5 attendees: OC = Owen Clutton, DB = Diana Betts, PL = Peter Lowe, MM = Mary O’Mahony, RW = Roger Wright (secretary).

Apologies were received from: Fr Bryan, David McCabe, Simon Howell, Breda Ford, John Warren, June Adams, Kathryn Salter, Jim Callinan.

1.          CAFOD LiveSimply and Connect2

MM and RW reported that the LiveSimply group hadn’t met since the last J&P meeting but progress had been made on the interviews with parish group representatives.

RW had spoken to Sarah Westrap of the Southwark CAFOD office about Connect2.  Sarah confirmed that St James’ wouldn’t have exclusive adoption of a community overseas but it would be shared with other Southwark parishes.  It was agreed this could be an advantage in that our parish would still have direct communication with a community but not have sole responsibility for it.

RW was asked to contact CAFOD for more information about how the scheme works.  In particular to make the following enquiries:

Which of the countries on CAFOD’s list might be least supported and thus welcome our help more;

get some idea of the kind of support required (this may be described in the literature on the website);

check on language issues (i.e. it would be easier if we had our own translator or the community had an English speaker);

would we have the opportunity to sponsor particular small projects rather than sharing them all with other parishes;

are all the sponsored communities Catholic ones;

would our relationship end when CAFOD’s work was complete and it moves on to another region in that country;

do we get a choice of communities having selected the country?

2.          Orpington Foodbank collection

The quantity of food donated by parishioners was very generous once again.  It amounted to 231 kilograms, sufficient to feed 20 people for a week.  It was delivered by Owen Clutton, Diana Betts and June Adams.  The J&P group was also very grateful for the assistance of Rosemary Clutton and June’s friend Margaret.

3.          Traidcraft stalls

OC had not received any information from David McCabe about how we might continue running the Traidcraft stalls.  David is very busy with work and sadly because he needs to visit his mother in hospital.

DB and OC offered to assist Breda Ford sort through the stock to see what sell-by dates need to be observed.  They might help her find items which could be most easily sold in the repository as agreed at the last meeting.

[Subsequently RW spoke to Breda and discovered that the stock cupboard had been flooded and was in a bit of a mess.  Breda hadn't had time to investigate the damage.  The ingress of water was caused by a copper downpipe having been stolen a few weeks ago and not yet having been replaced.  Breda also confirmed there were no further jars of coffee in the stock so the kitchen cannot be replenished from that source.]

4.          UTA communications

There was a supporters’ meeting on 10 April but none of the group were able to attend.  OC had asked for the minutes to be sent.  Fr Arbo had promised to send some financial information about the Makomu Hospital project as soon as it had been converted from the local currency.

5.          Any Other Business

RW read from some notes he had prepared about biofuels.  The points included the following information:

ActionAid continues its campaign against this immoral use of food growing land to make vehicle fuel.  It has produced an amusing spoof video highlight the stupidity of this policy.  The video would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic, but at least most of the unsuspecting public involved in making the video thought it very wrong to steal food from the poor in this way.

The problem is that the EU is currently insisting that 10% of our vehicle fuel should come from ‘renewable’ sources by 2020.  The use of plant sourced biofuel is a quick fix to meet that objective and this tactic is simply exporting a problem to the already hungry 1 billion.

The amount of plant material required to fill a typical 4x4 tank with 10% biofuel in a year would feed 2 children over the same period.

On a positive note, the Carluccio chain of 54 restaurants is now having its waste cooking oil collected for processing into biofuel.

The meeting agreed that the J&P group was ready to adopt some new topics and could benefit from general invigoration.  One way of achieving this might be to observe J&P groups in other parishes.  Someone mentioned that St Patrick’s, Chislehurst, seemed to deal with more practical activities at their meetings.  It was important for our members to be interested in the activities and choose topics which engage them.  This issue will be discussed at the next meeting; a good attendance would ensure as wide a range of members’ views as possible were taken into account.

The CWL meeting on Monday 30 April would be open to all at 8.30pm when a visiting speaker will address the issue of Religious Freedom in the Workplace.  It was agreed the subject was interesting and J&P members should consider attending for that reason as well as supporting the CWL initiative in arranging this event.

There being no other business, the meeting closed at approximately 9.10pm.