6 attendees: OC = Owen Clutton (Chair), DB = Diana Betts, PL = Peter Lowe (Secretary), RW = Roger Wright, DM = David McCabe, CF = Clare Fisher
Apologies were received from: Teresa Wells, Fr Bryan, Kathryn Salter, Simon Howell, June Adams, Breda Ford.
Owen said the opening prayer and new member Clare Fisher was introduced and welcomed to the group.
1. NEW CHARITY TO SUCCEED UTA
OC: The possibility of an Indian priest staying in the parish will not now be happening because he was not able to get a visa and other factors considered by Fr Bryan and parish advisors. Therefore should we have a new parish charity to support?
RW thought we should even if the amounts collected are smaller than before.
DB: Perhaps collections could be just thrice yearly?
RW: But we have the CAFOD collections at Lent and October.
OC: These collections would not have to clash with CAFOD collections.
RW: It is important to remind children to be generous; usually they get quite enthusiastic about charitable giving. A project organised through the CAFOD Connect2 scheme, where parishes are matched to an overseas parish might provide a focus for St James’. Roger to follow this up with CAFOD.
RW: As an alternative we could also look at supporting the Orpington Foodbank or another project related to a Bromley area of deprivation.
DB: Perhaps we could alternate between Home and Third World charities, every other year?
Owen will look again at the possibility of supporting a parish in South Africa.
2. TRAIDCRAFT STALL
DM: Suggested the next stalls could be run on 22-23 October and 19-20 November. We were unsuccessful in getting a stall at the Autumn Festival, as this did not fit in with their ethos of parish crafts and home grown produce. The biggest customer so far has been the parish itself. David has supplied products to the Social Centre kitchen for example.
RW: Showed a Fairtrade poster designed by a child and wondered if St James’ School could produce a number of posters which could be used to advertise and decorate the stall. David said he would look into this idea. It was also suggested that the school might consider running a Fairtrade tuckshop, selling only healthy items, if this was not already done.
DM: Asked if we should aim to have a Fairtrade stall at both the school fairs?
3. CAFOD livesimply PARISH AWARD
RW: Explained that although the J&P Group can instigate the scheme, it will be the parish as a whole that must adopt and support it. Therefore as a first step a livesimply group is needed to discuss the scheme and promote it to the parish if it is considered feasible.
DB: It is an enormous project but we have already started what would be the next stage?
RW: That would be the registration of 9 chosen activities to show how 3 principles are put into action over the next two years. One substantial and 2 supporting activities would be chosen from the three principles of living simply. These are:
Simply only take what we need
Sustainably consider our impact on others
In solidarity make a commitment to the common good
The CAFOD information pack gives many examples of practical and spiritual activities and we would be free to invent our own with their approval. Some of these activities would be part of the liturgy and prayer life of the parish.
RW agreed to circulate the notes he had written summarising the first stages of the awards scheme.
DB: Suggested we should approach groups such as the CWL, SVP & KSC to ask for representatives to join a livesimply group. RW agreed to contact all parish groups asking them to consider sending a representative to an initial meeting.
PL: One of the many examples of supporting actions was the installation of bike racks. Ours installed two years ago are well utilised.
RW: Quite a few parishes are getting signed up now to the scheme, e.g.: Ealing Abbey have made a start and installed bike racks and planted a meditation garden.
RW: If there is encouragement from the initial meeting, then we might ask Kevin McCulloch – chief coordinator of the livesimply at CAFOD – to launch the scheme for the parish from the pulpit.
4. BROMLEY AREAS OF DEPRIVATION
OC: Suggested we could help the Orpington Foodbank by providing food donated at St James’ as we do for the Manna Centre? Unfortunately, Owen had not managed to find anyone from the council who can talk to us about specific help for the Bromley deprived.
RW had obtained the list for the Foodbank from the Holy Innocents’ website. They require foodstuffs rather than a variety of goods requested by the Manna Centre.
RW: The next Manna Centre collection will be on 08-09 October. Perhaps we can organise a collection for the Orpington Foodbank at a later date.
OC: Are we just duplicating the work done at the Manna Centre?
RW: 30,000 people in the Orpington area are living in poverty so if we can help it would be worthwhile.
DM: We should support this as it is local and mainly affects families, whereas the Manna Centre caters mainly for single males.
RW: I can ask the Foodbank if a delivery to them around 05 December would be helpful.
RW agreed to contact the Foodbank to make an initial enquiry. [It was later agreed with DM and Fr Bryan that our weekend commitments were currently too congested.]
OC: I will send Madeleine an e-mail to check that the date for the next Manna Centre is OK.
RW & OC: to find wheelie bins and place them at the back of the church on Saturday morning.
RW to help at 9.15 Mass, OC and PL to assist at 11.00 Mass but arrive early. DB & MO to assist at 6.00pm Mass.
5. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
DM: The annual CAFOD lecture will be on Friday 18 November, starting at 7.15pm in St Michael’s on the Commercial Road, the cost is £6 per ticket. The speaker will be Fr Christopher Jamison OSB, whose lecture is entitled “Charity begins at home: but what is charity and where is home”. If anyone is interested, they should let David know by 14 October.
OC: Our next meeting will be on 19th October.
RW: With regard to the ActionAid Biofuels scandal, I requested 20 more petition cards but have not received them yet. Crops and forest are being destroyed in order to grow biofuel material. ActionAid has been partly successful in getting the UK government to press the EU to drop the compulsory increase of the biofuel content of road fuel from 4% to 8%. Once we have the postcards, posting en mass to the lobby organisers is preferred.
RW: Mary Ingledew has some recycling ideas to propose to us the next meeting. Also recently ‘Dispatches’ on Channel 4, featured the appalling practices used to mine and process ore to make gold. At the moment producing one gold ring produces 20 tonnes of waste. The programme exposed the terrible use of child labourers who are exposed to toxic chemicals during the mining. To protest at this there is a campaign website which you can visit: www.nodirtygold.org. There is also information about gold which is certified as being from ethical sources, including recycled gold.
OC: I am on holiday next month so will not be at the next J&P meeting, but I will be able to help out at the Traidcraft stall at the 11.00am Mass on 20 November.
There being no other business, the meeting closed at approximately 9.05pm.