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BCA Commonwealth Day Cathedral Service and Evening Dinner-14 March 2022
Accompanying the below are photographs taken at our 14 March 2022 Commonwealth Day Service in the morning at St Philips Cathedral and our dinner in the evening at the Grand Hotel, Colmore Row, Birmingham.
Just some of the comments we received the following day:
From Keith Stokes-Smith, BCA Chair
Can I thank all those of our members and friends who joined us on Monday 14th March 2022 at either or both of our Commonwealth Day Cathedral service and/or the dinner in the evening at the Grand. You can see above some of the feedback we had the following morning.
We did the BCA and the city proud. Our special thanks must go to Caudwell Children, Nishkam School, the Motivational Preparation College for Training, Birmingham City Council Choir, Clare Noakes and 5 students from BCU for their notable contribution to the service and to member Tamara Prosper and the 40 strong choir from a number of local schools/colleges as well as ‘Eternal Taal, the 4 piece all female team of Dhol players, who entertained us at the dinner, receiving a standing ovation.
Can I also thank Director Wade Lyn, members Dr Quaye Botchway, Tracee McAtear and Hyacinth Shirley for their contribution to the special Commonwealth Day citizenship event which took place at 2.00pm on Monday as well as colleagues from the Councils International office, Amaia Leonet, Abdul Qadir and Heather Law.
I, the Lord Lieutenant and Geoff Thompson, Deputy Chair of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, spoke at the dinner. Below are extracts from my own opening comments.
“Welcome to this VERY special Commonwealth Day Dinner in this VERY special, and unique year, for our city.
I refer, of course, to the forthcoming commonwealth games. And let us not forget that these games will have been delivered in HALF the time normally required to prepare for such a sporting and cultural extravaganza ….and, if that were not in itself a big enough challenge, for half of THAT period, during a world pandemic. It just goes to show what a brilliant energetic skilled team of people we have here tonight both from the council and on tables 10 and 11. Clearly a ‘Can do attitude’ prevailed: Whatever needs to be done, can be done; and will be done.
I certainly think they deserve a round of very noisy applause.
You will hear more about the games later from the Deputy Chair of the B’ham CW Games board, Geoff Thompson MBE DL.
The last couple of years have impacted upon us all in many ways; despite this, the BCA itself has continued in ITS endeavours, supported by the International Office of B’ham city Council, its sponsors, Aston and B’ham City Universities, its members, its patrons and its friends.
We are very much about PARTNERSHIP AND COLLABORATION. Over the last 12 months we have had the privilege to:
Work with the Food Foundation in their Food Cities project:
supporting CW cities in low to middle income countries to develop their food strategies and policies,
The local charity, UCAN, in its Commonwealth related programme, including its ‘Pillars of the Commonwealth’
Supporting the Home Office, on their Windrush project
and, in its initial months, supporting Dr Satya Sharma, MBE, DL, with his Commonwealth ‘Tribute to Life’ organ transplant project.
in addition, to the help and support we have been able to give to our members and friends.
This morning, we held our CW day service at St Phillips Cathedral. Some of our guests here this evening will have been there.
This was something we introduced 3 years ago, for it seemed very appropriate to us, as the 2nd city, that we had our very own Commonwealth Day service. We are, after all, the best city in the UK outside London and that is not just me saying that.
Can I first of all thank the Bishop of Birmingham for facilitating the service and for the excellent support his team provided. I must also thank the near 70 strong children’s choir from Nishkam school, the B’ham City Council Choir, Cadets from the Motivational Preparation College for Training, Caudwell Children, Clare Noakes, soloist, Faith leaders and students from BCU, for their most appreciated contribution to the event and indeed, those of our members and guests who attended.
We are a diverse organisation, notwithstanding, our main focus is upon Commonwealth outcomes in the areas of trade, Diaspora and Education. Indeed, a few months ago, Birmingham City Council published a tender for an organisation to help them leverage the benefits from the city hosting the Commonwealth Games to support their local food and drink supply chain to engage with international commonwealth markets. We were successful in winning that tender and set about organising a commonwealth SME Food/Drink supply chain event in the summer of this year. In the spirit of partnership and collaboration, we invited a number of partners to join us. All are represented here tonight:
The Food Foundation, The GBCC, The Director of Public Health for B’ham, The B’ham Consular Assoc, B’ham City and Aston University, The African Business Chamber, The Greater B’ham and Solihull LEP Growth Hub and Cleone Foods Ltd.
We thank them, with the skills, knowledge, experience and network they will bring to the party, for their participation in this exciting opportunity, further putting B’ham on the world map and benefiting from the game’s legacy.
Last Friday we were given the green light to hold our event on 28 and 29th July at what will become UK House in Broad St working alongside DIT. We have already recruited our Event Manager who is also with us tonight. If you are in the food/drink sector, directly or indirectly, we would like to talk to you.
And talking about legacy, whilst it is understandable that London should dominate the scene when it comes to a UK wide commonwealth hub, including the international headquarters of the Commonwealth Secretariat and Commonwealth Foundation, why cannot Birmingham justify its own broad based commonwealth hub and what better time than now to look to do that.
Birmingham is home to citizens from every CW nation, and we believe that the economic growth and investment potential, which the Games and investment in infrastructure, such as HS2, will ‘super-charge’, make it a prime position from which to host such a facility. The Commonwealth games being held here, offers an undeniable opportunity to create a lasting legacy which may not have happened otherwise.
The City is outward looking with a vibrant diaspora of commonwealth citizens and our fantastic connectivity to regional markets provide a basis on which a post Games business, trade and investment legacy can be built.
We have kickstarted the process of gaining support for this excellent initiative with further work to be done.
In closing, can I welcome to our dinner this evening two athletes, two gentlemen, who are waiting to hear whether they will be successful in representing England in the forthcoming games, Delicious Orie and Niall Farrell (can I invite you both to stand up gentlemen so are guests can see who you are). We wish both of you success not only in being selected but in bringing home one of those medals, whatever its colour.
Wick Episcopi, Upper Wick, Rushwick, Worcestershire, WR2 5SY
Saturday 25 June 2024-Birmingham Armed Forces Day – see Future Events for more information.
