Following the Bishops Pastoral Letter on Sunday, 19th November 2006, the young adults of St Joseph’s Upton made the following statement:

“Last week, we all listened to our Bishop’s letter where he spoke to us of a year long project to bring home to us the need to – LIVE SIMPLY.

He explained that living simply involves our being satisfied with essentials rather than surrounding ourselves with much that we don’t actually need.

Living simply requires that we live in a manner that is responsible. It will lead us to invite us to live in solidarity with those of every continent and our life styles have consequences far beyond these shores.

So when Father Peter announced in the Parish Newsletter that Bishop Martin, whom he had met in Kenya last year, was seeking support for new parishes he was establishing, it seemed just right for us to give real thought to our offering our prayers and our support as the young adults of Saint Joseph’s, to whoever Bishop Martin suggested.

We are so aware of the joy of having family and friends around us here at home but, we know too, that we belong to a wider family with sisters and brothers in every part of the world. We would like, therefore, to take forward the suggestion that our parish of Saint Joseph’s, chooses to be one with our sisters and brothers in Kenya.

In this way we know that we would be living simply – for others – as well as ourselves – by accepting the challenge set before us in this week’s parish newsletter.

May we invite you all, along with ourselves, to pledge your support and to reach out in love to Father Francis and the Mother of God parish in Komarock, where he has recently been appointed?

This is how we believe we can respond to the invitation to LIVE SIMPLY in the next year or so. We are excited by the challenge and pray that you are too.

Thank you very much for listening to our story this morning. WE CAN’T WAIT TO GET STARTED.”