WSD Ron Dowling Welcome Message

Knights of Columbus / Chevaliers de Colomb
Nova Scotia State Council
Building the Domestic Church
Making a Difference for Life

Good day Brothers,

I would like to thank everyone for electing me as your State Deputy for the 20-21 fiscal year. It has been a journey to get to this position. It is now an honor to be here to serve you and the Order. I would like to congratulate all the new and returning State Executive of the Nova Scotia State Council.  I am looking forward to working with you all. I would also like to congratulate our new team of District Deputies and returning District Deputies along with all the directors, chairmen and appointees.  I have chosen a strong team dedicated to the Order and the Jurisdiction of Nova Scotia.

We have a tough job ahead of us. Times have changed with this Pandemic and the way we do business. As most of you know, we are now conducting many of our meetings virtually.  This will be the norm for some time, and we are hoping to get back to some sort of normality in the near future. I ask everyone to be patient and please understand that we are trying to conduct our business as best as possible.

I would like to emphasize that we must all take part in every Supreme Webinar to ensure we are all up to date on what our Order is doing. They are informative and have very important messages on how we are to conduct business. These Webinars are not only for State Executive or Council Executive, but for all members to gain knowledge of the Order.

With the Faith in Action Program, we can help to evangelize and bring people and families back to believing in their faith, which in turn will help our churches. Our actions speak louder than words. If we are out there promoting our programs, we can show people who we really are and they in turn may want to join in. In recent times we have all seen a decline of parishioners in our churches. The Catholic church is not the only place where this is happening. The Knights of Columbus in Nova Scotia has been on a steady decline for many years. We, as Knights, must help stop this from happening. In getting a head start on this now, we can turn the direction around. In doing this we may be able to help the church do the same. There is no limit to what we can do, we just have to put our Faith into Action and the Lord will guide us.

We now have nowhere to go and show what we can do to impress potential new members. Our recruitment strategy is being affected.  We must rely on our friends and family to gain new members until we can get back to church and be visible.  We now have many ways to get new members signed up quickly, for example, we have Online recruitment. Our new combined degree of Charity, Unity and Fraternity can be completed within 35 minutes either on-line at KofC.org/JoinUs; on demand or live at KofC.org; or at council level and family and friends can be invited to watch. Our options are great and there is no excuse that new candidates have to wait. Remember, without growth we will not survive. This is a team effort. Without team work we will not succeed. Help us help each other and we can do great things.

In closing, Brothers, if God is on our side, how can we lose. Let’s have a great year and in May 2021 we will have great cause to Celebrate our 100th Convention Anniversary.

Vivat Jesus

Ron Dowling
State Deputy