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Live Simply Project at Our Lady of Lourdes
July 2025-Christmas 2026.
The story so far.
There are 3 categories of actions which a parish has to satisfy to be awarded the Live Simply Award by CAFOD’s assessment body. Here are the categories and our actions to date:
Live Simply: Raising Awareness and Liturgy
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July 5th 2025: Laudato Si Mass
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Two parishioners gave a presentation on Laudato Si and the teachings of Pope Francis on climate change at both Masses. They also introduced the bamboo Eco Pledge tree which parishioners festooned with green luggage labels with their eco pledges on them. An accompanying practical parish handout detailed possible actions.
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September 5th 2025: a Creation Mass to celebrate the Feast of St Francis, with a focus on integral ecology and ecological spirituality. The sermon was delivered by Clare Watkins, Professor of Pastoral Theology at the University of Durham.
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September 6th 2025: a visit from Jo Kitterick, CAFOD’s Director of Participation and Fundraising to speak to the parish about Laudato Si and themes of the Jubilee Year. She also talked about the work of CAFOD in relation to countries impacted by climate change.
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September 21st 2025: Father John conducted a service of blessing of the Laudato Si Tree (a flowering cherry), planted outside the parish house. It was attended by about 40 parishioners.
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March 20th 2026: further presentations on Laudato Si and Live Simply at both Masses to remind the community of our Christian duty as stewards of Creation.
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June 7th 2026: a Parish Creation Picnic for parishioners of all ages at Challis House Gardens in Sawston High Street. This is a very large, volunteer maintained eco garden in the heart of Sawston (bequeathed to the town in 2004). There were prayers for Creation, games for young people and a tour of the gardens. Over 50 parishioners attended.
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July 5: Global Debt petition. After presentations on Global Debt, over 70 parishioners signed CAFOD’s petition to cancel Global Debt.
Actions to Live Sustainably with Creation
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Individual actions by parishioners, as pledged and repledged on the Eco Pledge tree.
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The church has solar panels on its roof.
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Fairtrade coffee is served after Mass.
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Parishioners tend the parish flower beds, with seasonal gardening sessions in which many parishioners participate.
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A parish cookbook with an international flavour (reflecting the extraordinarily international backgrounds of parishioners) is planned for a launch on 22nd November 2026 with a meal after the 11.15am Mass and sale of the cookbook. Ingredients are eco-friendly and the recipes will of course encourage home cooking (so no plastic packaging of supermarket ready meals). The introduction references Laudato Si and the importance of sustainable cooking.
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Electrical Items Recycling: a presentation on the importance of recycling such items has yielded 3 car loads of saleable items delivered to the local Wood Green Animal Shelter charity and a further 4 car loads to the local recycling centre. This is an ongoing project.
Eco Pledge tree
Actions to Live in Solidarity with the Poor
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Hope Into Action: parishioners help to support two houses in Sawston under the umbrella of the charity Hope Into Action. The parish of Our Lady of Lourdes entered into a partnership with the Hope into Action charity in 2016. The charity supports people who have no natural networks such as refugees, people leaving prison and those who are homeless. Two houses in Sawston have been bought by the generosity of ‘benevolent-investors’. Over the years the tenants have come from the full range of network-less people. Currently the houses are home to an Afghan refugee family and a young couple who were previously homeless.
A team of ten vetted and trained parishioners support the tenants in both houses. This involves a range of practical day to day challenges. The parish community has also been most generous over the years with countless items of furniture being donated and over £5k gifted to cover the many expenses. Additionally, the parish has invested £40k from its funds towards the purchase of one of the houses. In April 2025, one of the houses was entirely refurnished thanks to the generous donations of parishioners.
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Footprints Community Café: A number of parishioners are actively engaged in the running of Footprints Community Café in Sawston. Some support trainees to learn new skills whilst others are directors and maintain the accounts. This café was founded in 2002 on the site and in partnership with Sawston Free Church. Since its inception, OLOL has supported Footprints financially with grants for equipment and training costs. It enables people with learning difficulty to learn new skills in the kitchen and serving customers. The café also provides outreach for many socially isolated people in the community. The café, a registered training centre for adults with learning difficulties, depends on generous people to volunteer, giving of their time and talents.
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Rita Walter Legacy Fund: this year, a small group of parishioners are engaged in identifying beneficiaries for the Rita Walter Legacy Fund and distributing a total of £5000 per annum. The money is going largely to refugee school children who cannot otherwise afford extracurricular activities.
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Food Bank: the church has recently revived a food bank collection which is delivered weekly to the local John Huntingdon Charity.
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Charitable Fund Raising: the parish has raised over £6000 for the charity Mary’s Meals over the last two years. In 2025, it raised over £2000 for Chasera School in Zambia linked to the parish for the purposes of paying for children’s school meals. This money was raised through a) an Irish Folk Music Tea event in the parish hall on October 18; and b) a large scale cake sale after all three masses on December 14.
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The parish decided in 2026 to raise money for two charities: the Arthur Rank Hospice, Cambridge, which has had its funds reduced by the NHS; and Angels’ Village, Kerala, a residential charity for people of all ages with learning disabilities, dependent on private funding and run under the auspices of the Catholic Church. The parish wanted the large Keralan community in our parish (over 50% of the parishioners are Keralan) to have an investment in parish fund raising. This charity was their choice.
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A quiz night on March 20th 2026 raised £320 for the CAFOD Sudan Appeal.
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A Keralan supper on October 2nd 2026 raised £3186 for Angels’ Village in Kerala. The Keralan community paid £700 for the ingredients and a further £1000 for Angels’ Village in separate donations.
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Looking ahead:
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The Live Simply and CAFOD Group wants an ongoing legacy to this project. We have already booked in the Parish Creation Picnic for June 2027. The electrical items recycling will continue. We are also looking at fund raising ideas such as an Argentinian Tango evening or a Ceilidh evening.
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