Posts

It was lovely to see the buzz of activity around our fund-raising shop, Gifted, last weekend. This has become a regular source of income for the SVP Team since we started this initiative and your support is always gratefully received.

Our parish is blessed to have an SVP Team as well as a B-Attitudes Team (i.e., SVP for secondary school age volunteers). Did you know, though, that we also have a Mini-Vinnies Team at St Swithun Wells? An SVP grown-up recently attended the Mini-Vinnies Summer Term 1 progress meeting. They comprise of 10 energetic students from Years 4, 5 and 6 and do some lovely work throughout the year to address issues of social justice.

We held our monthly meeting on Monday evening and, as expected, it was a full agenda. It marked the end of the reporting year so we were able to reflect on our efforts over the past 12 months.

The statistics are impressive and if you’d like to see a draft copy of those then you can read and study the copy that is on the SVP noticeboard in the church porch. It is really humbling to have your support, as this is what allows us to achieve these results. We hope that you do read, and study, the numbers and, then, if that inspires you to ‘Turn Concern Into Action’ simply approach any SVP member or contact us as per below.

The SVP team have our monthly meeting on Monday evening and it promises to be another full agenda! We continue to receive amazing support from you and the wider community and examples of this are local schools, shops and other businesses who regularly replenish our food bank supplies by using some lovely initiatives.

We visited one such primary school last week to say ‘Thank You’ and the level of intelligent and compassionate questions that the Year 5 students had about our work was inspiring. The power of the Holy Spirit is clearly at work amongst us and we are really blessed to know that.

Something moved within Blessed Frederic Ozanam when he first became aware of the poverty so close to the Sorbonne University, where he was a student. The Holy Spirit sparking his conscience into action on behalf of God our Father. Blessed Frederic listened to his conscience, and in response, he went on to found the Society of St Vincent de Paul, the ‘SVP’!

Next Saturday is the UN’s International Day of Conscience, a day aimed at getting everyone to act in accordance with our conscience and to show love and compassion to those around us. Our conscience knows that there is, actually, right and wrong, kindness and selfishness, inclusion and exclusion. Like Blessed Frederic, why not listen to your conscience and then make the right decision each time you are faced with these options.

It was lovely to see a packed hall last Saturday evening for the St Patrick’s Day bingo event in aid of the SVP! As a result of your fabulous support, we raised £650 for the various workstreams of our conference.

The SVP team would like to say a huge ‘Thank You’ to everyone. And not just for the financial support, but for your joy and kind words also! When you are at the coalface, trying to solve problems, it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. All of you provide us with the energy and the resources to keep going. Rest assured that your support is gratefully received and we pray to the Holy Spirit to guide us in the best use of those funds.