Below find a message from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul following the recent Advent Appeal, etc.:

Dear Parishioners,

You have been amazing despite all that has happened this year. Thank You.

Yet again your generosity has been humbling. You have shown through this generosity how much you care, especial with your contributions to the Christmas and Advent Appeals. Through these you have shown that Christmas is about giving and not only about receiving.

A Special Thank You

We have to give a special thank you to Loch Leven’s Larder for their very generous donation of Christmas hampers for those in need. It has been a hard year for all businesses making this donation even more special as they have provided these hampers free of charge. I am writing to The Larder to thank them on behalf of the Society. This generosity was made even more special and unexpected as we had enquired about the purchase of food hampers for those in need. Following this enquiry Loch Leven’s Larder and Emma Niven very generously offered to supply a number of these free of charge and we cannot thank them enough for this act of kindness and outstanding generosity. I have to thank Emma and the staff of the Larder.

Advent Appeal Missionaries of Charity.

This year’s Church Advent Appeal for the Missionaries of Charity (St Mother Teresa Nuns) which we handled on behalf of the Church has to date raised £745.00. The money has been used to buy supermarket vouchers so that the Sisters can help individual families in need, to obtain food, clothing etc. Your support has been especially generous given all that we are going throughout and comes at a time when recent developments mean that there could be even more need.

Christmas Toy Appeal.

Your response to The Toys Appeal has again been tremendous with over 80 items being donated all of which have gone to either, local children and families or to the School in Perth for families in need this Christmas.

SSVP 2020

Because of Covid restrictions it has not been possible for us to do our normal visits but we have been, through your generosity, able to help in other ways through your generosity, especially with the food donations which, has enabled us to help Broke not Broken by filling in gaps or shortages in what they have needed to help families.

Normally we would be providing relief in the form of food directly to families. Given current restrictions this has been at times difficult but we have been able to do this by thinking outside the box. Hopefully, we will be able to get back to a situation within the next few months where we can again get back to helping more directly. However, until recently we have had fewer requests than we would have expected. One area where we have been able to help is to co-ordinate the donations that you have provided through the Church to Broke Mot Broken. At times BnB also ran up against shortages and we were in a position to help by supplying items to help fill in some of these when they were short of items. This, along with your own donation of food has helped many local families in these hard times.

In this it would also be remiss of me not to also thank the residents of Glen Lomond who have provided a tremendous amount of food donations throughout the year which went along with those items donated by parishioners to Broke not Broken.

SSVP Helps where-ever need arises.

Part of the ethos of The Society of St Vincent De Paul is that while we focus locally we do not forget need where ever it occurs. Part of this ethos is that the Society does not hoard money but uses it to help immediate need. While we need to keep a reserve to be used to help this immediate need, this ethos means that we do not leave money sitting in bank accounts but used it sensibly to help those in need. St Vincent De Paul said, “Charity is the cement which binds Communities to God and persons to one another…”  Fortunately, throughout this year we have not only be able to help locally but we have been in a position to help others within the Diocese.

Earlier this year we were able to donate vouchers to the Sisters in Dundee so they could help those in need whom they serve while at the same time helping local need. We have also worked with other Conferences in providing some of this relief to local families and to those further afield.

From speaking with individuals at a national level, I know that not all Conferences have been as fortunate as us with their financial funds during the pandemic. Without your generosity none of this would have been possible and on behalf of the Brothers and Sister of St James’ and St Matthew’s Society of Saint Vincent De Paul and those whom we serve I cannot thank you enough for your charity, generosity and support.

Bob Corrieri,

President, on behalf of St James’ and St Matthew’s Society of Saint Vincent de Paul