Birmingham newsletter

Summer 2012

One pilgrim walks from Birmingham to London, and 60,421 actions are collected for our Thirst for Change campaign

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Summer greetings from your

CAFOD diocesan office!

Welcome to the summer edition

of the Birmingham newsletter.

We like to make this newsletter as

local as possible; it is our

opportunity to recognise

everything that happens in our

Archdiocese where so many do so

much to show their solidarity with

the poorest in the world. Do keep

sending us in photos and stories.

We also put a selection of them

onto our blog at

cafod.org.uk/birmingham.

The past few months have been

very busy and it has been

inspiring to witness the response

to the Government’s pledge to

match-fund donations to CAFOD’s

Lent appeal. We have been

overwhelmed by the generosity

shown by parishes, schools and

groups throughout the

Archdiocese. So far we have

received over £290,000 in the

Birmingham Archdiocese.

Thank you!

As well as funding water projects

around the world, CAFOD has

been campaigning for access to

safe water and sanitation for all.

The Thirst for Change campaign

has been very well supported;

nationwide 60,421 messages

were sent to Downing Street! In

our diocese, songs were written,

art was created and people

walked alongside and with water

to show their solidarity with

people like Esther who gets up

every morning at 5am to walk to

fetch water for her family in

Zambia. Jim Quinn has done a lot

of walking—from St Chad’s in

Birmingham to Downing Street in

London—see page 4.

Julia has visited many parishes

recently speaking about her visit

to Ethiopia. If you would like her

to come to your parish or group,

do get in touch.

We can send this newsletter via

email, for free! If you would

prefer the electronic version, let

us know.

We’ve chosen this time to tell you

a little about how legacies left to

CAFOD make a difference. We

enclose a booklet about our

legacies work, and see page 7.

With best wishes,

Julia, Abigail, Helen and Amy (l-r)

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This June, 20 years on from the

Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro,

Brazil, in 1992, government

representatives from around the

world will meet at a 'Rio+20'

summit to discuss sustainable

development.

The Earth Summit is all about addressing global issues with local

action, and so is an opportunity to build up local networks and

remind our politicians that climate change and sustainable

development must remain political priorities. In some areas people

are joining together to make local Rio Connections; see

rio-connection.org to find out about your area. If you can do one

thing, please see cafod.org.uk/rio and email your MP, asking him

or her to support the Rio-UK Declaration. Thank you!

Pass It On

At the early Olympic Games, a 100-

day truce was called to enable athletes

to travel safely. CAFOD's new

solidarity campaign to mark the

Olympics is reviving this tradition by

asking people to film themselves

passing a message of peace to those

around the world who are living in

conflict during 2012... like a giant

online relay! To take part, just film

yourself or a friend moving from left to

right then upload your video and add a

message of peace at cafod.org.uk/

passiton. The messages will be

presented to CAFOD partners around

the world who are working to build

peace in their communities.

Abdi, from CAFOD partner the St

John’s Sports Society based in

Nairobi, Kenya, helped launch Pass It

On in front of 8000 young people at

the Flame Youth Congress at

Wembley Arena in March. He said:

‘We are building peace in our own

community. This is the message that I

bring today, a message of peace that

I hope everyone here will pass on

and live out in their own community.’

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One of the riches of the Catholic Church is its social teaching. This

calls us to act in solidarity with our neighbour wherever and

whoever s/he is. ‘Solidarity is first and foremost a sense of

responsibility on the part of everyone with regard to

everyone.’ (Pope Benedict XVI, Charity

in Truth 38).

For Catholics in England and Wales a

remarkable example of such solidarity

is CAFOD, whose 50th Anniversary is

this year. This inspired me to do

something to mark the occasion but,

more importantly, something that

would make a difference to the lives of

my sisters and brothers in developing

countries. I believe strongly that our

faith calls us to take action to bring

about positive change in the world. One way of doing this is by

campaigning with CAFOD. I wanted to find a way for my

anniversary project to help the Thirst for Change campaign. Why?

Because 783 million people still lack clean water and 2.5 billion are

without safe sanitation.

This emphasis on water and sanitation, my love of walking, an

interest in waterways and the fact that Birmingham and London

are linked by canals made it a natural choice for my pilgrimage to

be a walk from Birmingham to London along

the Grand Union Canal, from April 22nd to

May 14th, walking around 10 miles each day

and staying in kind strangers’ homes! Here

are some snippets from my blog diary:

Sun 22nd April: Eleven of us are gathered

outside St Chad’s Cathedral: myself, my wife,

a long-standing friend, staff from the local

CAFOD office, two people from St Anne’s

parish from the other side of the city centre,

Archbishop Bernard and a small boy dressed

Fr Michael Puljic, Liz Heaven and John

Joseph Walsh of Jim’s parish in Redditch,

signing Thirst for Change action cards

Archbishop Bernard signing a

Thirst for Change card, with Jim

Thirsting for Change, a personal pilgrimage By Jim Quinn, CAFOD volunteer from Redditch

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as a water droplet. I’ve set a

fundraising target, but even more

important is the campaign target: ten

cards for every mile I walk, 1,550 in

total. It will be too heavy to carry all of

these myself though, so instead I will

be sending them off to CAFOD as I go.

The commissioning itself was a

strangely moving experience. The

Archbishop and I were face to face. It

was like a laying on of hands, and then

followed by a more traditional prayer. I

set off alone, but I didn’t stay alone for

long. As I rounded the corner of the Cathedral, there was my

former colleague Mark waiting for me. He was all ready to start

walking alongside me for the first eight miles of my pilgrimage.

Mon 23rd April: The lead up to this walk has been very

demanding – putting together a programme,

preparing talks to give at the places where I

stop and doing press interviews. Now that I am

on my own, I have more time to think about

why I am actually doing this. I’ve read the

stories on the CAFOD website of people like

Esther, people who know what it’s like to walk

miles for water and to live without access to

safe, reliable water. By mid afternoon, the

heaviness in my legs helped me relate to their

experiences more. Of course, there is no real

comparison, but it reminded me why I’m here

and why this campaign

matters.

Mon 8th May: This weekend I went to

Mass five times at the two churches of

Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. All credit to

the priest Father Joseph – even listening

to his sermon for the fifth time, I could

still find something new in his words to

ponder on. One reading that particularly

struck me, as I heard it over and over Group from St Peter the Apostle,

Leamington Spa, where Jim received a

very warm welcome

L-R Chris Kadow from Dorridge, Jim, and

Michael Keating from Solihull. Chris and

Michael met Jim on the banks of the canal

to hand over their parishes’ campaign cards

CAFOD volunteer Kris Pears

meets Jim at Hatton Locks,

Warwickshire

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again, was from 1 John 3:18 – ‘Dear children, let us not love with

words or speech, but with actions and in truth.’ What an

encouragement to campaign and take

action for a better world. In the last few

days, I’ve had time to reflect on water.

Especially as I have been walking through

water (in the form of pouring rain and

standing water on the ground) as well as

alongside the canal water. It feels a little

ironic to be walking in solidarity with those

who lack water, and to be surrounded by so

much unwelcome water myself. But it has

given me a wider perspective on any

difficulties I’m facing. It has also made me

think about how much infrastructure,

money and expertise is devoted to water in the UK, when you

think of swimming pools, ornamental lakes, even the canals

themselves. These all enhance quality of life – but none are

essential to staying alive, unlike clean water and sewage systems.

Thurs 10th May: I stopped off at St Mary’s church, Dunstable, to

share stories from my walk and about people in Zambia who are

affected by lack of access to water, with a small group of young

people. The discussion took us deeper and deeper in response to

their questions: Why are people struggling for

water? Why is there poverty? We talked about

international debt, corruption, even structural

adjustment programmes. Andrew Milne from St

Mary’s walked with me for part of the following

day, and we were joined by Debbie and Sheila

from the local Union of Catholic Mothers. A good

reminder for me, in CAFOD’s 50th anniversary

year, of the role that the Union of Catholic Mothers

played in the establishment of CAFOD.

Fri 11th May: I encountered a waterways

chaplain for the first time. These volunteers,

organised by Watford Churches Together, put their

faith into action by ministering to the needs of the

people who live, work, fish, cycle, walk on or near

the canal. Walking alongside chaplain Malcolm Lee,

Jim and Fr Bernard

Garratt of Our Lady & St

Wulstan, Southam, who

hosted Jim and signed

Thirst for Change cards

Natalie Clarke, Anna Godwin, Jim

and Jonathan Holden, Warwickshire

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I got yet another view on canal life; it was clear

that the same human needs and problems are

found everywhere. It also provided another

opportunity to discuss how campaigning can also

be a way of expressing faith in action. When I tell

people about my walk, they expect that I will be

fundraising. But for many, campaigning is new

and unexpected.

Sun 13th May: At the weekend, I spoke at four

masses, to a Hoxton parish with more than 50 different

nationalities. I shared stories from the campaign and encouraged

people to take action. I sat at the front, so couldn’t see how people

were responding. But then I heard footsteps and a rustling behind.

Father Mark had rushed out to

the cupboard for supplies and

was handing out pens. This was

the first time on the whole

pilgrimage that I ran out of

cards, and had to used discarded

blank water droplets for people

to write their messages to David

Cameron.

Tues 15th May: Total miles

walked: 155; total action cards

collected: 1,939; talks given:

15; sponsorship received or

pledged: £1,459.50 (to be

doubled by the Government); number of blisters: 3!

Last stop: Downing Street (see picture on front cover). I was

amazed that Andrew Mitchell came out just at the right time – a

great culmination to a great campaign. I’d like to express a really

big thank you to all the many people who helped make the whole

pilgrimage possible. It is difficult to sum up the whole thing in a

word but if I had to, it would be solidarity. Everybody involved in

whatever way were in solidarity with each other in order to be in

solidarity with Esther and the millions like her throughout the

developing world.

And the biggest highlight of the lot? The fantastic grand

total of 60,421 actions from around England and Wales.

The final day of walking: Jim is joined by his parish

priest Father Eddie Clare, Lemlem Berhe Tsegay

from CAFOD partner organisation the Adigrat

Catholic Development Service in Ethiopia and

Rachel McCarthy of CAFOD’s campaign team

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Crossing the border for CAFOD By CAFOD supporter Mary

Carroll from Solihull Apparently, Offa's Dyke (182 long

Welsh miles!) crosses the English-

Welsh border up to 22 times as it

winds its way from Chepstow to

Prestatyn. I started out with my

brother but our initial enthusiasm

was dampened by heavy rain

which caused him to fall and injure his foot. On the second night we

had to abandon the (wet) tent at

Monmouth. I continued alone on

days 2 and 3 across the Black

Mountains to Hay-on-Wye. I was

met by my sister and friend (who

brought along her foot spa!). Day

4 was on the road alone to Kington

Youth Hostel where I shared a

room with a well-travelled little

lady with an almost fairytale air

about her. On day 6 I arrived at a

deserted, cold farm at 4pm after 8

hours’ walking. The owner returned

from tending his cows and made

me a tray of tea, and gave me

books to read and a place to do my

washing. ‘Black Wednesday’: My

friend and I climbed the Clwydian

mountains in some of the worst

weather I have experienced in my

life where the wind threatened to

throw me against the wire fence

and I had visions of being sliced as if on a cheese wire! The rain was

torrential and went through our

waterproofs, but we battled on for

8 miles. We headed down into

Ruthin and found a launderette to

dry our clothes. 5 miles down busy

A roads (with no footpath) took us

to our next stop near Bodfari and

we had a warm welcome there in

front of an Aga. We also met a

couple from Alaska who had turned

back on the path and said even they had never seen weather like

it! On the final day we thought we

would pick up provisions in Bodfari,

but no shop....Never mind, I still

had a cheese sandwich (2 days

old). We scrambled into Prestatyn

over the last steep muddy hills

(after 8 hours’ walking) and made

our way to the beach where in a

howling gale I took off my socks

and entered the icy waters.

Joy! When my brother asked if I would do it again, I said, ‘Yes...but

Morocco in the dry season!'

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Do something great for CAFOD! CAFOD is hugely grateful to people like Mary, opposite, and Jim,

page 4, who do something great to raise money for CAFOD’s work,

and raise awareness about poverty at the same time. If you fancy

a new challenge, see cafod.org.uk/sponsored-events or ask us for

the information if you are not online. There are plenty of walks,

runs, swims and other things, including the Virgin London

Marathon 2013. Here in the Archdiocese, we would love to beat

last year’s total of 10 CAFOD runners (two are below!) in the

Great Birmingham Run! It is October 21st 2012, min.

sponsorship £200, and is a growing race

on a flat course with great crowd support

and great scenery. We’d love to hear from

you if you’d like to join Team CAFOD.

Right: Roger Payne from Nuneaton has

just cycled from London to Paris for

CAFOD. Well done

Roger! He hasn’t

reached his

fundraising target

yet so if you would

consider supporting

him with a small

donation, please

see justgiving.com/

Roger-Payne.

Thank you.

Santiago de Compostela 2012—still time to sign up! 15th – 23rd September (register by 3rd August) 2012

Min. sponsorship: £500 The ‘route of the stars’ takes pilgrims along

the beautiful, peaceful countryside across the north of Spain, ending

at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The route has existed

for over a thousand years and offers a physical, mental and spiritual

challenge to those who take it on. We are encouraging supporters to

join together and walk the final 100 miles of the route. We can also

help those who do the pilgrimage on their own, or at different times.

You will be responsible for planning your pilgrimage, but we are here

with plenty of support and advice. To find out more for this year or

2013, see cafod.org.uk/sponsored-events or call 0207 095 5670.

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Connect 2 If your parish would like a closer connection to a community

where CAFOD works, please get in touch. You can be connected

to one of six communities in Brazil, Cambodia, Bangladesh,

Ethiopia, Rwanda and El Salvador. You will receive regular

updates and you can send updates back about your community.

Please call the office if you are interested (details on back page).

John and Kate discover

the power of a legacy

As part of CAFOD’s 50th

anniversary we took two of our

supporters to Nicaragua, to

witness some of the amazing work

being carried out by CAFOD and our longstanding partner, the John

XXIII Social Action Institute. John

van den Bosch and his niece, Kate,

met inspiring people in rural

villages and the capital city,

Managua, who are working hard to

transform their lives and

communities.

Having supported CAFOD since the

1960s John’s mother, Marjorie, left

us a gift in her will. The visit to

Nicaragua helped John and Kate to understand the kind of long-term,

community-rooted projects made

possible by gifts like Marjorie’s.

During the week they visited a

health clinic being built by

volunteers from 12 neighbouring

villages, a community pharmacy

where disadvantaged families can

get essential medicines at an

affordable price and a water

project that has drastically reduced

the incidence of waterborne diseases in a remote hillside

village.

A short film about their experience

will soon be available to view on

CAFOD’s website, or you can order

a free DVD if you’re interested in

showing it at an event or talk, or if

you’d just like to find out more

about CAFOD’s work or the help provided by gifts in wills. The film

is available at: www.cafod.org.uk/

legacy or contact the Legacy team

on legacy@cafod.org.uk or 020

7095 5367. We’ve enclosed a short booklet about our legacies work with this newsletter which we hope you’ll find interesting.

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Diocesan Romero Mass The Birmingham Archdiocese and CAFOD

held the third annual Romero Mass on

16th March 2012, celebrating the life and

inspiration of Archbishop Oscar Romero,

Archbishop of San Salvador, who was

murdered on 24th March 1980. The Mass, attended by about 200

people, was a celebration of justice and peace work throughout

the parishes of the Archdiocese. The Mass was celebrated by

Bishop William Kenney who said in his homily, ”You and I are

called to love our neighbour in any way we can, whether that’s in

our J&P group, through CAFOD, or in any other way… We’re called

to be men and women of the world who show our love through our

care to one another.” Mass was followed by a moving talk by Sarah

Smith-Pearse of CAFOD’s Latin America team, who spoke about

Romero’s legacy to CAFOD partners in El Salvador.

The Romero Mass is now a regular fixture in the Diocesan

calendar. The date of the 2013 Mass will be in the next issue of

this newsletter; we hope that you will join us for this special event.

Pray for peace for the people of

Sudan and South Sudan

In recent weeks, the relationship between Sudan and South Sudan

has deteriorated, with border skirmishes being reported.

There are still unresolved issues from the 2005 peace agreement,

including oil-sharing rights and border demarcation. Fighting has

continued in some disputed areas and humanitarian access to

communities caught up in the conflict has been severely restricted.

“Now, at this dangerous moment, we must all pray again that

the governments of Sudan and South Sudan turn away from the

darkness of the past, and ensure the bright future for their peoples

for which we have all worked so hard.”

Neil Thorns, CAFOD’s Director of Advocacy

Please add your prayers to the international calls for peace.

To read our prayer for the people of Sudan and South Sudan,

please visit cafod.org.uk/resources/worship or ask us for a copy if

you are not online.

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Around the Archdiocese

Wolverhampton Deanery

Lent Fast Day Mass

Mass was held at Corpus Christi

Parish and celebrated by Bishop

David McGough. Young people

from schools across the deanery

took part, including Our Lady &

St Chad’s Catholic Sports

College, St Edmund’s Catholic

School, and Corpus Christi, Holy

Trinity, SS Mary & John’s, St

Anthony’s, St Patrick’s, St

Teresa’s and Holy Rosary

primary schools. MP Emma

Reynolds attended and Julia

from the CAFOD office spoke

about her recent visit to drought

affected areas in Ethiopia.

St Mary’s Primary School,

Brierley Hill Blanket Project

As part of a joint project with

Saint Vincent de Paul, children

at St Mary’s produced this

beautiful blanket on the theme

of “Heart speaks unto Heart”.

The pupils designed the blanket

themselves, decorating it with

Christian symbols surrounding a

prayer in the middle. It will be

sent as a gift to one of the

communities CAFOD supports

overseas.

Kenilworth Catenian Circle presented a cheque to CAFOD volunteer Frank Allinson in May after the Past President Pete Townend chose CAFOD as the charity for his Presidential Year. Thank you to them for a

wonderful total of £2587.

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Aldridge parish

connects to Ethiopia

St Mary of the Angels

in Aldridge held their

annual CAFOD

fundraising dinner,

with a talk from Julia

from CAFOD about her

trip to Ethiopia. They

have raised a

wonderful £4150 for

the ‘Connect2Ethiopia’

parish scheme since

2010.

Chris keeps quiet for CAFOD

Chris, a self-confessed “chatterbox“ from

Staffordshire, kept silent for a whole day in

March to raise money for our Lent appeal.

Chris started his silence when he got up at

6.30am and continued until 9pm that

evening, using a notebook and pen when

really necessary! Chris acknowledged that it

WAS difficult! Especially when some of his

mates teased him unmercifully and tried to

get him to talk. He missed talking to his

pals. However, school and his family were

very helpful and Chris said he felt good

because he knew he was helping people who

were suffering real poverty. He raised £206

which when doubled by our match funding

will be £412 for CAFOD! Well done Chris.

Fairtrade Cake

This magnificent cake was made by Linda

Sherlock to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight in St

Peter’s, Bromsgrove. The cake was won by

Andrew Marsh, the clear winner of the

Fairtrade Quiz, part of the event run by St

Peter's Justice & Peace group to mark Fairtrade

Fortnight.

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Walking, art and reflection Parishioners in St Mary’s,

Harborne, Birmingham

were inspired by the Thirst

for Change campaign.

Over 50 parishioners held

a family solidarity walk,

walking alongside the

canal from the church into

the city centre. The walk,

through rain, was really

enjoyable with the group

pausing for prayer at

points and singing hymns

through the tunnels, much

to the delight of the children.

A few days later the parish followed the

walk with a more reflective activity in the

form of an inspiring Via Lucis: the Way

of the Resurrection. With uplifting

music, scripture readings, art and stories

from Zimbabwe and Zambia, the Via

Lucis offered a way to reflect on how our

faith calls us to act. The Via Lucis was part of the Faith Through

Art group’s Easter programme, which included an exhibition

featuring a river of change. Parishioners had each

decorated a fabric water drop, which together

made up a river flowing through the church.

Thirst for Change

around the Archdiocese

If you would like to encourage your parish to join

in with CAFOD campaigns, or to refresh your

campaigning skills, you can order our new Little

Book of Big Ideas to get you started. Just let us

know if you’d like one (details on the back page).

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Left: St Thomas Aquinas pupils

sing for change

John and others in Year 10 have

been spending Lent encouraging

students at St Thomas Aquinas

Catholic School, Kings Norton,

Birmingham, to sign Thirst for

Change postcards. Having heard

the story of Esther having to get up

at 5am every morning, John was

moved to write “Esther’s Song”

which featured on CAFOD’s website

throughout the campaign.

Above: Our Lady of Mount

Carmel primary school in

Redditch had a talk from Jane

Lavery, CAFOD schools

volunteer, about clean water for

all. The school organised a

'River of Coins’ and raised a

brilliant £173.60, which will be

doubled! The school also

encouraged parents to sign

Thirst for Change campaign

cards, spreading the word even

further.

Below: Year Five at Corpus

Christi Primary School,

Wednesfield sent us letters

describing learning about access

to water and their subsequent

Lenten fundraising. The letters

featured on CAFOD’s Facebook

page. Below is a sample.

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CAFOD Birmingham, 23 Glebe Street, Walsall, West Midlands, WS1 3NX 01922 722 944 birmingham@cafod.org.uk www.cafod.org.uk picture credits: Josef Lopuzsynski, CAFOD, Simon Rawles

Registered Charity No. 285776

The Pilgrim Prayer

Open our eyes, Lord, to see your glory

Open our lips, Lord, to sing your praises

Open our ears, Lord, to hear your call in

the voices of those without water.

Then guide us on your pilgrimage of

faith that, with the help of the Holy Spirit,

we may walk with Him who is the Way,

the Truth and the Life

And find freedom in His service.

Our Lord Jesus Christ,

Amen

Volunteer vacancy: Schools Volunteer Coordinator

We will soon be recruiting for an important new voluntary role in

our team: a Schools Volunteer Coordinator. We have a large and

active team of volunteers who go into schools to give CAFOD

presentations, and coordinating their work is becoming an

increasingly big job! We are looking for someone to give a day a

week to manage this team. Duties will involve meeting the

volunteers, observing them in schools, contacting schools and

managing the day to day administration that all of this involves. If

you think you might be interested, please ring or email the office.