In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis reminds us of the importance of spending time with people and being truly present to them in the moment: “We are speaking of an attitude of the heart, one which approaches life with serene attentiveness, which is capable of being fully present to someone without thinking of what comes next, which accepts each moment as a gift from God to be lived to the full (LS221). This Good Friday why not consider fasting from technology as well as the traditional fast and abstinence?

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Refugee ReSETTLEment Community Sponsorship – as part of living in solidarity with the poor the parish has committed to take a significant role in the community volunteer group, planning with the Home Office to enable a Syrian family displaced by the war to settle and flourish here. At this stage there are groups looking for housing, teaching English, Arabic interpreters, planning publicity and finance. They need more help now with each of these areas and to build up fundraising and safeguarding teams; nearer the time volunteers for transport, accompanying to appointments, help with IT, etc.  It is much better if lots of people can each do a bit. To find out more or offer help contact Paul Kelly at settle.refugee@gmail.com  or come along and listen at the next group meeting. There are some flyers and contact forms on our meeting room table at St Mary & St Michael's church.

. . . Syrian Resettlement Project.

‘The cry of the earth and the cry of the poor’

An introduction to Pope Francis’s encyclical, 

Laudato Sí’

In a recent riveting talk Peter Hampson explained how Laudato Si’ draws on Catholic teaching and theology to understand the crises in ecology, society and finance. Pope Francis raises some big challenges for us as nations, as churches, and as individuals. We will ask for the talk to be repeated in Spring – really not to be missed, especially as the encyclical is the basis for the LiveSimply award.

Peter focussed on the Pope’s words about climate change and pollution, water, biodiversity, the quality of life, social breakdown and global inequality. Many issues must be addressed by politicians but we each play our own part. From the pledges after our launch week-end 14 parishioners will only buy things they need and avoid special offers that lead to waste, 15 plan meals carefully to only buy the food we need, and 13 parishioners have promised to not ‘shop until you drop’. So much for Black Friday!