A story by Fr Hudson's Care

June is usually a busy month for Father Hudson’s Care when we travel across the Archdiocese to celebrate a series of Good Shepherd Masses with school children who have raised money towards our work. This year Covid-19 has brought new challenges to all our projects, but we still want to celebrate the work of children, their families, and the school staff who raised vital funds during this challenging time.

To ensure this annual celebration can bring people together, even as we must be physically apart, we are making use of new technology. St Chad’s Cathedral has cameras and microphones installed enabling them to celebrate Mass live online.

On Monday 29th June at 10:00 am Archbishop Bernard will be celebrating a Good Shepherd Mass at the Cathedral and we are inviting children from all over the Archdiocese to join us.

So far more than 70 schools have said they will be viewing and staff from Father Hudson’s Care will also be watching from their homes and offices. If you would like to more information about joining this event, please contact [email protected]k or visit www.stchadscathedral.org.uk on the day of the Mass.

We would also like to thank those children across the Archdiocese who have managed to continue their fundraising from home during lockdown. One such boy was Finley from St Austin’s Catholic Primary School in Stafford. He carried on raising funds by doing jobs around the house and giving up treat money. He also collected donations from family members and donated some of his money that he was given at Easter.

Finley’s mum, Angela, contacted us saying, “During these scary, unprecedented times we are currently facing with the school closed I know Finley won’t be able to take his collection box in as usual. We wanted to support Father Hudson’s Charity as we have done every year.”

Angela explained that she had also taken part in the Good Shepherd Appeal when she was at school. She said, “I always remember collecting for Father Hudson’s was very important to the school, and it is lovely to see the tradition carried on so many years on. Finley’s school have a fantastic ethos and are very good at teaching the children all about helping those less fortunate them themselves and as parents we are always trying to teach Finley that we always need to try and help others when we can and to be kind.”

For those who would like to continue to support this year’s appeal we have started an online donation page. This means children and families can pass donations on directly to projects that are helping people through this crisis. To see how much the Good Shepherd Appeal has raised so far this year you can visit the Good Shepherd Appeal campaign page.