Our parish is blessed to have a young persons’ SVP Group, officially known as the B-Attitudes, who do all sorts of amazing voluntary work in our community. Mentored by members of our adult SVP team, the B-Attitudes help at the food bank, with litter-picking, with fundraising for the homeless and many other initiatives. We wish all our B-Attitudes the best of luck with any upcoming exams and we look forward to further mentoring during the summer holidays!
This weekend marks the first Sunday of the new month, so we have some regular SVP activities to remind you of:
Firstly, our shop, known as ‘Gifted’, is open this weekend and we hope that you find something prayerful there, for you or for your family or friends. Always ask us if there is something in particular that you are looking for and we will try and source it for you.
Two members of our SVP conference here at St Gregory’s, together with 46 fellow SVP members from across the country, completed the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage last week. We followed the Portuguese route, walking a total of 125km from Baiona to Santiago.
Our journey began at 8am on Sunday 12th April, and we arrived in Santiago at 3pm on Friday 17th April. Along the way, we experienced a variety of landscapes – sandy beaches, peaceful forests, and quiet village roads. The weather, too, offered its own mix: mostly cool and overcast days, one day of rain, and, fittingly, sunshine greeting us towards the end of our pilgrimage.
Two of our team, Tracy and Debbie, are raising funds for the national SVP organisation by walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in April! Their walk starts on April 12 and lasts for 1 week. If you would like to help them reach their fund raising target then please use the Just Giving website.
Our parish-based SVP team is 10 years old this April so the fundraising is a lovely way to “give back” to the national SVP. Please keep them in your prayers as they prepare for, and complete, the Camino!!
We really hope you enjoyed the bingo evening last Saturday. We would like to thank you for all your support. It raised £530 for the work we do. You can rest assured that the funds will go to address a range of needs and is always gratefully received by our clients.
The team remains busy on a number of fronts, including the food bank, the bereavement support group, and visits to homes, care homes and the immigration detention centre. We also continue to mentor the B-Attitudes team in the parish so these various workstreams keep all hands occupied! If you’d like to help out with any of this work, or if you’d like to just find out more, then please feel free to contact any of the team as you see us out and about the parish. We can also be found via the details below.