by Joe Burns, Commission Member
Just over 50 people gathered at Wheeler Hall on the Bank Holiday weekend Saturday to find out more about the LiveSimply award scheme. It was a hectic day with 3 different workshops in the morning. In the afternoon people chose to attend another three workshops (out of 6 offered).
LiveSimply asks parishes to draw up a plan of action for
· Living more simply
· Living more sustainably
· Living more in solidarity with those experiencing poverty
Four parishes in the Leeds Diocese have already obtained the award with another 2 working towards it. After today there will be a number of others parishes seriously considering taking up the challenge.
Christine Allen, CAFOD Director, was with us for the day and in a short presentation gave a context for the award scheme and then went on to lead morning workshops about living simply and sustainably. Francis Stewart, part of the CAFOD Theology team led another workshop about the underpinnings of LiveSimply – why should we see these sorts of action as stemming from our Catholic faith. The third morning workshop was led by Caroline Kelly, Head of the SVP Centre on York Road in Leeds, and she addressed the issues of those experiencing poverty.
The afternoon workshops were all geared around sharing ideas: what sorts of activities might encourage younger people to join in, how do you get started, how do you integrate the principles of LiveSimply into the liturgical life of the parish and so on.
Commission Chair, John Battle, summed up at the end and thanked people for coming along in the first place and for the enthusiastic way in which they had participated in the day. He pointed out that this was the first event in the Diocese where we had brought together CAFOD supporters, SVP members, staff from Caritas Catholic Care, younger people and J&P supporters to discuss the links (written about by Pope Francis in Laudato Si) between climate change and how this impacts most on people experiencing poverty.
The organisation of this event was a real collaboration with the parishes that already have the award and St John Vianney parish who are working towards it. The organising group will be meeting again soon to review what we do with all the actions ideas coming out of this day and decide on the best way of following these up.
Parish of St. John Vianney, Leeds – Progress review May 2025
- We are approaching eighteen months since the start of our Parish Live Simply journey and our Action Plan is progressing well across all the nine individual actions.
- Our initial target was to apply for the Award during 2025 and whilst this is still our intention, we are mindful that the real goal is not the award itself but for St John Vianney to truly become a ‘Live Simply Parish’.
- How we really substantiate that progress, to both ourselves and the future Live Simply assessors to ensure that this not purely a ‘tick box’ exercise, is being investigated. This could involve the whole Parish Community by way of an Open Parish Forum sometime in the Autumn.
- The process will be agreed and developed during the summer.
Get Involved
If you think your parish might be interested in following up the LiveSimply award, then do not hesitate to get in touch with the Commission and we will do all we can to help you.