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Helping our neighbour in crisis

newsletter

In response to the question “Who is my Neighbour” Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan – of the man who finding a robbed and beaten stranger by the side of the road bandaged his wounds, took him to a place of safety and paid for his care. Jesus told his listeners, and tells us, “Go and do the same yourself”.

The establishment of Foodbanks across the UK in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis is one way Christians have responded to Jesus’ command. But why foodbanks? And why in Cardiff?

13.5m people in the UK live in poverty; in 2011 Save the Children reported that 16% of children in Cardiff live in severe poverty. For many of our neighbours life is precarious. Loss of work, delays or changes in benefit payments, sudden illness, family breakdown can all lead to sudden crisis. The Foodbank provides a lifeline, giving short-term help. Individuals and families are referred by care workers such as health visitors, charities, advice agencies and social services. They received food for 3 meals a day for 3 days, up to 3 times every 6 months. In 2015 the Cardiff Foodbank helped 12,140 people – equal to around 109,000 meals. Since it started 6 years ago numbers have increased by up to 20% a year. In giving help, the Foodbank affirms the God-given dignity of each person, however marginalised they may be.

Our 3 Churches began collecting food donations for the Cardiff Foodbank last Autumn. We have made a good start. To April we had donated 512kgs (in April 128kgs). This equates to feeding 37 people 3 meals for 3 days. Recently the 3 Churches Evangelisation Group looked at how we might consolidate and extend our support. We have identified several actions:

  • Promote the food collections – there are boxes in each church and posters showing the items needed & we have a group of people who deliver each week to the Foodbank warehouse (thank you to them)
  • Take responsibility for a supermarket collection – we have committed to covering a collection at Morrisons on Saturday 9 July 9am—5pm and we need around 20 volunteers to cover 2 hour slots (under 16s can help but need to be with an adult)
  • Fund-raising to help with warehouse rental, costs of food distribution and staff costs (just 4 people) – could you or your friends run a fund-raising event or do a sponsored activity? Could you give a personal donation?
  • Could you spare a few hours to work as a volunteer in the warehouse or at one of the food distribution centres?

Offers of help on 9 July please contact Terry Jermyn 2075 7489 / 07939 263403 Volunteering – contact The Foodbank Team 2048 4120, email info@cardifffoodbank.org.uk  or register your interest on-line at www.cardifffoodbank.org.uk

(Terry Jermyn & Elizabeth Taylor – 3 Churches Evangelisation Group)

Daps in the tramlines

Corpus Christi, newsletter

In the early 60s it was up and down, up and down St Peters Street; in the later 60s it was back and for, back and for across St Illtyd’s playground, Edgar Welch bellowing what sounded like “lift… lift…lift right lift”. On the day, it was marching round behind the jail, making sure you didn’t get stuck to the soft tar covering the old tram lines, or get caught in the bits that were still showing. It was the sound of St Albans or St Patricks Band somewhere up ahead belting out “Sweet Sacrament Divine” or “Sweet Heart of Jesus” or, of course, “Faith of Our Father”.

It was the build-up of the crowd from the Monument and up St Mary Street. It was maybe spotting Mum somewhere in there. Then it was the final turn in front of the castle and through the West Gate to the grassy scene. It was spotting all the different coloured school uniforms, until suddenly the girls were strewing their flowers. It was the Archbishop – or was he some kind of prince? – passing by and then blessing one and all with the fine golden monstrance. Or rather, Jesus blessing us in His bready Eucharistic reality.

By the late 1970s it was getting difficult to get the older school-kids to walk, and likewise, if we are honest, some of the teachers. Now it was a shorter walk, just from King Edward VII Avenue to the Arms Park for Mass.

In 1989, Archbishop Ward asked me to take over chairing the committee running the afternoon – a poisoned chalice, if ever there was one. 1994, and we held it in the then CIA and presented the delegates for the late- lamented diocesan Pastoral Congress held the next year. And that was it. It wasn’t “killed off” by the then Archbishop, at least not only – it was dying on its own.

Corpus Christi – then part of Catholic Cardiff. Now, of course, commemorated in bricks and mortar in our local High School’s name. Various processions have been held in different parts of our diocese since then – this year here in Nazareth House. Was it triumphalist? I don’t know… Caused traffic chaos? Difficult to say so after the Velothon…

What do you think?

Fr Matthew

From Rome to Cardiff

newsletter,

Philip Neri, (1515 – 25 May 1595), was an Italian priest noted for founding a society of secular clergy called the Congregation of the Oratory.

At the age of 18, after a religious conversion, he moved from Florence to Rome. He started to study, and began the labours among the sick and poor which, in later life, gained him the title of “Apostle of Rome”. He founded a Confraternity to minister to the needs of the poor pilgrims who flocked to Rome, and the poor and weak patients discharged from hospitals.

At 36 he was ordained priest, and settled at the Hospital and church of San Girolamo della Carità. In 1556, he founded the Oratory, but the plan at first was no more than a series of evening meetings in a hall (the Oratory), at which there were prayers, hymns, and readings, followed by a lecture, or discussion of some religious question. The musical selections were called oratorios. The members of the society undertook missionary work throughout Rome, such as the preaching of sermons in different churches, a completely new idea at that time. He spent much of his time hearing confessions, and gaining many conversions.

They moved to the parish of Santa Maria in Vallicella, where they built a larger church. Here Neri formally organized his community of secular priests, the Congregation of the Oratory. The congregation is unusual as the members live in community, but there are no vows. Each takes his turn in all the tasks and pays his own expenses.

St Philip Neri combined popularity with piety, against the background of a corrupt Rome and an uninterested clergy. He was ready to meet the needs of his day in a way which even the Jesuits could not match. He was a mystic, who sought God by helping his neighbour. He died 25 May 1595, and was canonized in 1622. The Oratory spread through Italy and France, and later other countries. They reached Britain in the 19th century with Blessed John Henry Newman, starting at Birmingham and later Brompton in London. Now they are in Oxford, Manchester and York, most recently in Bournemouth and now – Cardiff.

Fr Matthew (with a little help from Wikipedia)