This week in our school community: Friday 13 February 2026

“Bring good news to the poor ... to set the downtrodden free.” (Luke 4:18)

 

Young Volunteer Group explore refugee issues

Earlier this week our wonderful group of Year 10s who are participating in the Young Volunteer Programme had their second day of input alongside pupils from St Bede’s and St Bernadette’s of Bristol and St Augustine’s in Trowbridge. Following on from their success with the mission of the SVP, this time our students were led by the Columban Missionaries who focused on issues surrounding refugees and migrants. The Columban Missionaries were founded in 1918 by Fr. Edward Galvin and Fr. John Blowick for missionary work in China and take their names from St. Columban, an Irish monk and missionary who preached the Gospel in Europe in the sixth century. Today, Columban missionaries are called to bring life to the full for people and communities around the world experiencing poverty and living on the margins of society, with special emphasis in Asia, Latin America, Oceania, Ireland and Britain.

For their input in the second day of the programme, we were led by James Trewby, an experienced former teacher who has spent years visiting and living in different cultures and communities around the globe to spread the joy of the Gospel and bring the mission of Christ to life. He spoke at length and passionately about the rift between our Christian mission to “Bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free.” (Luke 4:18), - and the way society (even at times in the name of religion) treats the very people our faith asks us to support. He was able to show us a house in Birmingham that does incredible work with displaced families, supporting them with education, integration and in many other ways.

The sessions of the programme follow the Catholic Social Teaching method of See, Judge, Act, with the young people spending time reflecting after lunch through a variety of creative prayer stations before the going forth challenge to Act. The St Gregory’s group chose to take the message of the day encapsulated in a hymn written by James, and plan to teach and share the hymn with many of our Camino Primary Schools in the coming months as part of a workshop.

Mr Robinson

Lay Chaplain