14.02.2022
Dubliners’ generous donations distributed to Black Santa charities
Fifteen local charities got a welcome financial boost at the ‘Black Santa Service’ in St Ann’s, Dawson Street, yesterday (Sunday February 13). A record total of €45,000 was donated to the annual Black Santa Appeal outside St Ann’s just before Christmas. Every cent was given directly to the charities.
Expressing gratitude on behalf of the charities to the volunteers who organise the sit out and those who donated, Bryan Dobson (representing the Brabazon Trust) said that the donation was a boost for them in financial terms but it also brought the message that the work done by the charities mattered. He added that the range of charities supported by Black Santa told of the many needs of the individuals, families and households of Dublin. “The struggle of the people for whom these charities meet their needs has never been greater,” he commented.
The preacher at the service was the Very Revd Stephen Forde, Dean of St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, where the tradition of the Black Santa Appeal began 45 years ago. Since then, millions of pounds have been raised for charities in Northern Ireland. The Dublin Black Santa Sit Out began at St Ann’s Church 21 years ago and has raised over three quarters of a million euro in that time.
“Why do we do this? Why in the coldest weeks of December does the Dean of Belfast and the Vicar of St Ann’s, each with their helpers, wrap up in thermal socks and a thick black cloak to raise funds for the ordinary people of each of our cities in the days before Christmas?” the Dean asked.
“I believe the answer to that question is to be found in both of the Scripture readings this morning [Jeremiah 17: 5–10 and Luke 6: 17–26]. Because here is an even more fundamental question: How do people of faith live by faith? Is it by words and expressions of belief or must those words be translated into actions? What is it that defines a society, whether in Belfast or in Dublin? Is it with manifestos and aspirations or is it by the decisions that we make, the programmes that we follow and the changes that we embrace?” he continued.
For Jeremiah, Dean Forde said, it is what we do and how we act which defines the level of our faith. Discipleship is not measured by the length of our prayers or the promises that we make, it is measured by the actions we make that will change our world, he said. “As individuals or as societies emerging from the pandemic, are we seen to be a people who serve ourselves or who serve others? Or to use some more religious words, are we defined by greed or by grace?” he asked.
The Dean presented the parish with a pair of handknitted Black Santa socks, which were knitted for him before the 2021 sit out. He said when the new Vicar of St Ann’s, Dawson Street, was being instituted, the socks could be included among the symbols which he or she will receive as signs of their new ministry there. “May that be a continuing ministry of grace and extravagant generosity to the charities and to the people of this city, a discipleship of doing in the ongoing times of need,” he said.
The charities that benefited from the appeal this year were: The Solas Project, Protestant Aid, Alice Leahy Trust, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Peter McVerry Trust, Focus Ireland, the Samaritans, the Laura Lynn Foundation, PACT, the Brabazon Trust, St John’s House, the Salvation Army, Barnardos and the Mendicity Institution.
