Friends of The Holy Land
Friends Bringing Fellowship To The Holy Land
The Friends of the Holy Land was established in 2009 as a charitable organisation to enable local groups based in parishes to assists the Christian community in the Holy Land in many ways, working in close co-operation with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. It is a non-political group that works with the backing and blessing of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.
St Joseph's pastoral area in Liverpool, covering the parishes of St Brendan's, St Cecilia's, St Oswald's, St Sebastian's, St Margaret Mary's and St Matthew's, formed a Friends of the Holy Land group in January 2010, building on existing links between these parishes and parishes in the Holy Land. We were all acutely aware that the Christian population living in the Holy Land had suffered as a result of the unrest in the area and that our brothers and sisters continued to suffer due to travel and trade restrictions as well as high levels of unemployment. Our objectives were to provide support for the Christian population there through prayer, raise awareness of their plight through pilgrimage and to raise funds for practical community-based projects that would make a difference to the daily lives of those concerned.
For the Friends inaugural year it was decided that we wanted to get involved in a project to rebuild the houses of Christian families that had been damaged or destroyed during the unrest. A challenging target of £6000 was agreed. This was to be put aside for the building work, which was to be carried out using local Christian labour and suppliers.
The hard work, craft and ingenuity of the circle of Friends was to be called upon many times during the following twelve months if the target was to be met. A range of events were organised within the community; cake sales, bingo afternoons, raffles, World Cup sweepstakes (Editor: Does anyone remember the World Cup in South Africa?) alongside the sale of goods imported directly from the Holy Land.
The highlight of the year for me was, without a doubt, the largest event of all. It was not intended to raise funds for the project but was intended to bring the community together and to celebrate the links formed between Liverpool and the Holy Land. In July 2010 friends from Nablus came to Liverpool for a holiday, whilst here they spent time with members of the Friends of the Holy Land group, sharing their experiences and expressing their profound gratitude; not just for the practical assistance that the FHL projects were at this time beginning to make but also for ensuring that they were not forgotten, for continuing to show that the bonds of Christian fellowship unite us all. Together we celebrated a mass in their honour and after breaking bread together a sumptuous feast was prepared by parishioners and was enjoyed by hundreds of friends and well-wishers in the grounds of a local primary school. The weekend's festivities continued the following day when once again the local community came together; this time to enjoy a day trip to historic York.
By the end of March 2011 Friends of the Holy Land had spent £11,936 on housing repairs. It is with great joy that we are able to confirm that St Joseph's Pastoral Area successfully met its target. As a result of the hard work and support from all those involved over half of that figure, £6,740, came from the generous supporters in St Joseph's Pastoral Area. Heartfelt congratulations to all who have collected, donated, baked, prayed for and supported the group during the past year. It has been a humbling experience working alongside them, witnessing their unwavering energy and passion.
The coming year will bring new challenges. Our focus for 2011/12 will be on supporting our Christian brothers and sisters in the Holy Land through prayer and raising funds to provide a minibus for the communities using St Martha's House. We are confident that through prayer and fellowship we can continue to show our brothers and sisters so far away, that they are not forgotten but are in fact close to our hearts and uppermost in our thoughts