All Welcome for Leeds livesimply Workshop

All are welcome for a Leeds workshop on how to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with the poor. 

CAFOD’s livesimply award was given to St Benedict’s parish in Leeds

The event is open to anyone interested in learning about these values on Saturday June 24 at St Benedict’s parish centre on Aberford Road.

 

The workshop comes after St Benedict’s were the first parish in the Leeds diocese to be given CAFOD’s livesimply award.

 

The livesimply award is an opportunity for Catholic communities to respond to Pope Francis’ invitation in Laudato Si’ to “work with generosity and tenderness in protecting this world which God has entrusted to us.”

Connect2 Scheme Inspires CAFOD Volunteers

As part of volunteers’ week, we spoke to two Leeds volunteers who have dedicated their time towards aid agency CAFOD’s exciting Connect2 campaign. 

Connect2 links communities in England & Wales with people in Brazil, Ethiopia, El Salvador, Cambodia and Peru. 

The scheme is built on CAFOD’s values of solidarity and partnership, where parishes in the UK are able to stand alongside communities overseas to fight against poverty and injustice.

Could your Parish support Connect 2 communities?

The Connect2 scheme is your chance to take a journey with ordinary people leading extraordinary lives, by fundraising as a Parish community.

The money you raise will support our work in your partner community and in other communities like theirs throughout their country. You really can help transform lives.

Connect 2 is a chance to link the faiths of two parishes from across the world. Joining Connect 2 gives an insight into the different Catholic cultures of churches in countries that CAFOD and its partners work within. It allows for real life examples of how CAFOD positively affects communities across the globe, and enables a community to be a real part of CAFODs work.

Joining one parish to another allows a strong bond to be formed between the two, living in solidarity with each other.

Joe Burns, member of the Assumption Church in Leeds said “people in our church community feel as though they have got to know the Puentecitos community through the updates provided by CAFOD”. Joe went on to say “Our congregation of the Assumption Church has been visited in recent years by two members of our connecting parish from El Salvador and we were able to engage face to face with them learning more about their community and life style.”

The Church has put on a South American evening, in which they celebrated, ate and danced South American style. To raise money the congregation held an Auction of Promises and managed to raise £2,000 for their connecting church and surrounding community. Events like this are a way of bringing the work that CAFOD does to life, as well as helping continue helping those in need in other areas of the world.

This is just one example of a Connect 2 community and the contribution that they have made to a Parish 5,341 miles away. Connect 2 is a way of joining with CAFODs overseas partners on a personal level, and seeing first-hand the difference that money raised has on the communities.

Would you like your church to become a Connect 2 parish? Follow the link below for more information and the sign up page!
http://cafod.org.uk/Fundraise/Parish-fundraising/Connect2