Cost of Living Crisis: available support

The cost-of-living crisis is affecting everybody, but its most severe effects are being experienced by the poor and marginalised.

In March churches in Scotland released a joint statement which urged “both the Scottish and UK Governments to set aside political differences and come together in a spirit of pragmatism and compassion to seek effective solutions” to the cost-of-living crisis.

More recently, Archbishop William Nolan, Archbishop of Glasgow, called on the UK Government to give an assurance that benefits will go up in line with inflation.

Concern

Through her Preferential Option for the Poor, the Church gives a special form of primacy to the poor and marginalised as the focus of particular concern, especially during uncertain and difficult economic times.

The responsibility for this concern rests with society as a whole, though government has a special responsibility given its position of influence.

Overall inflation, including the cost of food, has increased significantly in recent months. Several factors have caused this increase, not least Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and disruptions to supply chains caused by the pandemic.

Whilst global food prices have eased recently, it will take time for this to filter down to supermarkets and the situation in Ukraine remains volatile.

The rising cost of fuel is also a source of deep worry for people. In August, it was announced that the energy price cap would be raised by 80 per cent in October, increasing the typical household bill to around £3,549 per year.

A further increase was expected in January and April 2023, with average energy bills reaching as high as £6,500 a year.

The energy price cap limits how much energy suppliers can charge domestic consumers on variable tariffs for their fuel. It is set by the independent regulatory authority for gas and electricity, Ofgem.

Energy Price Guarantee

The UK Government has committed to limiting the cost of electricity and gas through the Energy Price Guarantee until April 2023. This will take a typical bill from £1,971 per year to £2,500 per year. Whilst this will still be challenging for many households it is a welcome reduction from the £3549 previously expected.

Below we set out the support currently available from the UK and Scottish Governments, including weblinks. Please note this list is not exhaustive and is subject to change. Further information is available on both government websites.

Citizens' Advice Scotland

If you are worried about the cost-of-living crisis and would like more help, Citizens’ Advice Scotland offers advice and support.

Money Saving Expert website

Please also be aware that other local advice and support services may be available in your area. For example, local charities, including many churches and faith organisations such as the Society of St Vincent de Paul, offer support via food banks and additional services for health and well-being. The MoneySavingExpert website is also a useful source of information.

Warm Welcome UK

Over 2,500 organisations have registered with Warm Welcome UK to open up ‘warm hubs’, free, warm, welcoming spaces, during the winter months. Click the link for more information.

UK Government Support

Cost of Living Payment

A cost-of-living payment is available for those in receipt of any of the following benefits: Universal Credit, income-based Jobseekers’ Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, income support, pension credit, child tax credit, working tax credit.

Those eligible may be entitled to a payment of £650, paid in two lump sums of £326 and £324, paid separately from benefits.

The cost-of-living payment will not be made if you are in receipt of New Style Employment & Support Allowance, Contributory Employment & Support Allowance, or New Style Jobseekers’ Allowance, unless you get Universal Credit.

If you have a joint claim with a partner, you will receive one payment of £326 and one payment of £324 for your joint claim, if you are entitled.

Please check here for more information, including expected payment dates.

Disability Cost of Living Payment

You may receive a lump sum payment of £150 if you are in receipt of any of the following: Attendance Allowance, Constant Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance for Adults, Disability Living Allowance for Children, Personal Independence Payment, Adult Disability Payment, Child Disability Payment, Armed Forces Independent Payment, War Pension Mobility Supplement.

Please check here for more information.

Pensioner Cost of Living Payment

If entitled to the Winter Fuel Payment for Winter 2022/2023 you will get an extra £300 in November 2022. This is in addition to the Cost-of-Living Payment you get with your benefits or tax credits.

Please check here for more information.

Energy Bills Support Scheme

The Energy Bills Support Scheme provides a £400 non-refundable discount to eligible households to help with energy bills over the 2022/2023 winter. Around 99 per cent of households are eligible. The remaining 1 per cent will receive equivalent support.

The discount will be applied to the monthly household electricity bill for six months, starting in October 2022 (£66 in Oct and Nov, and £67 in Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar).

Prepayment meter users will get equivalent vouchers which need to be redeemed.

More information on support available from the UK Government can be found here.

Scottish Government Support

Scottish Child Payment

The Scottish Child Payment of £20 per week is available for each child under 6 years and for those in receipt of certain benefits or payments. This payment will be increased to £25 per week for every child under 16 years of age from 14 November 2022.

Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods

These are payments to help towards the costs of being pregnant or looking after a child.

Scottish Welfare Fund

This fund provides grants to those age 16 or over on a low income or receiving certain benefits. The Crisis Grant helps people with unexpected emergencies such as a fire, flood or losing your job. The Community Care Grant helps you or someone you care for to start to live, or to carry on living, a settled life in the community. For more information on all Scottish Government benefits, please visit here.

This article is from the Scottish Catholic Parliamentary Office and can be found on its website.

Students visit Edinburgh for holy relic of St Margaret

Archbishop Cushley welcomed students from the Catholic Society of St Andrews University today (Thursday 2 October) to collect a holy relic of St Margaret.

They visited St Margaret's Chapel at the Gillis Centre, Edinburgh, with university chaplain Fr Michael John Galbraith.

Students venerate the relic of St Margaret with Fr Michael John Galbraith.

He said: "When I heard the relics were available, I jumped at the chance because our Canmore Chaplaincy is dedictated to St Margaret.

"The students here today are very involved in life at the chaplaincy and very devout in their own faith - they are delighted to visit Edinburgh and receive the relic of St Margaret, which will be displayed for veneration at the Canmore chaplaincy at the university."

Archbishop Cushley told students about the background of the relics of St Margaret.

Maria Alexandra Vlachogiani, a third year Maths student, said: "A lot of Christians find their home at the chaplaincy in St Andrews and Fr Michael John is always there to support us."

The Archdiocese was approached by parishes dedicated to St Margaret after the relic fragmented while being removed from its reliquary at St Margaret's Church in Dunfermline in 2019.

The monstrance holding the relic of St Margaret and the official certificate confirming its authenticity.

That meant smaller relics were made available and parishes from Scotland and further afield (including Chile) petitioned the Archdiocese to entrust a relic for veneration by the faithful there. The smaller relics are from the scapular bone of the Saint.

The students in the main picture are Ella Balet, Blake Boehne, Veronica Harris, Christopher Levesque, Jovana Joseph, Matthew Matisz, Hannah Menezes, Jarrett Miller and Maria Alexandra Vlachogiani.

Find out more about the Canmore Catholic Chaplaincy at https://www.canmorecatholicchaplaincy.com or follow them on Facebook.

Prayers for loved ones on All Souls

Archbishop Cushley today offered Holy Mass for the repose of all the faithful departed of the Archdiocese at Mount Vernon Cemetery.

In his homily, he said: "We gather on All Souls to remember all who have died, and in particular those who have departed in the last 12 months.

"It is our belief as Catholics that the Mass and prayers offered for the dead are not useless or without merit, rather, they are not only an act of remembrance, but also an important part of our duty to the faithful departed.

"That sense of duty has brought you here today, praying for them, placing flowers on their grave, tidying up the headstone and so on.

"It is a good and noble thing to do, and it always gives me great comfort to accompany you."

He added: "No matter the end of those we have in mind today, no matter how young or old, prepared or unprepared; no matter how successful they were; no matter if their end was prolonged or sudden; a tragedy or a blessed release; we believe that all of them have been entrusted to the Father into the loving embrace of His son on the Cross.

"Today and throughout November, taking account of our own end and of the resurrection at the end of times, we pray for those who have gone before us.

"We assume the yoke, the light burden, of praying for the dead, of offering sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins and for the repose of their souls.

"And with affection and humility we commend them all to the tender embrace of the Risen Lord.

"Eternal rest, grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen."

From All Souls’ Day to 8 November, there is a plenary indulgence for visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead there. The indulgence is granted together with the usual conditions of prayer for the Pope, detachment from sin and confession and Holy Communion around the time of the visit.  You can apply the indulgence to the dead.

Join Archbishop Cushley in Eucharistic Adoration

Archbishop Cushley invites Catholics to join him for Eucharistic Adoration at St Margaret’s Chapel at the Gillis Centre, 100 Strathearn Road, Edinburgh.

The event is to pray for “insight, courage and joy in our mission,” and takes place 6-7pm on the following Sundays: 18 December, 8 January, 12 February, 12 March.

In the Archdiocesan Synod Report, published earlier this year, he said: "Arising from the synodal process in this Archdiocese, there is, I believe, a real need to deepen the prayer life, the spirituality, and discernment of every individual in this Archdiocese.

"I feel we may have made a start on this process this year by reinvigorating the Forty Hours’ devotion in the Archdiocese, but much remains to be done."

Holy Hour

He added: "To this end, I will institute a monthly Holy Hour at the Gillis Centre to which I invite all the faithful to come and pray with me before Our Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament.

"As it says in the very motto of the City of Edinburgh, Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain (Ps 127:1). Together let us ask the Lord to bless our endeavours and raise up committed disciples in this Archdiocese".

The Working Document of the Continental Stage of the Synod 2021-23 was recently published and can be read here.

Holy Hour with Archbishop Cushley. 6-7pm at St Margaret's Chapel, 18 December, 8 January, 12 February, 12 March. 100 Strathearn Road, Edinburgh, EH9 1BB. No registration required, just turn up. Free parking onsite.

Diocesan medals for Portobello parishioners!

Diocesan medals have been awarded to four parishioners at St John the Evangelist Church in Portobello for their outstanding contribution to parish life.

Frances McDevitt, Alice Codling and Gena and Tom Gallagher were presented with the medal by Archbishop Cushley at Mass on Sunday.

The parishioners were nominated by parish priest Canon Jock Dalrymple.

He said: "Frances McDevitt this year celebrated 50 years as our gifted, generous and reliable organist.

Francis McDevitt has been the church organist for an half a century.

"Born and brought up in the parish, she is a most faithful parishioner in every way. She co-ordinated the Fundraising Group for our Tower Project, now successfully completed, and is the very competent Secretary of St John’s Pastoral Council."

He continued: "Alice Codling has been Pastoral Assistant at St John’s for the last three decades.

"As well as being a wise and faithful counsellor, first to Mgr Rae and then to me, she has co-ordinated our parish Adult Formation and ran our very active RCIA group with considerable skill, creativity, and patience.

Alice Codling with Archbishop Cushley.

"If one person has ‘held’ the history of the parish since she moved here from Preston in Lancashire in her early married life, it has been her."

Faithful

Married couple, Gena and Tom Gallagher shared a diocesan medal for their brilliant joint work.

Gena and Tom Gallagher with Archbishop Cushley.

Canon Jock said: "Tom has been our chief welcomer/passkeeper for many years, co-ordinating a faithful team, while together he and Gena were responsible for the parish piety stall for over two decades.

"Tom has also supported Gena in running our very active Thursday Club for the elderly, for thirty years.

"In addition, Gena has had a wonderful ministry with the sick, taking communion to them, visiting them in hospital and doing their shopping."

Altar servers at St John the Evangelist, with Deacon Eddie White and Archbishop Cushley (pic: Linda Moran)

The Archdiocesan Medal for Outstanding Service to the Church was established in 1975 by Cardinal Gordon Joseph Gray, then Archbishop of St Andrews & Edinburgh.

Since then, just over 100 or so medals have been awarded for “outstanding voluntary service” to the Church at a local level.

Pics: Deacon Eddie White.

Benemerenti Medal for Selkirk man Douglas

A Parishioner has received the Benemerenti Medal for 50 years' service at Our Lady and St Joseph’s in Selkirk.

Douglas Turnbull (73), received the Papal Medal from Archbishop Leo Cushley at the parish Vigil Mass on Saturday, with parish priest Andrew Kingham and family and friends present.

Douglas has been a parishioner at the church from his birth in 1949, and received the sacraments of Baptism, Confession, Holy Communion and Confirmation there.

Fellow parishioner Peter Birney said that Douglas' altar service started when he was six years’ old and continued until his early 20s when he met and married his wife.

“Dougie helped his father in the daily upkeep of the Church and grounds and during the winter months, the lighting of the coal-fired heating central heating boiler was a weekly occurrence,” he said.

In 1981, Dougie took over the reins and has been caretaker, pass-keeper and maintenance man ever since and he has kept the church, house and hall wind and watertight.

As vice-chairman and then chairman of the then Parish Council, Dougie was closely involved in all aspects of Parish life, including the setting up of rotas and systems for the weekly collection counters. Latterly, he took on the role of Sacristan

The Benemerenti Medal is awarded by the Pope to members of the clergy and laity for outstanding service to the Catholic Church.

Former parish priest Nick Welsh (now vice rector of Scots College in Rome) first petitioned for Douglas to receive the award.

Original article by John Hislop, Southern Reporter .

Faslane: Churches unite against nuclear weapons

Bishop Bill Nolan will address a “Faslane Peace Witness” event tomorrow (Saturday 29 October) at 1pm.

He will be joined by Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, who will also speak to supporters at the gates of HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane.

The event is organised by the The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland’s (BCOS) Justice & Peace Commission, of which Bishop Nolan is president, along with Scottish Christians Against Nuclear Arms (SCANA) and the Church of Scotland.

 

Fr David Stewart SJ, of Sacred Heart Church, Edinburgh, will lead a short prayer service at the event.

He said: “Weapons of mass destruction, have no place here or anywhere in our Common Home.

"We feel sure that the doctrine of deterrence, of terror, of mutually-assured destruction, cannot ever be compatible with the dream of God the Creator for this world and all the people in it.”

Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, said: “From a Christian perspective, as followers of Jesus Christ, he instructed us to be peacemakers and not bomb makers. Do we really want to boast of or maintain such weaponry?

"How in God’s name can we hold such a position? Indeed, will God not one day judge us for condoning even the existence of such weapons of mass destruction and terror.”

The Scottish Bishops' opposition goes back to 1982 when they published a pastoral letter on Peace and Disarmament.

Archbishop Cushley recently said: "In an intervention at the UN, the Holy See urged that the arms race be condemned unreservedly, because it is a danger, an injustice, a theft from the poor and a folly."

Faslane Peace Witness, 1pm, Saturday 29 October, North Gate, Faslane.

Safeguarding: latest national newsletter available

The latest issue of the Safeguarding Matters newsletter is available now.

It features in-depth coverage of the National Safeguarding Conference 2022 which took place in Glasgow earlier this month (photos below), including:

The Safeguarding Conference evaluation reports can be read here. Feedback on the Breakout Discussions can be read here. Find out more about the The Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (SCSSA) at www.scsafeguarding.org.uk

 

Need to Know: Gender self-id vote at Holyrood

MSPs will debate the general principles of the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill on 27 October.

The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Gender Recognition Act 2004: a law which allows individuals to apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate to legally change gender.

The Catholic Parliamentary Office has produced a briefing document to help you understand the Church’s concerns about the Bill and how you can write to your MSPs and help to stop it.

 

Bill and Tommy receive Benemerenti medal

Congratulations to Bill Merrick & Tommy McGowan of Holy Name Church in Oakley, West Fife, who were awarded Benemerenti Medals by Archbishop Leo Cushley on Sunday.

Tommy has worked tirelessly in Holy Name for well over 50 years. He has been a member of the Society of St Vincent de Paul but his main role has been as a groundsman and handyman.

He has been of great assistance to every parish priest since Father McNay (who was assigned the parish in 1953) including the care and maintenance of the chapel hall and the new church and grounds (opened in 1958). Even now, at the age of 84, Tommy is still active in the form of being Head PassKeeper.

Bill was a member and later president of the parish council – in that capacity he arranged many fundraising events, social events and pilgrimages to Carfin.

He organised Holy Name’s attendance at Pope John Paul II visit to Scotland and is s a longstanding member of the Legion of Mary and, for a time, the SSVP.

He was also responsible for the introduction of the Divine Mercy prayers in Holy Name. He was the first Safeguarding Coordinator in Holy Name and really established the role for his successors. In later years he took on the mantle of Sacristan and altar server until his recent retiral.

Aparish spokesperson said: "Both recipients richly deserve their Benemerenti Medals for outstanding service to Holy Name in Oakley. Both their families enjoyed a congratulatory cake and celebrations after the Mass!"

The papal award was given to them "as recognition of their selfless service to the parish community".

The Benemerenti Medal is awarded by the Pope to members of the clergy and laity for outstanding service to the Catholic Church.

From left: Tommy McGowan, Archbishop Leo Cushley and Bill Merrick at Holy Name, Oakley.