1/ SHOUT! When we contemplate the Christmas story, the image of “no room at the inn” for the Holy Family stands out. SHOUT! Helps brothers and sisters for whom there is literally no room, or those who are really struggling to feed their families at Christmas. If you can spare an extra item from your festive shopping, please donate it to SHOUT!. There are boxes for food donations at the church entrances of both Holy Family and St Mary of the Angels. Let us ensure that all are invited, “the greatest and least”, to our Christmas celebrations. Thank you
2/ SHOUT Thanks to the lovely bunch of volunteers who gave their time up on Christmas Day – we managed to provide a Christmas Day dinner for 100 people. Sadly some did not make it to the venue – but we delivered Christmas Day Meals thanks to another volunteer on driving duties. There were so many people behind the scenes quite literally helping to make this happen – Thank you for giving the gift of Christmas to all of our families and children, those who would otherwise be on their own and our homeless community. Thank you!
3/ Columban Missionaries have launched their 2024/2025 Schools Media Competition, which has the title: ‘Jubilee: Pilgrims of Hope’. Encouraging creativity and faith engagement with issues in the world today, this year’s competition welcomes both written and image entries until the 7th February 2025, with winners being announced on the 10th March 2025. Cash prizes will be awarded to the winning entrants and the first prize is an impressive £300. The competition is targeted at students aged between 13-18 years old. Pope Francis has decreed that 2025 will be a year of Jubilee Jubilee 2025 The theme he has chosen is ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ and he urges us to look for signs of hope in the world around us and work for peace and justice. For more information http://www.columbans.co.uk
4/ Live Simply Tip of the Week – Live Simply Tip of the Week Cut down meat eating or eliminate altogether, and cut down on dairy foods, and on food waste. .
5/ Covenant with the Poor In 1997 Bishop Cormac signed this Diocesan Covenant with the Poor and urged parishes to look at their involvement with poverty issues and to prepare their own parish covenants. This is our Covenant from many years ago. “We the people of St Mary of the Angels, Worthing, pledge ourselves as individuals and as a community to place concern for the poor, at home and abroad, at the centre of our Christian life”.
