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We had our first monthly meeting of 2024 on Monday evening and, as usual, it was another bumper edition! Our various work streams are now getting back in to ‘Business as Usual’ mode, so please feel free to reach out and ask the team if you have any queries about or interest in any of the activities.

You might know by now that the motto of the SVP is ‘Turning Concern into Action.’ This applies to all of us, really, if we remember the second great commandment that Jesus taught us: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. In this cold spell of weather, why not turn your concern into action and just keep an eye out for any elderly or vulnerable people living near you. Human to Human contact can make all the difference if you are stuck indoors all day long.

The SVP Team would like to start 2024 by saying a huge thank you for all the support you showed for the Reverse Advent Calendar initiative and for your amazing support of our Gifted shop in the run-up to Christmas! It is really heartening to know that you are there for us!

The new year is shaping up to be another busy one for the SVP as we try to keep our various workstreams moving forward. ‘Many hands make light work’, so if you’d like to join then just reach out to any member of the team. Check out our website for more details of the actual workstreams, and the ones we need particular help with are volunteering to help run Gifted, visit the lonely at home or in care homes, mentoring the B-Attitudes and volunteering at the food bank.

Being the final SVP News of 2023, the team would like to wish all of you a very holy and peaceful Christmas and the very best of wishes for the New Year!

It has been another challenging year for the team, during which your support has given us the energy to keep going! You know by now that the strapline of the SVP is ‘Turning Concern into Action.’ Generating action requires energy though, both physical and mental. So, we thank you for all your material help, but also for all your prayers. Please continue to pray for us, and for those we try and help, as this will give us the energy to journey in to 2024 with hope and joy.

Sunday is the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a document translated into more than 500 languages. Before that, in 1833, Blessed Frédéric Ozanam founded the first SVP conference in Paris. Being guided by the Holy Spirit burning within him, he set out to help those suffering from poverty within his neighbourhood. Since then, the SVP has also become universal and the same Holy Spirit guides each conference today, as it did that first one in Paris.

The run-up to Christmas is always a time full of appeals for the needy. This year it is no different and the SVP appeals are already out there, in the form of our reverse Advent Calendar, for example. Amidst these, it can be easy to forget that the spirit of the needy person might also need help. So, if you can, please pray for our needy, that they may receive inner strength to deal with their issues and then the Holy Spirit will do the rest!