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We recently held our regular SVP Team monthly meeting and the agenda was choc-a-bloc as normal! We started our meeting, as all SVP Conferences do, with an opening prayer and a spiritual reading and then we did a whistlestop tour of the various work streams, including the food bank, bereavement support, home, care home and detention centre visits, the B-Attitudes, the Mini-Vinnies and our Gifted shop.

Even though we are doing a range of activities we do not want to rest on our laurels while there might be some other need out there. Are you aware of any need that we are not addressing? When we are involved in the detail at the coalface it is very easy to miss the bigger picture, so we depend on you to tell us what we’re not seeing!

During the week we received a request from a person looking to rent a single or a double bedroom in South Ruislip. If you, or someone you know, is looking to take in a lodger then can you please get in touch with the SVP Team and we can then provide you contact details.

Secondly, we would like to thank you all for the continual support you give to our Gifted shop! It is lovely to have your support and to know that we are able to help you find those particular items that you were looking for, be it a special crucifix, a statue of a particular saint or even a pocket-sized rosary beads! We open on the weekend of the first Sunday of every month so looking forward to your support again after the masses of Sept. 2-3.

They say that every cloud has a silver lining, and we’re sure not short of clouds this summer! If the silver lining has meant that you have had a bumper crop in your allotment, then why not bring your surplus fresh fruit and veg to the food bank? The majority of the food that we distribute is non-perishable, bagged or tinned, so any variation to that in the form of freshly grown local crops would be a great addition to the diets of the families we help. You’ll see us setting up the food bank at 10:30 a.m. every Saturday in the hall, so that would be the best time to drop off your donations. Now that we’ve planted the seed, let’s pray that it’ll bear fruit!

We would like to say a huge ‘Thank You’ to everyone who braved the weather last Saturday and made it to our Annual Cream Teas Afternoon. We raised £240 for the SVP activities and you can rest assured that this will be gratefully received by the needy who live amongst us. There was a lovely buzz from multiple conversations in the hall during the afternoon and it really emphasised that we all need friends to talk with, to joke with, and sometimes to cry with. This Sunday is the UN International Day of Friendship, so why not keep an eye out for someone who might need a friend? And, if you then find that your new friend needs the help of the SVP Team, just get in touch with us and we will take it from there. We will always try our best to help.

Did you know that next Sunday, July 30, is the UN International Day of Friendship? The aim is to promote friendship between peoples, countries, cultures, organisations and communities. Some people say that it is much harder today to make friends than it was when they were young. This may, or may not, be true but it is something that we can all influence and change.

If you, or someone you know, is struggling to make friends in the parish, then why not reach out to the SVP Team? You can approach any of us for a chat and you can also attend any of our events. If you have free time you could even join the team, and then you are assured of 19 new friends straightaway! This goes for the under-18s too, who will make lots of great friends in our B-Attitudes Team! Why not contemplate on the International Day of Friendship this year, and see where the Holy Spirit leads.