: Accounts 2022-23**
## **Year End: 31 August 2023**
||Income|Outgoings|
|---|---|---|
|**Balance at 1st September**
**2022**|**3839.19**||
|September conference|625.10|216.00|
|Candlemas lecture||100.00|
|March conference|453.50|1116.27|
|Fellowship fees|305.69||
|Membership fees|270.00||
|Website||116.88|
|MEDRA journal DOIs||199.60|
|Donation to Franciscans||500.00|
||||
|TOTALS|1654.29|2248.75|
||||
|Net outgoing||594.46|
||||
|**Balance at 31st August**
**2023**|**3244.73**||
|(Ringfenced for
Candlemas lectures £300,
gives disposable funds of:|2944.73||
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The accounts for 2022-23 are not complicated and our internal review process is sufficient.
We received £575.69 made up of fees from Fellows and Members. Other income (£1,078.60) came from the two conferences that we organised in September 2022 and May 2023.
Our outgoings were £2248.75. These payments included the honorarium of £100 to our speaker for the Candlemas lecture; and £1,332.27 to cover the expenses of our nine guest speakers at our two in-person conferences. We have annual costs to mEDRA for the DOIs for our online journal (£199.60 in 2023); and £116.88 for the maintenance of the WIX website. In addition, we made a donation of £500 to the Franciscans in gratitude for a collection of valuable books that they kindly gave to the CMS to enhance our library collection.
At present, the funds are unrestricted, i.e. not earmarked for specific purposes. The funds held by the CMS are also too small for the holding of reserves.
We have concluded that the CMS has the funds and resources for it to be an ongoing concern for 2022-23. If fundraising is successful in the future, it will be necessary to undergo external financial monitoring.
## **STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT**
The CMS is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and has used the Charity Commission’s template for its governing document.
All trustees must be aged over 16 years and at least one of the trustees of the Centre for Marian Studies must be 18 years of age or over. The maximum number of charity trustees is twelve and the minimum number is three. If the number falls below the minimum, the remaining trustee or trustees may act only to call a meeting of the charity trustees or appoint a new charity trustee. The quorum for a trustees’ meeting is two. Apart from the first charity trustees, every trustee must be appointed by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the Centre for Marian Studies.
## **Management of the charity**
On 11[th] March 2023, Dr Eileen Rubery resigned as a Trustee of the CMS. We are very grateful to Dr Rubery for her dedication to our charity over many years. As a result, the Centre for Marian Studies is currently run by five trustees and five members of the Management Committee, all of whom contribute to the aims of the charity on a voluntary basis.
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## **Trustees**
Dr Melanie Landman Professor Andrew Louth Dr Catherine O’Brien (Chair of Trustees) Mr Mike Russell Reverend Canon Dr Paul Williams
## **Members of the Management Committee**
Professor Sarah Jane Boss (Secretary, librarian and co-editor of our journal) Sr Dr Cathy Jones (co-editor of our journal) Dr Chris Maunder (Treasurer) Mrs Natalie Maunder (Website coordinator) Professor Jacob Phillips (Conference organiser)
The full committee meets twice a year, usually in September and March.
## **Reference and administrative details**
The Centre for Marian Studies
Registered Charity 1183579
c/o The School of Theology, St Mary’s University, Waldegrave Road, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, TW1 4SX
Email: info@marianstudies.ac.uk
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