Liverpool parish wins livesimply award

Fr Godric Timney and Paul Kelly with St Anne's hard-working parishioners and their livesimply award

Parishioners from St Anne's, Ormskirk, have been rewarded for their efforts to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with people living in poverty with CAFOD's livesimply award.

Members of the parish community have been busy planning and completing initiatives to change their everyday actions to become more environmentally friendly and in solidarity with people in poverty.

Last July, the church held a weekend of events which saw the parish sharing a lunch with a group of local asylum seekers, the children's group creating environment-themed artwork and other members of the community making individual pledges to go green.

As well as this, the church hold annual collections for Asylum Link Merseyside, a charity supporting asylum seekers, and have hosted a Fairtrade breakfast, a 'swap shop' and even organised a botanical survey of the church gardens.

Fr Godric Timney, parish priest at St Anne's, said: "I am delighted that St Anne's has been awarded the livesimply award by CAFOD.

"For many years our parish has contributed thousands of pounds to the work of CAFOD and over the past year a group of committed parishioners has been encouraging us live simply by avoiding waste and using our resources thoughtfully.

"Receiving an award is but a stimulus to taking Pope Francis' constant encouragement to care deeply for our environment."

Paul Kelly, a livesimply assessor for CAFOD, said: "Congratulations to St Anne's parish in Ormskirk at becoming the Archdiocese of Liverpool's first livesimply parish. Starting with a livesimply weekend last July the parish has involved many of its 600 Mass-goers in a wide range of initiatives. Working towards participation in the Home Office Community Sponsorship Scheme for Syrian refugees will be a major commitment to living in solidarity for the next five years. Well done Ormskirk!"

To find out more about CAFOD's livesimply award, visit: www.cafod.org.uk/livesimply