Canons Regular of Prémontré, Parish of Our Lady of England, Storrington, UK
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UPCOMING FUNDRAISING EVENTS
PENTECOST VIGIL LITURGY & PARTY SATURDAY 10 MAY 2008 Our Liturgy will be followed by a procession to the Pentecost Fire in the garden where we will burn our Garment of Suffering Followed by fireworks, food & drink Tickets on sale after all Masses as from Sunday 13 April @Ł2.00 adult/Ł1.00 under 16’s (price includes chilli & your first glass of wine – licensed bar thereafter) ALL PROCEEDS TO GO TO OUR ZSAMBEK PROJECT
LENT 2008 The church collections, donations and lunches raised a total of Ł1,721.96 for the Project. Of this over Ł1,000 was subject to Gift Aid yielding Ł279.04 from the Inland Revenue. Thus a most generous sum of Ł2,001 for Zsambek has come from your Lent efforts. Many congratulations to all. At the beginning of Lent Shelagh McGovern wrote, "So little time has passed since we sent that amazing "one-off" gift of Ł6,893 to Sr. Katharine, and - here we go again. Starting on Ash Wednesday, 6th February, our friends and protégés in Zsambek will benefit from our Parish's generosity from our Lent Project. And it will indeed be back to the nitty-gritty as Sr. Katharine will use our Easter gift for the Food Fund. This means that the Day Care children and the School pupils will have hot lunches six days a week and that there will be Saturday food parcels for 60+ families. A "no frills" programme but a vital support to ensure the health and strength of the families we have adopted.
Final figures are now available for our two recent giant fund-raising efforts. Although the Tax Rebate due through Gift Aided Donations will not be received by the parish until later in the year we will include this element in the final figure and pay it out now to the charities. The Zsambek total is Ł6,893 - who could have thought this sum would be raised by an initial output of Ł250 in fifty envelopes each containing Ł5? Much work, effort and inventiveness went into raising this magnificent sum. It was with some trepidation that we launched our Advent Project seeking to raise Ł3,400 to buy a New Classroom from CAFOD's World Gift's Christmas Catalogue. Our thanks go to our parish youth who set up the Advent Crib with its classroom walls. The sum raise, plus its Gift Aid is another wonderful Ł3,561 which will perhaps also buy some chalk for the blackboard! Please congratulate yourself on raising over Ł10,000 in not much more than 10 weeks.
Sr. Katharina from Zsámbék e-mailed: "On this way I would like to thank you for the generosity of you, your community, Shelagh McGovern and the whole parish, that made such a big donation for our poor families. We have received the 6.000-GBP today. We know, what a big work and sharing love is behind it, looking for the profit of the Talents. And we also know, that it is an enormous big amount, to spend it well for the families. We try to find out the need of our families. I am not sure about that we cannot spend it before Christmas, but it will be very useful also after it. You have made a big Christmasbox for us and for our poor families. So you yourselves became ‗Christmas Boxes‘ for us. So you will also be under our Christmas tree and we shall make a big box as well, a boksz of prayer‘ for all of you. May the Lord bless you all and give the talents back to you. The Premonstratensian Sisters and the fathers wish you and your community and also to your parish community merry Christmas and a blessed New Year".
Shelagh McGovern writes: "I rather daringly, thought what a brilliant achievement it would be to add a 'nought‘ to the original Ł350 and send a whopping Ł3,500 to Zsámbék! In your generosity of heart you almost doubled that and Sister Katharina‘s e-mail gives us an idea of the joy our gift has given. She phoned me to say she could 'make Christmas SHINE‘ and still have money over. She asked if she could spend some on slightly larger items. For example, the life of an old cooking stove of one family with six children came to an end last week and they have no means of heating food – could she get them a new‘ second hand one? I said - yes - on your behalf. Is that alright? Any money over will be divided between two funds. One is the 'Food Fund‘ – with an obvious purpose and the other is an 'Appreciation‘ fund designed to stimulate more art and music in their lives, both within the school and through visits to galleries, concerts, museums. That way we‘ve provided for the best of both worlds – an idea very close to my heart and I thank you so much for sharing it with me".
Pasta Lunch for Zsámbék organised by Clare Fay on Friday 30th November
Our fund-raising during Lent 2007, when we continued our ongoing support for the Norbertine Schools in the parish of Zsámbék some 25 miles from Budapest, raised Ł6,540.Many congratulations and many thanks to all who were so generous. The Day Care Centre in Zsámbék was designed to help, primarily, the gypsy children by feeding them before and after normal day school and by providing a place for both homework and extra lessons. The Vocational School was set up to teach young adults job skills such as catering, dress making, building, carpentry etc. to help them find employment in the area rather than have them drift into the city and all the problems that brings.
Shelagh McGovern sent the following report in February 2007 from Hungary: “Greetings from Zsámbék! It’s good to be back here as a part of this active “family” of all ages 0 – 90. Whenever I’m here I wish all our parishioners could be with me to see for themselves what their support and encouragement has achieved over the years. I hope to bring back some photographs and information that will give an up-dated picture but meanwhile you’ll be interested, I think in a few statistics I’ve gathered since I arrived. The school is now 480 strong (when that project started in 1996 there were 16 ‘students’ from 15-20yrs). The Day Care Centre numbers are consistent, 75-80 this year against 82 in1994! Entry into the EU has imposed financial burdens on all, but particularly on the non-waged, and we are now supporting 38 families with food and payment of household bills. An added burden arose in January when the Government withdrew all financial help for food in the Day Care Centre – loss of eleven thousand pounds sterling from this year’s budgeted income – to be made up; how? the mind boggles! Nevertheless there are wonderful compensations, there’s an air of self worth here now, a pride in achievement, and a sense of security in the face of adversity that were unthinkable in 1994. It’s really a small miracle that, since the first students left in 2000, 407 young people have gone into the world, educated at Matura and beyond and with skills that qualify them to earn a living".
Please click on the thumbnails below to see a variety of pictures from Zsámbék |
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