A special thank you

Last Sunday was Pentecost, when we entered a new epoch, as the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles in tongues of fire and sent them out into the world, and the Spirit has remained with us since.

For us, now that the first peak of the pandemic has passed in the Scotland, the current crisis echoes that which faced the early Church between the ascension and Pentecost. As the initial horror, alarm and fear of COVID-19 fades, we find ourselves in a holding pattern, waiting for a time when it is safe to do the things we’ve missed. But the tenderness and loving concern of the Church for all people hasn’t stopped.  SCIAF’s partners are more active than ever in their communities, promoting public health messages and preparing for the pandemic should it take hold in their communities. SCIAF is working closely with them, mostly from our homes, to make sure they have the resources and support they need to walk with their people.

We are the Easter people who, filled with the Holy Spirit, have been sent out into the world. The pastoral support you and your brother priests offer our community in Scotland has never been more important. Yet it is so challenging to deliver at this time. SCIAFs mission is to look outward and to act as an expression of solidarity between our community and our brothers and sisters across continents and borders, to bring good news and stop people suffering the dehumanising indignity of poverty and injustice. This is difficult now, more than ever, but let us find inspiration and urgency for our work in Jesus’ own words: “I came to set the world on fire, and how I wish it was blazing already”.

Thank you!  I know, despite the difficulties you are facing in your parishes and pastoral care, that you have continued to hold people who suffer extreme poverty and injustice in your hearts, remember SCIAF and support our Wee Box appeal.  Your support is invaluable to us and we are deeply grateful to you.

Let us continue to stay true to what we are and what we do as the Scottish Catholic Church, confident that a new epoch is coming in our daily lives when we will be released.  And as we wait, let us constantly hear and find comfort in Jesus’ invitation to “remain in my love”.

Alistair Dutton
SCIAF Chief Executive