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The SVP in the Westminster Diocese is holding its annual festival on Saturday, March 25, at St Aloysius Church in Euston, starting at 10:30 a.m. Everyone is invited, SVP members as well as non-members. You can book your free ticket online or by contacting the SVP headquarters.

Why not check your calendar and see if this date works for you? It could be the best Saturday you’ve had in a while! You will hear from the various conferences throughout the diocese and you might learn of all the different types of work being carried it. It might, then, even inspire you to join our conference. We have a growing workload and we can do even more if we have more volunteers. Please do think about this seriously.

The noticeable lengthening of the evening is a sure sign that the year is rolling along. The SVP Team is now working on all its fronts and our regular series of events are well in motion.

• On Friday evening, we held our latest monthly meeting of the B-Attitudes as an outdoor event, by seeking out the homeless in our community and offering them some warm clothing.
• Our next Bereavement Support Group meeting is in the hall on the first Wednesday of March, this coming Wednesday at 10:30am.
• Our next SVP Team meeting is on the first Monday of March.
• Squeezed in between these two events is our Gifted shop, on the weekend of the first Sunday of the month, March 4 and 5.

So: It is all go!! We are doing other things too, so have a look at our website and see if there is something there that you would like to help with. Maybe it could become your Lenten commitment?

One of the blessings of being able to help those in need is that you meet wonderful people, both on the giving side and on the receiving side. Another blessing is that you then have the opportunity of making a real difference, by joining the dots and linking the donations to those in need of them.

One area we struggle with, though, is the practicality of joining the dots – e.g., arranging transport to pick up a donation of a bed or a table and delivering that to the person in need. If you are able to help, can you please make contact with us? Ideally, we would have a bank of transporters so that the burden can be shared. Please consider this request and respond as you can. You will find it very rewarding.

We had our February monthly meeting on Monday evening and, as usual, we had a packed agenda that reflected the wide range of workstreams we have in place. Even though it was a cold February night, we have a very strong turn-out in the hall and others joined in online over Zoom.

There is a tremendous energy within the team, and a real longing to do what we can for all those in need. This energy, of course, is powered by the Holy Spirit and, in a very tangible way, it is also powered by yourselves – our fellow parishioners.

The New Year is now moving along and things are getting back to normal for the SVP Team.

• The SVP Gifted shop will be open next weekend, the first Sunday of February, so please have a look at our stock. If there is some religious item that you would like that we have not got, then just mention it. We make regular orders and can try and have it for March.
• Our Bereavement Support Group is back on the first Wednesday of each month in the hall, after the 10am mass. Please mention this to anyone you think might be just needing a chat – a cup of tea with some friendly faces might make all the difference!
• Our young people’s B-Attitudes Team held their first meeting of the year on Friday evening and are now busy planning their events calendar for 2023 – you’ll be hearing more!

If any of these activities interest you, or indeed if you’d just like to know about the SVP Team and what we do, then just get in touch!