The Deanery CAFOD Representative, Mark Donovan, is a leading member of the group, and the J&P group members and the local CAFOD parish reps work very closely together.

Our current chair is Julia Starczewski who is Lay Chaplain at St Joseph’s College. She can be contacted at chaplain@stjosephs.swindon.sch.uk

 Julia Starczewski, J&P Group Chair

The J&P Group publishes a newsletter every two months with a wide circulation.  Each issue contains a diary of upcoming events, a list of contact people in each parish, and items on local issues or J&P activities.

Click here to see the current J&P Newsletter, and those for the past year

A photo from our summer 2007 BBQ for refugees and asylum seekers in Swindon

Meetings are held in St Mary’s Presbytery in Tovey Road, Swindon. They are always short and very focused on action.

Members come to the meetings they can make, and contribute to the events that they feel worth their time. The consequences seem very productive.

Meetings are open to all. Just turn up – you will be most welcome.  Our next meetings, in 2010, will be on 7th September, 5th October, 2nd November and 7th December.

The J&P Group at work in Nov'07 preparing for the Virtual Village

What sort of things do we do? Here is a flavour - in the last eighteen months we have run a Peace Vigil, provided a large barbeque for refugees and asylum seekers which was planned for Lydiard Park but eventually held in a church hall, and we have given lifts to refugees and their families to a town pantomime. 

Each year we support CAFOD in boosting sales of CAFOD World Gifts in the lead up to Christmas, which in recent years has been known as a Virtual Village.  In the lead-up to Christmas 2007, people in the Swindon Deanery spent £17,818 on CAFOD World Gifts, and in the lead up to Christmas 2008, the total was £11,600. 

Link to CAFOD World Gifts