Charities
Ilkley half marathon 2023
Tom Lally and Tom and Chris Inglehearn will be running the Ilkley half marathon on July 16th and are fundraising for the Burley-Téréli Friendship Trust (https://btft.org.uk/). It’s a good cause, as many of you know, and one that our Parish community has supported generously over the last 20 years. With your help, BTFT have achieved so much to help improve the living conditions of our friends in Téréli, digging wells, building schools, providing famine relief and helping in many other ways. If you feel able to support us once again we’d really appreciate it. We have a Just Giving page (https://www.justgiving.com/page/chris-inglehearn-1687016461252), but if you prefer, feel free to catch one of us at mass. We may also stand at the back with a sponsor form after some masses.
Thank you,
Chris, Tom and Tom.
ADVENT COLLECTIONS 2021
Our Parish family is known for its immense generosity in many ways. Once again, several opportunities to care for others and reflect in a little way the love Christ gave to the world is through our Advent collections for a few charities……. Catholic Care would be most grateful to receive for its Gianna Baby Bank Plus charity for babies up to a year of age and their mothers any toiletries you can donate. For the babes…..e.g. baby bath lotions and washes, tissues, wipes, but not talc or ear buds. Also bibs, dummies, nappies, Sudocrem, Sponges, Tiny toys and all items suitable for up to one year of age. Mums have loved their wash bags items and little extras from body washes to breast pads, you know better than me. Our giving re-stocks the Baby bank for the following 12months.
Your beautiful gifts of clothing are always welcome but there is also this real need for toiletries
Large items such as push chairs always find an immediate home THANK YOU The babies collection cradle will be in the foyer from 20th November to the 20th December.
We support several charities, both at parish and individual levels. Details of how we are doing this are given below. Please see our CAFOD webpage for further information.
Catholic Care and St Anne’s Shelter Christmas Collections and how we can safely help without putting ourselves or others at risk.
2020 is a very different year for us all not least all the charities we support at Christmas. Hopefully, we can give some support which is so much relied upon. Please find details here for a brief insight of the work Catholic Care Social and Community worker teams have been doing the Covid challenging summer. We can help make it happen again this winter.
- Catholic Care Christmas Presents for children
Each year we take a gift label with the age of a child and attach it to a small gift for the child e.g. a boy of 10 years a girl of 4 or 14… This year whilst we cannot collect individual gifts we could place in a sealed envelope a small donation to go towards buying stocking filler gifts for the many children including the boys in the Children’s home, whom Catholic Care will visit and support this year.
There is no doubt the care will be all the more needed and a Christmas with food and gifts will carry these families through the dark days.
- For the Mums and Babies up to one year of age.
Over the last few years we have filled a cradle [Stella’s cradle] several times. Once again this year the Catholic Care Gianna Baby Bank would love our support, some stocks are non-existent. Unfortunately, this year we are not collecting handmade baby clothes but later on we will be able to do that. The Charity would love to receive any of these ‘safe’ items for babies…
Baby wash. Baby shampoo. Soft Bath Sponges in sellophane wrap. Baby towels. Nappies up to 1 year size. Nappy bags. Sudocrem. [Baby talc is no longer encouraged for babies] Baby rattles/toys up to one year which can help entertain /stimulate…. Pre-loved are great too! The charity are confident with their sanitising care.
Mums need:
Wash /toiletries bags to take into hospital
Shower gel, shampoo, toothbrush, maternity pads, breast pads… all VERY welcome.
Another idea is a Boots voucher for purchasing Milk Formula.
St Anne’s Shelter which helps the homeless people of Leeds with advice, support, hot showers and laundry needs LOTS OF WARM NEW ITEMS OVER THE CHRISTMAS WEEKS.
PLEASE could you help with bringing one or two of these items … socks, gloves, hats, scarves, boxer shorts, t-shirts, toiletries. These gifts will mean so much to the Homeless of our neighbouring city. P.S. If you prefer to put a little donation to cover the cost of socks or another item, please just pop it into and envelope marked St Anne’s and pop it through the Presbytery door. THANK YOU for your care.
If you would like to give any of these item/s there will be a safe outdoor collection system in place when church is open for prayer, on SUNDAYS 9am to 11am from 8th November to 5th December. Envelopes can be popped through the Presbytery/church house door at any time. THANK YOU. Wendy, Sue, Clare and all Parish Family friends who have offered to help transport should our collection manage to be a significant one.
Contact number for enquiries
Sue 07939063120.
SUPPORTING FAIRTRADE and our dedicated rep Hilary for Christmas cards, gifts and Advent calendars.
Hilary would love to receive orders for Advent calendars. Please let her know what you would like and we will get them to you in good time. Hilary can give you the BACs/Bank transfer details or if you seal cash in an envelope that is ok as is a cheque, but please ask her for the payee detail.
Hilary can be reached on 07811385589. She has cards and gifts galore. If you request a catalogue we can get it to you.
We are a Fairtrade church so do give your support. Thank you in anticipation.
On Tuesday 21st April 2020 we received news we had been dreading from our friends in Tereli and elsewhere in Mali, subsequently confirmed by France 24 News and on the Mali Interest Group webpage. Téréli, and another nearby village, Armani, were attacked by as many as 300 well-armed bandits who arrived on motorbikes to loot the villages and take the cattle. For three hours a few young people tried to hold them off with hunting rifles, while others hid in their houses or fled to the caves in the cliff overlooking Tereli. In the end the assailants made off with around 500 cattle, even taking the oxen used to cultivate with plough. Initially the villagers thought there had been no casualties, but the day after, the bodies of 12 young men were found and a further 6 are still missing.
The mayor of a nearby town was quoted as saying the attackers had been Fulani. Militant attacks in Mali often have an ethnic dimension. The pastoralist Fulani people are accused of being close to jihadists, a perception which has led to tit-for-tit massacres between them and traditional Dogon hunters, the ethnic group from whom most of the people of Tereli originate. The Malian state has been little in evidence and the appeals of local people for support fall on deaf ears. One of the largest bases of the Malian army is located in Sévaréonly 100 km away, but the army has made no effort to intervene or defend the villages from attack, and the situation remains unstable, with the armed bandits are still not far from Tereli.
With regard to COVID 19, the number of positive cases in Mali is increasing, though as yet there are still none that anyone is aware of in Tereli – though there has been no testing either. There is a fear of community contamination. Even in the capital Bamako there is little access to testing. In Zakari’s hospital he tells us they have masks, gloves and alcohol-based gel, but none of the full PPE available in the NHS. Nevertheless essential surgical procedures continue.
With your help, the BTFT will do everything we can to help the people of Tereli.
A Prayer from Burley for Tereli, written by the Reverend Mirella Moxon, Chair of the BTFT Trustee Board.
Heavenly Father, Our hearts are beating out a message of anguish and distress to you this day. We pound out our cry on behalf of all those who are captive to the evils of a deadly virus. We pound out our message for all those who are struggling for their lives and livelihoods because of climate change. We pound out our prayers for those who are now living in daily fear of banditry and terrorism.
Loving Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, hear the drum-beat of our hearts as we pray for help and healing, for justice and peace, for a cure for Covid 19, for an end to all forms of violence, brutality and banditry. Hear us as our hearts beat out a prayer for a worldwide response to climate change.
Heavenly Father, We are your Easter people, full of resurrection hope. Hope for renewal and the restoration of faith and love. We declare that through the death and resurrection of Your Son nothing, not even death, can separate us from your love. Truly death has lost its sting.
By the power of Your Holy Spirit, be with our loved ones, be with our friends in Tereli and The Dogon Region of Mali, West Africa, terrorised as they are by ruthless bandits and the fear of Covid 19.
Give them resourcefulness as they struggle to survive in one of the harshest environments on earth now beset by climate change. Give them the strength and courage they need to deal with the evils they presently face from violent attack and a deadly virus.
Loving God, listen to the pounding drum-beat message of our hearts and in your mercy:
Hear our prayer.
In Jesus’ name we pray
Amen
Mary’s Meals
We have received this message of hope from Bethany Barry, MM’s regional manager in Leeds:
“I hope you and your parishioners are keeping well. This is usually a time where we at Mary’s Meals would be reaching out to you to ask if we can share our story with your parishioners but, due to the coronavirus, we know that will not be possible. Until we can be together again, our founder, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, has recorded a special message for your parishioners. You can find his message, filmed outside the shed in Argyll where it all began for Mary’s Meals, here. Also you can see the moving films, Child 31 and Generation Hope. A children’s activity pack, based on the story of Mary’s Meals, is also available to download here.
“Please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers, and we look forward to meeting you again soon. If you would like to register interest in hosting a talk from one of our volunteers when it is safe to do so, please get in touch 😊 May the Lord bless and keep you,
Bethany
- – Maternity services and facilities
- – Wells providing clean drinking water – essential for health
- – Building and equipping a secondary school
- – Emergency famine relief in times of drought
- – Building and equipping a new Dispensary
- – Environmental projects: measures to prevent soil erosion, planting trees, planting grasses to hold back encroaching desert
- – Supporting a fully qualified medical doctor now working in the capital Bamako
On 14th July 2019 Team BTFT took part in the Ilkley Half Marathon to raise money for much needed palliative care for cancer – in Bamako, Mali, West Africa. An amazing £7,900 was raised.
Catholic Care’s care and concern for the disadvantaged, vulnerable and marginalised in society springs from the social teachings of the Catholic Church. It delivers a wide range of services within the Diocese of Leeds, see Catholic Care for further details. Its mission says ‘In everything we do, we strive to show how the teachings of Christian love, charity and justice can shape the way we live together. We aim to achieve this by taking the caring church into the community and offering practical services and support for anyone who is disadvantaged, vulnerable or marginalised, regardless of their faith.’
Bishop Marcus’ March 2017 pastoral letter summarises Catholic Care’s work, see Pastoral letter -Catholic Care
All Catholic Care’s films can be found at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRQVews00CP390BVmPGhyUQ
The Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/catholiccareleeds
Mary’s Meals
Mary’s Meals vision is that every child receives one daily meal in their place of education and that all those who have more than they need, share with those who lack even the most basic things.
In September 2017 the parish, family and friends sponsored Keith running for Mary’s Meals in the Great North Run. We raised £205 in our cake sale and over £1,000 from parish and online donations. Many thanks!
Once again fantastic support from the parish, families and friends for Brendan, Chris and Keith, raising over £2,600. We ran for Mary’s Meals in the May 2018 Leeds half marathon.
In summer 2017 we collected teaspoons and hand towels that were included in over 115 backpacks for children in Malawi. See the letter of thanks from Mary’s Meals and photos of the backpacks being collected and being transported for delivery. backpackthanksfromMM
At Easter 2018 the total number of backpacks sent to Malawi and also to Liberia was over 300.
Krzysia and June loading the backpacks.
News
Thank you Fr Michael
A Wonderful Weekend What a wonderful weekend our Parish Family enjoyed. So many people came to celebrate Mass together. On Saturday evening we gathered after Mass for the blessing prayers for the newly installed defibrator. On Sunday a Mass we welcomed Josephine and Colin with their family to give thanks to the Lord for their […]
New fruit trees
In December 2022 Frances and Keith bought two fruit trees, an apple and a Victoria plum, a bag of soil conditioner and stakes to hold the trees in position. Mike and Keith dug out two holes in the garden (they are to the left of the presbytery) and placed the trees (still in their pots) […]
Fr Barrie Holmes
With great sadness I have to let you know that Fr Barrie Holmes died in St Gemma’s Hospice on the evening of Friday 19th November. He was our Parish Priest for some very special years. It was he who re-ordered our lovely Church, and help make it the lovely place / centre we all love. […]
Pope Francis’ on Thought for the Day for climate change
Dear BBC listeners, Good Morning. “Climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic have exposed our deep vulnerability and raised numerous doubts and concerns about our economic systems and the way we organise our societies. “We have lost our sense of security and are experiencing a sense of powerlessness and loss of control over our lives. “We […]
Bug Hotel
We have built a bug hotel from an old wooden pallet, a milk crate and some unused fencing panels. We gave it a new roof and covered it with roofing felt to make it last a long time. It is in place and now open for visitors! Our children will be filling it soon with […]
Jack’s hedgehog hotel
Jack and his grandad John have teamed up to build an amazing hedgehog hotel for their holiday project. Jack cut the tunnel and legs to size, he then drilled, glued and screwed the box and tunnel together leaving grandad to cover the box and fit the lid. The hotel is now in the Parish garden […]