Category: Justice and peace

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.

Attendees: Sian (chair), Tim, Eva (minutes), Maria, Lindsay, Stephen

Apologies: Sarah L

Environmental initiatives

Maria spoke about two campaigns that we could take part in as a parish to look at ways to care for the environment. The aim would be to work towards an award for one of these as we improve.

CAFOD Live Simply (https://cafod.org.uk/Campaign/LiveSimply-award)

Pledges for actions are undertaken in three main categories:

1. living simply

2. living sustainably

3. living in solidarity with people who are poor.

Eco Church ( https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/)

This initiative involves work in five main areas:

• Worship and teaching
• Management of church buildings
• Management of church land
• Community and global engagement
• Lifestyle

Both would involve quite a bit of work. It was decided that we would look more closely at the Eco Church initiative as 1) we have already done quite a lot of Live Simply work and 2) the Eco church initiative appears to be much more comprehensive.

Actions:

Maria to speak to her Eco church contact and arrange for her to come talk to the Parish about this so we can see what is involved.

Eva to talk to Columba to see what work St Vincent’s is doing on this.

S2 Foodbank

This appears to be working well. Food donations are increasing. The rota of drivers is working well. The group thought the notes in the bulletin about what is need were very helpful and should continue. The appeal for donations linked with the Parish Day was very successful and resulted in a shopping trolley full of food. Thanks to Mike C and the Parish Council for organising this.

Cost of Living Fund

A document had been circulated to the group by Sarah B about how churches can help with the cost of living crisis. The South Yorkshire Community Foundation (SYCF) has set up a cost of living fund. It was agreed that we would put a note in the bulletin a bulletin about this so that Parishioners know how they can donate to this. We would look at this again in the New Year and more support may be required.

Action: Stephen to put a note in the bulletin about the Cost of Living Fund.

CAFOD Advent Gift

It was agreed that as in previous years we would raise fund for a CAFOD Parish Gift. We would look at something around £1000.

Action: Stephen to send round suggestions to the group by mid November and put a note in the bulletin about this.

CAFOD

There is an online CAFOD event “Faith in Action” to discuss the global food system, upcoming COP27 climate talks and the climate crisis.

Action: Stephen to put a note in the bulletin with the registration link for this event.

Stephen has been the Parish CAFOD representative for many years now and would like to retire.

Action: Stephen to put a note in the bulletin advertising for a new CAFOD rep for the Parish.

The date of the next meeting will be 11 January 2022 (Wednesday) at 7:30pm. A whatsapp group will be set up for communication purposes.

Action: Eva to set up a J & P whatsapp group.

Present : Eva, Stephen, Sarah, Lindsay

Apologies : Susanne, Tim, Sian

Membership

We are keen to have new members for the group. Lindsay came today and was very much welcomed. If we have any ideas of people who we think might be interested to join.

It would be nice to have some younger input, whilst we recognise the younger members of the parish may not see the committee as appealing. Eva suggested maybe we could touch base with Richard Bushell to see if there is any route to the younger members, maybe some liaison, some idea sharing, some way we could gather what they would want us to be addressing. Stephen agreed to do this.

Food Bank

Stephen has worked on getting a rota together – there are six people who collect on Sundays and then take it over to the centre on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

A push may be needed to get people to donate as donations have dropped off. Sarah will think about some wording that could go in the newsletter, references to the change in the cost of living and the impact on those who will feel it most. One item a week would make such a difference, whether it is a 20p tin of carrots or a £6 bag of nappies, add it to your reminder for your internet shopping or your regular shopping list. If we don’t manage to push it forward this way, then Sarah would be willing to speak after communion to be a different voice to Stephen’s.

CAFOD

At least five parishioners did the 5k a day ‘walk for hunger’ for Lent, which is to be commended.

CAFOD currently don’t have any particularly focused appeal currently which doesn’t help in terms of motivating action within the parish. Stephen wrote to Caritas about the plan to relocate refugees to Rwanda but he has had no response and the Diocesan office feel it isn’t their responsibility as it isn’t about world hunger. It was recognised that it sometimes harder to get action on something which is ‘political’ as in changing existing government policies rather than attempting to get action on something which isn’t being addressed such as climate change. The feeling was we should wait to see if CAFOD have an autumn campaign. Sarah asked if we knew anything about whether anyone is offering housing to Ukrainian refugees but no one is known.

Stephen mentioned Home from Home Hallam, the diocesan group supporting a Syrian family being rehoused in Sheffield, and wondered if the parish should know more about that. Eva is involved in this and felt currently there wasn’t any particular need identified.

At Christmas it was envisaged we would have a world gift, the size depending on whether there is a panto which would fundraise for the same thing.

Lenten reflections

It was agreed that the Lenten reflections were absolutely brilliant and our thanks was given to Tim and Susanne for these. Many people in the parish have said how thought provoking they were.

Future events

Stephen said there are some J & P issues arising out the synod report, about how the church should be more outward looking, caring for others, etc. The lack of precision makes it hard to be aware how we should take that forward. A cake sale in the autumn would be nice!

We need to meet before the big push for money in the autumn for CAFOD. Next meeting suggested at 8pm on 5 October, when Tim & Susanne may be back and hopefully Sian will be free, but to be confirmed

Present : Eva, Stephen, Sian, Sarah, Susanne

Membership

Sarah has stood down – she is thanked for all she has done. Discussed the need for new members and how we achieve that. Advertising in the bulletin would be one way, maybe individual approaches. It was felt that part of the worry is people’s concern at committing to too much. Eva wondered if it’s worth explaining it is three or four meetings a year and helping organise occasional other events. We are keen to attract representation across all ages in the church.

Food Bank

Food bank needs a push but we need other drivers to help with that. Susanne and Tim aren’t going to be available for a while, and Eva and Stephen will be away at the start of Lent so can’t assist with transport then. Stephen will do a note for the bulletin. There is also a CAFOD walk against hunger in Lent so these link quite nicely. Sarah offered to put a list of the essential items on the front of the bin, also to keep an eye on the FB page and send update requests to Jayne to put in the bulletin. Stephen will start off with a reminder generally for a couple of weeks that the bin is “up and running”.

CAFOD

Stephen said CAFOD have several campaigns at the moment, most linked to climate change, but two he noticed were this walk for hunger. You register yourself and walk 5k a day for 40 days and get sponsorship. The other campaign he noticed was to support a bill in Parliament which will penalise companies for their actions overseas, for example those which exploit workers in unfair circumstances or dump toxic waste. The action here is to email your MP. £4300 raised in the Christmas campaign for a health centre (and a bonus couple of goats!) so we can’t do the same thing in Lent. We might want to start earlier next time to avoid running in to the New Year. Eva wondered if this was somewhat unique as there wasn’t a panto or dance club this year; we may not achieve the same next year.

Lenten reflections

Susanne agreed that it was something she and Tim could look at this even though Tim wasn’t planning on doing this again. It would just go into the e-Bulletin which means we might be able to put links in.

Future events

It is hard to plan ahead when not knowing what the future holds in meeting together. We could maybe look at Hopefully that might be possible by the summer. Next meeting : 18 May.

S2 food bank

Fr Kevin has said we can have a collection box at church for the Christmas collection. Stephen would be willing to do a delivery to St Swithen’s. We could encourage donations as well. We need to know what they want and have a last delivery date. Looking at FaceBook it seemed that probably gave us the necessary information, both in terms of what they are collecting and also the reverse advent calendar which they are doing. We need to get everything there at the latest by 20 December.

Sarah L is to get it in the bulletin this week. Tell people to put food donations in the narthex and also mention cash donations.

Panto/Talent Show

We don’t think this is happening this year – need to ask Liz. £1840 raised last year. This links to the next item on the agenda.  

Cafod current campaigns

The big push was of course COP26. There is a minor campaign on cancelling the debt and they are talking not just about the poorest nations but now the “middle-ranked” nations, eg Ghana, but don’t actually say what they want us to do about that.

The main emphasis in recent updates has been around encourage the purchasing of World Gifts by parishes. In Lent Tim put up a JustGiving page and we made a large sum, £3248. Looking at the main options for this year, we could choose between health and saving the rainforest. The latter might be a good push given COP26. There was a sense that a change of focus might be a better draw but Tim and Sian were keen that attention was kept on the impact of Covid in the developing nations. Stephen wondered if we try for a health clinic – £4000. Sarah L felt that if we tried for that we would have an impact on any panto or talent show if one happened. The idea of a sliding scale of different items depending on how much we raise seemed sensible, with a goal of the health clinic, but Stephen was optimistic that with a big push it was achievable and he is happy to try to “sell” that to the parish.

It was agreed we need to know the plans for any panto or talent show before we could settle on what goal we should set. That means checking in with them and Tim volunteered to do that. If they are not, we could aim high. And it was agreed it isn’t necessary to have a cut-off date of Christmas, just a start date of Advent.

Tasks

• Tim to check with Liz about panto/talent show
• Stephen to draft something for the Franciscan and to ask Fr Kevin who could speak after mass, him or Stephen Parker depending on what
• Tim is going to set up the JustGiving page

Walk with Amal

Some members of the parish joined this.

Refugee family

Our application is ready to go off for approval once we have the formal letter of support from Sheffield City Council. Once our group is approved work will begin with South Yorkshire Housing to find a house to match a family.

AOB

The dance club are rehearsing away from church and are looking for a suitable venue. They’ll probably raise money for a refugee or asylum project such as Assist.

Next meeting 17 Feb 8pm, location depending on pandemic and weather.

Present: Sian (chair), Eva, Stephen, Tim, Susanne, Sarah B (minutes)

Apologies: Sarah L

CAFOD (achieved)

Two parishioners completed the Walk for Water

World gifts appeal raised £4126 (includes gift aid) – will provide 7 mobile clinics and 9 sets of PPE.

Bidding prayers at Vurch

CAFOD (plans for future)

1. Petition to PM about Climate Change conference in Glasgow – this is an online petition which parishioners can be encouraged to sign. Stephen to put in Franciscan.

• CAFOD has 3 urgent appeals – for India, Yemen and Tigray. It was felt these were all crucial but that the parish had already responded very generously to the Lent appeals, so in this instance it would be best to draw attention to all three through the Cafod website and suggest parishioners consider which if any they want to support. Stephen to put links in Franciscan and Vurch emails and to give an explanation at Vurch.

S2 food bank

This food bank  is reasonably well provided for at the moment, with appeals for specific items being put on their Facebook page. To consider re-instating the collection box when the church re-opens.

Refugee family

This is under the aegis of the S.W. Sheffield community sponsorship, well supported by the Bishop and the rest of the diocese. 26 parishioners (4 from St Francis) and led by Eva will have a first meeting on 8/5 to discuss submitting an application to the Home Office.

Lenten reflections were well received as always.

Date of next meeting

25^th August.  8.00 pm

Attendees: Sian (chair), Stephen, Susanne, Tim, Sarah B, Sarah L, Eva (minutes)
Apologies: Margaret

Talent Evening
A Parish Talent Evening took place on 28 November at 7pm via zoom and raised £2290 for CAFOD.

CAFOD Initiatives
Lenten Family Fast Day will take place on 26 February 2021. A note will go in the Franciscan about this (Stephen). Envelopes will be available at Mass and the weblink will be provided so that people can donate to CAFOD directly even if they are not able to attend Mass.
The CAFOD Walk for Water campaign is starting, which encourages us to walk in solidarity with those who must walk long distances to collect water. Details of how we can participate will be put in the Franciscan (Stephen).

CAFOD World Gifts
It was decided that we will work towards collecting funds for two World Gifts, a mobile clinic and PPE for a health worker for a total of £447There would be a display that would be coloured in each week (Stephen) to reflect the money raised in the past week. The updated image could be posted on Vurch each week. Parishioners could contribute through a JustGiving page (set up by Tim) and through a donation basket in the Narthex.

S2 Food Bank
At the moment the Food Bank seems to be well stocked so we will hold off for the moment urging people to donate. This will be addressed at the next meeting when we know where things stand.

Bidding Prayers and Reflections during Lent
The group felt it was important to have some justice and peace bidding prayers during Lent. Stephen will check the CAFOD website for prayers and send to Vurch leaders. It was decided that as the Lenten Reflections have been so popular over the past years that these will be added to the Franciscan each week in Lent. Tim will produce these and send to the Franciscan for inclusion.

Refugee Family
The Hallam Diocese is planning on sponsoring a Refugee Family to come and live in our Diocese. This is currently in the planning stages and it is not clear what tasks we will need to undertake. Eva is our representative for this and will keep the Justice and Peace Group and Parish updated. We have had contact from two parishioners who would like to be involved.

Next meeting
The next meeting will be held on 24 March 2021, Wednesday at 8pm via zoom.

Attendees: Sian (chair), Stephen, Susanne, Tim, Sarah B, Eva (minutes)

Apologies: Margaret, Sarah L

Talent Evening

A Parish Talent Evening will take place on 28 November at 7pm via zoom to raise funds for CAFOD. Information about the evening is already in the Franciscan and mentioned at Vurch each week. Acts for the Talent Evening are being sought and a JustGiving page has been set up. Parishioners will be encouraged to donate even if they are unable to attend the event and after the event, throughout December. The Franciscan will be updated to reflect this (Tim).

CAFOD World Gifts

It was felt that as we are currently unable to attend Mass and have any sort of display with stickers that we cannot work towards raising money for a Parish gift at the moment. The group felt that this could be focus early in the New Year when we will hopefully be back at Mass. There would be a display that would be coloured in each week (Stephen) to reflect the money raised in the past week. The updated image could be posted on Vurch each week. Parishioners could contribute through a JustGiving page a through a donation basket in the Narthex.

Parishioners are also able to buy CAFOD world gifts directly from the CAFOD website and a notice will be added to the Franciscan about this (Eva) as well as plans for a Parish gift in the New Year.

S2 Food Bank We discussed ways to support the Food Bank for Christmas. It was suggested that a supplement could be added to the Franciscan with information on how to donate money to the Food Bank as well as details of the Reverse Advent Calendar. Food donations will need to be taken directly to the Food Bank as no collections are currently permitted in church. Eva will send the supplement for inclusion in the Franciscan, including contact details and delivery dates

Bidding Prayers during Advent

The group felt it was important to have some justice and peace bidding prayers during Advent. Stephen will check the CAFOD website for prayers and other members of the group will send prayers to him (All). The suggested prayers will be sent to the four people leading Vurch during Advent for inclusion in the service (Stephen).

Next meeting

The next meeting will be held on 13 January 2021, Wednesday at 8pm via zoom.

Present : Stephen and Eva, Sian, Sarah B, Sarah L

Apologies : Tim & Susanna

Website/Bulletin

There was a discussion about the sharing of information within the parish. Although information is currently  on the website, it is not visible and difficult to locate. We also lack info such as the prayer list, what’s happening in the rest of the diocese, where mass is taking place, etc. The issue of the need to have the bulletin on the website to communicate information has been raised with both Fr Kevin and the Parish Council.

Food Bank

Eva was concerned about support for the food bank. She has asked if the box could be available for foodbank again when church restarts but Fr Kevin couldn’t confirm that. That could maybe be raised with the inspectors from the diocese when they visit us to approve our premises to reopen.

Sarah B mentioned the food banks are doing okay at the moment, after a reduction in demand in August. It is anticipated demand will rise through the autumn.

Family Fast Day

CAFOD are pushing this, given the significant fundraising shortfall. There are several ways to donate to CAFOD. One would be through the envelope system so Stephen suggests these could be put out every Sunday in October given fewer people will be attending mass. Envelopes are allowed – certainly they were available at St William’s when Stephen and Eva went there recently. There can also be giving via contactless devices. Stephen suggests putting out an email request through the mailing lists we have such as Vurch and Ascent to try to get people to donate online. If we get a bulletin back up and running, we could draw attention to it in there. We can draw parishioners’ attention to the savings many people have made in their lives because of the pandemic, some of which could go to CAFOD. CAFOD don’t have a particular focus this time round apart from COVID. Stephen will organise the boxes for church and contact Vurch and Ascent for an email appeal.

Present : Eva, Stephen, Sarah B, Sarah L, Sian, Tim

Apologies : Margaret, Susanne

The key issue for discussion was how as a parish we can support the food bank and how we support CAFOD. There is also the question of how we disseminate info to the parish about issues to do with the charities we support.

CAFOD will lose maybe £5000 of fundraising from St Francis’ through the Dance Club not happening and also the panto which looks inevitably to be cancelled. Food banks are also experiencing high demand, demand that will only increase.

Eva has spoken to Alan who said he could adapt the church’s website to ensure we could have info such as about how to support CAFOD on the front page. Vurch would be another way, to have announcements after Vurch. Eva has also spoken to Mike Campbell who confirmed the church is closed and so donations to the food bank would be difficult.

Sarah B talked about the food banks of Sheffield. All had a poor start during lockdown but since then things have improved quite a lot. Currently none of the food banks are really struggling but S2 have said they would still like donations of food and of cash. S2 are doing 100 parcels a week from the door (no deliveries). Sarah suggests at this time just ensuring there is info about food banks on the website. Currently what is there is quite a general list of what donations are suggested; she would suggest the current needs are on FaceBook so people could check there. Also, there is no suggestion as to how we could give money directly, that might be useful. Things are likely to deteriorate in the future, certainly when furlough ends, but at the moment they’re not so bad. It was agreed the best thing might be to have info on the website as to how to donate but also could give info about how to drop off food in case anyone wanted to do that.

Eva agreed that it would be good to put info on website as to how to give or drop off, but maybe take the list off but refer to FB as to where to find most up to date needs. She could also Alan to change website to show how to make donations, which may be easier given our distance from the food bank.

Sarah L mentioned that of course donations can also be made by dropping off at your local supermarket when shopping.

All agree need is only going to increase so keeping people alert to that would be important.

CAFOD

Stephen : on the CAFOD website there are focuses on Syria, the DRC, and the Rohinga camps where Covid is running riot. For now until we can come up with any fundraising, we could put something on the front of the website, pointing out that CAFOD are desperate, St Francis normally very generous. People could be reminded of all the money they’ve saved on not commuting, buying lunches, holidaying, shopping, not going out. It could also be raised at the notices section at Vurch – Stephen agreed to do that.

There was a discussion about what fundraising might be possible. Sian wondered if we could do equivalent of the May Day walk, ask for virtual sponsorship. Eva felt best thing immediately was to get people to donate. We could then look at how could help make up shortfall going forward. Panto people could look at online performances [need to enquire of them]. Could look at virtual summer fair, a virtual quiz via Zoom, a virtual dream auction [although there are some restrictions on what could be offered due to social distancing], a wine and cheese evening where bring your own but pay, a sponsored virtual walk [six in a walk].

The issue was raised about how to contact those who aren’t coming to Vurch given our lack of contact details. Eva pointed out this is the responsibility of the Parish Council. In the current situation the only way to communicate is email. We believe the PC to be looking at this in relation to letting people know about mass arrangements when the church can reopen.

Sarah L commented that we can begin now but we need the circulation list to be bigger before we get any events up and going. If we meet in Sept/Oct when we have a bigger contact list we could discuss what else we might be able to do.

Eva mentioned that Fr Kevin is worried about the lack of support for other charities we ordinarily support. Again, the problem is how to make that known to people which takes us back to the website as the only option at the moment.

We agree that our initial focus is on getting something on the front page of the website about CAFOD and the food bank.  – I don’t think we agreed who would take this forward, was it Eva and Stephen (like everything else!)?

Talk to Nick Neale and/or Fr Kevin about need to have a way of communicating with the parish.

Tim mentioned that Nick Neale and others were to be delivering leaflets to parishioners who don’t go to Vurch or have email addresses, we could use that as a communication method. Comment was made that it would be good to have a bulletin again and to deliver hard copies.

Stephen will liaise with the parish council about whether we can piggy back on the list to share information. If not, they could maybe share info for us.

Agree we will meet again on 9 September and Eva will circulate the Zoom link nearer the time.