Dear Friends
Yesterday I attended a couple of meetings about our Development Appeal and forthcoming Flower and Music Festival.. There is good news to share – 2019 was a good year for our fundraising, through the amazing efforts of our volunteers we raised just over £42,000. We hope to maintain the momentum this year and additionally begin our applications to some trusts and funding bodies for substantial sums of money. We always need more volunteers – if you have skills in webdesign, graphic design, if you have skills in funding applications, or indeed know of any trusts we might apply to, please speak to me, Susan Marshall, or Chris Lucy we really would love to hear from you.
Simon
P.S Sunday 2nd February we will be starting the sick list on the Mass Sheets afresh – please advise the office if you would like any of the existing names to be kept on the list.
Dear Friends
We are currently in the middle of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which this year runs from January 18th to 25th. This is an annual initiative whereby Christian communities throughout the world are invited to pray for one another and for greater Christian Unity. The theme for this year is ‘They showed an unusual kindness’, which finds its origins in Acts 27:18-28:10. Resources prepared this year by the Christian Churches in Malta and Gozo and are summarised below.
On 10th February many Christians in Malta celebrate the Feast of the Shipwreck of St Paul, marking and giving thanks for the arrival of Christian faith on these islands. The reading from the Acts of the Apostles used for the feast is the text chosen for this year’s Week of Prayer. Hospitality is a much-needed virtue in our search for Christian unity. It calls us to a greater generosity to those in need. The people who showed unusual kindness to Paul and his companions did not yet know Christ, and yet it is through their unusual kindness that a divided people were drawn closer together. Our own Christian unity will be discovered not only through showing hospitality to one another, but also through loving encounters with those who do not share our language, culture or faith. In such tempestuous journeys and chance encounters, God’s will for his Church and all people comes to fulfilment. As Paul will proclaim in Rome, this salvation of God has been sent to all peoples (see Acts 28:28)
With every blessing
Mother Eileen