Healing Mass – Monday, 12 January
Join us this Monday at 2:30 pm at St John’s for our first Healing Mass of the year, including the Sacrament of the Sick.
A Healing Mass is a special celebration asking for God’s grace, strength, and comfort for those in need of physical, emotional, or spiritual healing.
All are warmly welcome.
A Talk by Dr John Crichton
Reflections on Working with People Who Are Transgender
Thursday, 15 January, 7:00 pm, St John’s Hall
John Crichton is a Catholic psychiatrist who is currently Medical Director of the Mental Welfare Commission of Scotland and has had 27 years experience of working as a psychiatrist in the Royal Edinburgh hospital. He is happy to share reflections drawn from his professional experience of supporting a number of transgender people in different circumstances over the years, alongside the experience of having a close family member who has transitioned gender. While not claiming to be an expert in the field, he will speak from the perspective of a Catholic physician with relevant professional experience, offering thoughts to help foster understanding and respectful discussion in a safe and thoughtful forum.
The session will take place in St John’s Hall at 7 pm on Thursday the 15th of January and tea, coffee and refreshments will be provided. All most welcome.
Water for a Village Appeal – A Wonderful Response!
In December, the Justice & Peace Group invited our parishioners to contribute to the Water for a Village appeal – a SCIAF Real Gift costing £1200 which would enable SCIAF to provide badly needed clean water for drinking, washing and irrigation. There is always a degree of trepidation about a challenge like this, but our trepidation was, as usual, unjustified – we raised the wonderful sum of £2022 which the J&P Group has rounded up to £2400, twice the original target!
A huge thank you to all who donated.
Jim Roarty and the Justice and Peace Group
A Season of Giving: Parish Donations Reach Over £8,000
Our experience of the generosity of our parishioners in the last couple of months has been truly humbling and inspiring. Thanks to your generosity, in that time the J&P Group has been able to send off cheques for: £3000 to Firefly International, the wonderful Scottish-based charity helping war-traumatised children. £1440 to Bethany Christian Trust to support their work of providing overnight accommodation for homeless people. £1376 to SCIAF for their Real Gifts, contributing to their work of trying to lift people out of poverty in the
poorest parts of the world.
Adding in the Water for a Village money mentioned above means that, in the space of a few weeks, your generosity has enabled us to send off £8216 to these excellent causes. A very sincere thank you from the J&P Group and may 2026 be a happy and blessed new year for you all.
Jim Roarty and the Justice and Peace Group
Update on Monthly Charity Coffee Mornings
The December Coffee Morning raised £450 for Mary’s Meals. This will be a great help in
bringing more schools into the feeding programme for children who are suffering food poverty. Many thanks to those, who faithfully come along and donate. There are also others, who give donations but are unable to come. Their contributions are greatly appreciated. The January Coffee Morning will be held on Monday 19 January in St John’s Parish Hall after Mass. Donations will be given to Operation Smile. Children with cleft
conditions urgently need life-changing surgery. Please join us for tea, coffee and home-baking. Thank you.
Maria Igoe