St. Clare’s Chaplaincy team

St Clare’s chaplaincy team is made up of our Mini-Vinnies, supported by Miss Russell and Mrs Durant. Mrs Eddies and Miss Callaghan as RE leads, Catholic standards governor Mrs Price and Canon Paul. Miss Russell is also our parish catechist.

What does chaplaincy look like at St Clare’s_

Weekly staff prayers develop our faith and formation every week. Each team takes it in turns to lead our Friday prayer session with the focus on varied and creative ways to pray. In September we created a litany.

Mini-Vinnies

Charity is the cement which binds community to God and persons to one another.

Vincent De Paul

                                                  We are very proud to be part of the Mini Vinnies.

Autumn 2022 events led by Mini-Vinnies:

  • Harvest Foodbank collections
  • Chocolate raffle to make money to send out Christmas hampers for lonely parishioners in St Clare’s parish.
  • Rosary sessions in the chapel.
  • Making Christmas cards for the Dementia friendly carol service at St Mary’s Cathedral.

 

Who was St Vincent De Paul?
St.Vincent De Paul was born in France, 24th April 1581. He became a priest and dedicated himself to serving the poor.

So what is the Society of St Vincent de Paul?
The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) has been engaging with young people and education since its earliest days.

The St Vincent de Paul Society helps people who are facing problems such as:

  • Poverty: not enough money to pay for basic necessities.
  • Hunger: some families have only one meal per day if they are lucky.
  • Unemployment: sometimes parents have to go out every day and search for work.
  • No home or poor quality housing: some families of 8 or more live in one room.
  • No education: some families cannot pay for schooling or children cannot go to school because they need to work to help their parents feed the family.

To find out more visit www.minivinnies.org.uk

Who are our SVP Representatives?
Our Mini Vinnies are a group of children from across the key stage 1 and 2 who follow in the steps of St.Vincent in helping local charities and looking after other people in our school.

Our work in school is to promote awareness about how we can all make a difference to our school, local and global community. We are working with Mrs White and Mrs Robson to steer us towards us becoming a Rights Respecting School. We have created a new Playground Charter which is working very well. We a have also made a decision about which charities to raise money for. Our work is shared with the whole school community on our website and on the monthly newsletter.

Mini-Vinnies planned events across the year:

  • September-met with the Justice and Peace group from the parish to organise the harvest collections for local vulnerable families.
  • Led rosary club in the chapel at lunchtimes throughout October.
  • Attended the relics of St Bernadette.
  • Led remembrance prayers throughout November in the chapel.
  • Created a chocolate raffle to raise money for Christmas gifts for the lonely and housebound in the parish of St Clare’s.
  • Designed Christmas cards for both parishes.
  • Led lunchtime prayer sessions across the year.
  • Saints in the making day.
  • Created the 10p bowl across both churches.
  • Started the Live Simply award.
  • Led Catholic Social Teaching prayer sessions.