20.02.2012
Charities Benefit From Black Santa Funds
A number of charities have received a welcome financial boost with the handing over of the 2011 Black Santa Funds. Over €34,000 was given out in St Ann’s Church on Dawson Street, Dublin, on Sunday.
Among the beneficiaries were Bishops’ Appeal, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Protestant Aid, the Salvation Army, Trust, the LauraLynn Foundation, the Samaritans, the Church of Ireland Discovery Committee, PACT, Barnardos and the Dublin Simon Community. Representatives of the charities attended the morning service in St Ann’s.
The Bishop of Cashel and Ossery and chairperson of Bishops’ Appeal, the Right Revd Michael Burrows, preached at the service on the subject of charity. He congratulated the Vicar of St Ann’s, Revd David Gillespie, and the people of the city for their generosity in raising the record sum.
Highlighting the two Collects for the day – the Sunday before Lent – Bishop Burrows said that they both referred to charitable endeavours. The newer Collect referred to the Lord’s transfiguration, he explained.
“It often seems to me that charitable work is a bit like [transfiguration]. It’s not about imposing our views on other people. It’s not about imposing our decency on others. But it is about seeing in them a beauty that needs to be liberated. And through our solidarity we draw it out to where they have control over their future. We liberate their beauty, we don’t bestow it on them. They can emerge from the ugliness in which they were trapped. That is how the work of charitable organisations is a work of transfiguration,” he contended.
The older Collect was about charity, he said, and was a prayer which reminded the people of God on the eve of Lent that if they were not charitable in their approach to life, all their other endeavours during Lent would be worth nothing.
“All the heroic piety in the world, all the austerity, all the discipline, are all worth nothing unless your attitudes and relationships are charitable,” the Bishop stated. “Without that kind of Christ–like attitude of charity, Lent is a total waste of time.”
Bishop Burrows concluded by saying that he felt that at the moment there was a great danger in the Church of Ireland that people were lacking in charity. He urged people to avoid “the kind of personal piety and utter moral certainty” that were worth nothing unless their attitude to others was charitable.
The 10th annual Black Santa Sit Out took place in the run up to Christmas outside St Ann’s Church. Clergy from across the Dioceses joined Revd David Gillespie and Curate, Revd Martin O’Connor, to collect funds for the charities. In a first this year the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Archbishops of Dublin joined the collecting team for an afternoon.