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21th July 2021 COVID-19 – OUR RESPONSE We have been given guidance from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales to help us contain the Coronavirus, and several measures have now been put in place at St Aidan’s to help keep our parishioners safe.
These measures are all intended to reduce the physical contact between individuals. However, the best way of protecting us from the spread of the virus is still for everyone to use universal good hygiene, particularly washing your hands regularly. If you have cold or flu symptoms, or a temperature, please refrain from attending Mass until you are well again. 7th August 2020 You do not need to wear a face covering if you have a legitimate reason not to. Please be mindful and respectful of others circumstances, as their reasons may not be visible to others. We expect everyone without an exemption (for further information please click here) to bring and wear a face covering, and will assume anyone arriving without one has a valid reason not to. 31st July 2020 17th July 2020 The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), of which CAFOD is an active member, launched a nationwide Coronavirus appeal on Tuesday 14th July. This month, as the DEC raises awareness of the global situation, CAFOD are asking the Catholic community to keep those worst affected in their thoughts, prayers and where possible, their alms giving. If you would like to donate to the appeal please go to: https://cafod.org.uk/ Thank you so much for your support. RESTORE HOPE - URGENT REQUEST FOR VOLUNTEER DRIVERS Dear Parish, For the last few months, we have been making deliveries of both fresh food boxes and frozen meals to families in our local area who are currently facing challenging circumstances and financial crisis. We are also working with a number of referral partners who are continuing to refer more families to us in need of help. In order to do this, we rely on an amazing team of volunteer delivery drivers. At each home where a delivery is made, our drivers offer to pray for the family - this has led to literally thousands of opportunities to pray for people on their doorsteps - and we have seen some miraculous answers to prayer, and opportunities to share the good news of Jesus. Over the summer, as some furlough schemes come to an end, and others are managing some time away, we are finding ourselves desperately short of delivery drivers, and are appealing for new volunteers who would be willing to help out. Deliveries take place between midday and around 2.30pm, usually on Wednesdays and Thursdays - we always endeavour to ensure that deliveries are allocated within a single geographical area, and that drivers only make between 4 and 5 deliveries on any given day. Training is also provided. We would love to hear from anyone who would be interested in joining our team (there is no age limit!) The link to apply online can be found here: Volunteer Application Form Every blessing, 29th May 2020 22nd May 2020 MISSIO APPEAL 12th May 2020 8th May 2020 RELATIONSHIP UNDER STRESS? BreakThrough is an online course that teaches participants how conflict arises, and how to take simple steps to heal the wounds and restore hope. It is private, confidential and effective and can be worked through in three hours. BreakThrough Online can be taken by a couple, or just one of them individually, and can be accessed at any time. For more details please use this link: https://smartloving.org/bto-uk Currently there's a reduced price of £24: if that cost is prohibitive for you, and we know that finances are a major difficulty just now for so many people, email mflnrcd@gmail.com as we will be able to offer some assistance for those in greatest need and we will send you an access code. Your email will be strictly confidential and used in line with GDPR. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSE
1st May 2020 LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO THE FAITHFUL FOR THE MONTH OF MAY LETTER FROM BISHOP DAVID TO FIRST HOLY COMMUNION AND CONFIRMATION CANDIDATES Letter to First Holy Communion Candidates Letter to Confirmation Candidates PRAYER AND SUNDAY LITURGY FOR CHILDREN 28th April 2020 The Catenians are an association of Catholic laymen who are committed to their Faith, their families, to those in need and to each other. Our primary purpose is to establish a network of friends which enhances their family life, strengthens their faith and sustains them in difficult times. We support each other, the Catholic Church, young people and those in need in our community. In 2012 the Chiltern Catenian Circle, adopted a scheme to collect money at their meetings to help the destitute and the homeless. The concept was that there was to be an "Empty Chair" at each meeting to represent a poor person who could not afford to join us and we were invited to "make a donation" to buy this person a meal. This has proved to be a very successful project and during the past seven years the Chiltern Catenians have been able to donate a total of £6,500 to local charities supporting those in need. As we were unable to meet physically in April our meeting was held with the help of the Zoom Application. One of the matters of concern to us was the need to support the local food banks who are in urgent need of financial support. At that time, we had £350 available for the Empty Chair and we agreed to set a target of £1,000 to provide £250 to each of four local food banks. Within two days of the meeting contributions to the Empty Chair exceeded £1,000 and £250 each was given to the Chiltern Foodbank in Chesham, the Aylesbury Vineyard Storehouse, Leighton Buzzard Homeless and DENS in Hemel Hempstead. If you are interested in finding out more about the Catenians, please email the office who will pass your details on. 24th April 2020 17th April 2020 STOREHOUSE BOXES OF HOPE VIDEO UPDATE
14th April 2020 7th April 2020 Storehouse Funding Update We received this message this afternoon from one of the families: "A lovely woman delivered two boxes. It was absolutely wonderful. It did seem selfish to keep all of these goodies so I delivered some toys to my neighbours. A boy round the corner said it was just like Christmas!!! It was lovely to hear. I can't thank you enough for these toys... thank you so so much for your kindness, it has meant so much to us." As you know, we are seeking to provide 1000 Boxes of Hope as well as 1000 Easter Blessing boxes which we are giving away free. Thanks to your generosity, we have already raised £30,000 towards our target of £40,000 which is helping to fund this scheme. If you would still like to make a donation to help us reach our target, it's not too late! Donations can be made here https://www.restorehopelatimer.org/donate/ If you are interested in volunteering, please email info@restorehopelatimer.org Once again, thank you so much for your response. We really believe that whilst this current crisis is deeply impacting all of us, we have an unprecedented opportunity to love and to serve those in need. 6th April 2020 3rd April 2020 In response to the increasing level of demand from vulnerable children and families, Restore Hope has set up a new volunteer partnership project called ‘Storehouse’ in partnership with volunteers from local churches, Chiltern Foodbank and others from across the community. They are planning to give away free 1000 Kids Boxes of Hope. (These will contain all sorts of craft items, indoor and outdoor games and fun stuff to keep children happy) and 1000 Easter Blessing Boxes. (These will contain quality Easter Eggs for the family, details of The Easter Story of the Death & Resurrection of Jesus and other items for children). Every box will also have a flyer inside it saying that this is from Storehouse and is a gift from Local Churches working in partnership with Foodbank. With demand for emergency food forecast to escalate rapidly, they are also working with Foodbank to source significant quantities of food from wholesalers so they can pick and pack 1000's of boxes a week and distribute to Foodbank and Church hubs across the region. They have the following critical needs and if parishioners could help in any way, details can be found below:- 1) They urgently need financial donations to pay for the Easter items in the Easter Blessing Box, the craft items in the Kids Box of Hope and all the packaging and health equipment to pack them safely. (2000 boxes). The average pack boxed cost to Restore Hope will be approx. £20 so they need to raise a minimum of £40,000 to fund this. 2) Many more volunteers are needed for picking and packing. More specialist volunteer roles are also required. E.g. Shift Supervisors, Order Clerks, Volunteer processing, admin support, phone lines, Fundraisers, Printing, Cleaners, Drivers. 3) Chiltern Foodbank is now based at Latimer and will need more financial donations to enable the purchase of food that they will pack. https://chiltern.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-money/ 4) Pray for the whole project and the families who receive these items. Pray for provision of the food we need to fill the foodbank boxes. 1st April 2020 31st March 2020. 24th March 2020 As we won't be able to meet in person, if you wish, please send a sentence or two on what you've noticed in this week's prayer material to Joanna at jchale@earthling.net or phone and leave a message on 01494 724487 by the end of Saturday. She will compile and circulate the contributions to those contributing and anyone else who has been praying with the material and requests it. Please say if you would like your Christian or full name to be included with your sentence(s) or if you prefer to remain anonymous, that's fine - just say so. The note will be blind copied: no-one else's email addresses will be revealed. |