Attendees: Sian (chair), Tim, Eva (minutes), Maria, Lindsay, Stephen, Susanne, Frances, Petra, Liz
Apologies: Sarah L
S2 Foodbank
This seems to be going well. There has been a big increase in donations and the rota is functioning well.
CAFOD Advent Gift
A total of £1500 was raised, enough to purchase two water supplies.
Traidcraft
Traidcraft is folding so the Traidcraft stall will no longer be available after Mass. Liz will present the final accounts to Parish Council. It was suggested that it would be a good idea to provide Fairtrade tea and coffee after Mass.
Action: Liz to look into the provision of Fairtrade coffee and tea.
CAFOD Live Simply Campaign
We discussed the CAFOD Live Simply campaign (https://cafod.org.uk/Campaign/LiveSimply-award) and how we might move forward with this as a parish. Maria agreed to lead the project. The campaign will involve changing things in our parish but also lifestyle changes for parishioners. This initiative is linked to Laudato Si.
Suggestions included involving Children’s Liturgy and the Youth Group in this initiative. It was hoped that there could be some work in the church garden including planting bulbs etc and providing bird feeders and bug hotels.
It was agreed that Parish Council should be informed that we are proceeding with this campaign and that there should be a discussion on how the work could link in with the other subgroups of the Parish Council.
Action: Maria to register our intent with CAFOD and obtain the application form. She will send around some suggestions for actions we could start working on as a parish.
Action: Everyone to think about which sections they might want to lead or be part of.
It was agreed that the Parish would be informed of our plans during Lent. The focus in Lent would be on increasing our Foodbank donations.
Action: Stephen to speak after Mass on 19 Feb and Liz on 26 Feb.
Action: a leaflet to be produced to hand out after Mass on 19 and 26 Feb about the Live Simply Campaign. Maria will look for info on the CAFOD website. If nothing suitable is identified, Tim will write something.
Action: Stephen to write to Mike Campbell and Father Kevin to let them know what we are doing.
As the campaign progress we will involve the Parish as much as possible We will have a launch event providing information. We will also have a flipchart and post it notes so that people can make suggestions. There was discussion of a Parish shared meal (vegetarian) or tea and cake.
There is a national weekend zoom event on 17-20 February, Laudato Si: Your Parish and Your Planet.
Action: Stephen to put a note in the Franciscan about this event.
Stephen has been the Parish CAFOD representative for many years now and would like to retire. To date no one has come forward to take his place although this has been in the Franciscan for a number of weeks. The group will continue to support him in finding a replacement.
The date of the next meeting will be 12 April 2023 (Wednesday) at 7:30pm.