25th Week in Ordinary time: September 19th 2021

Logo for Nazareth House

Nazareth House Care Home and Community

Afghanistan, August 2021

Please click the Logo (right) to see the latest update (changed weekly).
Working through Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (GARAS) Cheltenham will provide housing and support for up to seven families who are having to escape from Afghanistan - homes in Cheltenham will be offered to Afghan nationals, who have been working in Afghanistan on behalf of the UK government, as part of a countywide initiative. There will inevitably follow a need to support refugee families which this arrangement will not address but it does show Cheltenham BC's commitment to doing what it can to help.
The main need now is for Private Landlords to offer houses to rent.

GARAS will be taking responsibility for providing help as mentioned in the announcement so any donations to them will help in their efforts.

Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees (click their logo to the right) works closely with GARAS to help them in their efforts to properly support Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Cheltenham. Through this regular contact with GARAS they are involved in activities to support the Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Cheltenham and are kept informed of developments.
Over the last four years the parish has responded generously and with compassion to the needs of Asylum Seekers and Refugees locally, raising financial donations, contributing household items and through giving time to help families and individuals.
Anyone wishing to know more about how they can help Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Cheltenham please let Bill Flynn know on:  flynn.bill1@gmail.com
CWR Logo

Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees

Dona - a new way of giving.

The pandemic has had many effects on society.  One is a sharp decline in the use of cash.  St Gregory’s Church has now installed two card readers at the west doors and side porch. These card readers are linked to an online giving system known as Dona which has been used successfully across the country and has been trialled in our diocese. The system will not be fully operational until OPAS, the online parish administration system is running optimally in our parish during the summer. When fully operational the Dona system will allow giving, including gift aided giving, to the parish and to the Jericho fund via card at the card readers or on-line.  It will also allow for giving to the SVP and the parish projects in the same way, but the system will not allow the latter to be gift aided. Those wishing to gift aid contributions to the parish projects will still have to use the current envelopes. On Sundays, Christmas and Easter etc the card readers and the on-line system will only be set to a default for giving so as not to have long delays at the doors.  Monday to Saturdays, the readers and on-line giving, which will replace paypal on our webpage, will display the following 4 options, 4 being the maximum number that can be displayed at any one time:
• Parish Funds
• Jericho
• SVP
• Parish Projects
Those wishing to give can then pick the option they wish to donate to and then move to the amounts screen. On Sundays this will not be the case and only the amount screen will be displayed and this will go to the default setting of parish funds or another default setting.  Those giving to parish projects when this option is available in church or on-line Monday to Saturday should note that any money given in this way will be divided equally between the four projects.
For gift aided giving, cards only need to be registered once, at the card readers or on-line and in future these cards will automatically participate in the gifted aided scheme for parish funds and Jericho.  This can be done from the Easter weekend when we will initially turn the system on.  The storage of data is by a company SumUp which is GDPR compliant.   During the Easter weekend and the Octave of Easter, the card readers in the Church will be functioning and will be set by default to Easter Collection which is not gift aided.  From then on the card readers and the on-line facility will be on default for parish funds only until OPAS is up and running fully.
I hope and trust this is sufficient information to begin with and I hope that you will support this new way in contributing to parish life.

Additional Notices.

Do please join with each other for virtual coffee after 09:30 Mass

Directly after Mass finishes, click the heading above, which will open a zoom meeting. If you have not ever used zoom before, then it will invite you to install a piece of software for this purpose (a quick and easy install). You will then be able to see and hear each other. Chris Barrell is organising the meeting and can set you up on a virtual coffee table with 4 or 5 other people so that everyone can have a social time. Thus those able to come to church for Mass may also be with those who for whatever reason are either attending a weekday Mass or the on line streamed Mass.

Parish Projects

 

Parish Projects

Our parish continues to develop our relationships with our friends in Angal, Mannar and Monze and it supports the work of Aid to the Church in Need.

This past year has been difficult for everyone, but for our friends overseas their challenges have been multiplied. Many people and parishes have had problems maintaining an income and necessary precautions have increased their costs. We have tried to continue to provide funds over recent months, but it has been very challenging to meet the needs of some of our "Projects".

We are aware that some in this Country have lost work and income, but if you are able please consider making a donation to support our "Parish Projects".

There are envelopes at the back of church. If you are not currently visiting the church, please get in touch with Chris Barrell by ringing 01242 513992 or sending an e-mail to ourmaninmonze@yahoo.co.uk with your address and he will get an envelope to you. Envelopes can be be posted through the presbytery letterbox or return to Chris at 10 Painswick Road. If you pay income tax please remember to complete the Gift Aid declation on the back of the envelope so we can recover the tax.

Thank you very much for your support.