A message from Marys Meals

Double your love for Mary’s Meals this winter!

From 22 November 2023 to 22 January 2024, donations made to Mary’s Meals will be doubled by a group of generous supporters, up to £1 million.

This means your kindness will go even further at this critical time. In a world devastated by conflict, food insecurity and the cost of living crisis, bringing new hope to desperately hungry children with our life-changing school meals has never been more important.

It costs just £19.15 to feed a child with Mary’s Meals every day for a school year. And this winter, a donation of £19.15 will feed two children.

Thank you for helping us to reach more than 2.4 million children around the world with Mary’s Meals every school day, so that they can achieve their ambitions and look towards a brighter future.

Together, through Double The Love, we can transform the lives of many more desperately hungry children waiting for Mary’s Meals.

To Donate Follow this link.

Beginning the Church’s liturgical year, Advent (from, “ad-venire” in Latin or “to come to”) is the season encompassing the four Sundays (and weekdays) leading up to the celebration of Christmas. The Advent season is a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ’s second coming at the end of time and to the anniversary of Our Lord’s birth on Christmas. From the earliest days of the Church, people have been fascinated by Jesus’ promise to come back. But the scripture readings during Advent tell us not to waste our time with predictions. Advent is not about speculation. Our Advent readings call us to be alert and ready, not weighted down and distracted by the cares of this world (Lk 21:34-36). Advent devotions including the Advent wreath, remind us of the meaning of the season. Our readings are taken from year B, centring on St Mark’s Gospel. Our weekday readings are from Year 2. Have a wonderful season of joy and expectancy.

A Date for Your Diary

Thursday 11th May in our Parish Hall at 7pm

The Parish is required to produce a finance report to parishioners at the end of each finance year (end Dec each year).    The full report is published online (click here)  together with the opportunity to make comments or ask questions.

The parish had a £6,882 surplus of income over expenditure in 2022.  There are, however, several factors which mitigate against an overoptimistic view of this unexpected profit.

• • 2 legacy bequests totalling £8,000 made the difference between surplus and loss.
  • The underlying trend is a £10,000 annual reduction in offertory income compared with pre-Covid levels; this has been compensated in this year by cost sharing income from St Marys, Chippenham
  • We predict that increasing pressures on our expenditure will see a return to deficit in 2023.

We predict that 2023 is going to be another challenging year;

• • our income levels are below our current spending, and
  • our expenditure is expected to rise significantly compared to last year as energy prices increase and we tackle our growing building maintenance backlog.

We expect to have to run a fund raising campaign throughout the year  and to seek to increase use of Gift Aid but anticipate having to dig into our reserves once again

We are invited to go without a meal and donate the proceeds to CAFOD.  God created a world of abundance with enough food for everyone, but we have turned it into a world of want. Each and every night, one in eight people goes to bed hungry due to lack of food.  So, let’s hunger for a fairer world by supporting Fast Day and donating what we save.

This Lent, your donations to CAFOD’s Family Fast Day Appeal will help families fighting the climate crisis and ensure that our Church network can quickly respond to emergencies, like the recent earthquake in Syria and Turkey.  Please pray for CAFOD’s development and emergency response work all over the world.

CAFOD’s Lent video appeal may be viewed online.

Please give today to support CAFOD.  You may make your donation in several ways:

• Cash or cheque in the collection boxes at the churches.  Please use a Gift Aid envelope (available in the churches) if you are a UK tax payer.
• Using the Dona card payment machines in the churches.
• Online via the Parish Dona accounts at:

• • St Patricks
  • St Marys

If you donate using Dona (online or by card) CAFOD can claim Gift Aid if you complete an envelope (available in the Church).  Please mark it with the amount you have paid and the word “Dona”.

• Direct to CAFOD online.

Please complete a Gift Aid declaration if you are a UK tax payer. it increases the value of your donation by 25%, at no cost to you.