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As we enter the beautiful, expectant season of Advent, it is all action in the SVP! A number of work streams are particularly busy at the moment, including the food bank, ‘Gifted’, the young persons B-Attitudes group, the Bereavement Support Group and the regular visits to Brackenbridge House care home and the refugee detention centres at Heathrow. We couldn’t do this work without the support of the parish and the congregation and we say ‘Thank You’ in advance for any help you are able to give us in the run up to Christmas.

Last weekend we recommenced our regular weekly visits to Brackenbridge House care home. These visits have been on hold since the pandemic started, and now add to our list of existing activities. These include the food bank, the B-Attitudes, the bereavement support group, our religious items shop, Gifted, visits to our local detention centres near Heathrow, home visits to the lonely, delivery of weekend mass CDs and DVDs to the housebound and supporting our twinned SVP conference in Romania.

This weekend is a time for remembrance and reflection. And in particular, of course, we remember all those who have lost their lives in conflicts past and present. The SVP team see the impacts of these conflicts in some very real ways. At the food bank, for example, we always meet some clients, our brothers and sisters, who need our help directly as a result of conflict in their home country. Similarly, when we visit our local immigration detention centres, our brothers are there directly because of conflict and strife in their homeland. Only as a result of your ongoing support are we able to continue to help in these ways, and it is a privilege for us to be able to do so. Please accept our sincere and ongoing ‘Thank You’.

Things are busy on a number of fronts for the SVP Team at the moment: Our B-Attitudes are now busy procuring items for the homeless after the amazing ‘Big Sleep-Out’ fundraiser, the food bank continues to see high numbers of clients, visits to the detention centres in support of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) are rising, and we are beginning to procure our Christmas stock for the Gifted shop.

This is just a flavour of what we are doing (see the noticeboard in the porch for the full story) and we always need to have new people coming on board. If that is you, then why not say ‘Hello’, via email, phone or in person, and we will explain how you can join us!

As we come to the close of World Homeless Week, we would like to say a huge ‘Thank You’, on behalf of the B-Attitudes! Last Saturday evening, a group of seven hardy B-Attitudes, safeguarded by three SVP adult members, slept under the stars in support of our sisters and brothers who have to face this situation on a nightly basis. Our parishioners, and people even beyond our parish, donated to this cause to the amazing sum of £1,839.00. Please accept our sincerest thank you for this continual support and please pray for all those who remain homeless, be it World Homeless Week or be it not. The B-Attitudes will now be focusing on turning these funds into real action and we will keep you posted on progress.