Around 100 people attended our first Volunteer Day on Saturday 5 March at Westminster Cathedral Hall. We welcomed current and prospective volunteers from across the Diocese and beyond, all keen to find information and inspiration on sharing their gifts with their communities.
The day began with a welcome from Bishop Paul McAleenan, Chair of Caritas Westminster, followed by an introduction to the panel by John Coleby, Director of Caritas Westminster. We then heard a range of inspiring talks from the six-strong panel, with Caritas Deaf Service interpreting the talks for members of the Deaf Community.
Sister Sheela opened with an insight into her work at Bakhita House, Caritas Westminster’s home for women that are escaping human trafficking. Love, Respect, Community and Spirituality, the four key principles of Bakhita House, seemed to echo the experiences of all those on the panel.
The moving and personal accounts of volunteering given by each panellist showed that their volunteer work had not only provided vital support to those in need, both within their own communities and
beyond, but was also spiritually enriching. We learned that by touching other people’s lives, the volunteering experience can in turn pierce our very souls in an extraordinary way. Winston Churchill was aptly quoted: ‘We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.’
The underlying and inspiring message of the panel was if you can, do, and that no contribution of your time is too small. Helen Granger of the Sisters of the Assumption summarised the spirit of the Volunteer Day: ‘Volunteering is an invitation from God. My advice is say yes’.
Questions from the floor covered a broad range of subjects from the qualities required to be a volunteer – to which by Siobhan Garibaldi succinctly responded ‘A heart that’s still beating and love for others’, to a more light-hearted reflection on whether the all-female panel was in any way indicative of the ratio of male to female volunteers in general.
Everyone then had the opportunity to speak to representatives from different organisations, which had stalls around the room, about possible volunteering opportunities.
Phoebe Prendergast and Edward de Quay concluded the day with a taster session of Caritas Westminster’s new Catholic Social Teaching (CST) Programme, Love in Action.
The seven-week programme covers the six principles of CST with the aim of inspiring schools, parishes, youth 
and faith-sharing groups to reach out and set up their own groups, addressing the needs of their local communities and thereby putting love into action.
Please get in touch with caritaswestminster@rcdow.org.uk to find out more.
The Volunteer Day provided an excellent opportunity to hear some very moving first-hand accounts of the joys of volunteering and will certainly have inspired many around the room to take that first step and say ‘yes’.
Ann Stirling, Volunteer for Caritas Westminster
Our thanks to our panel:
- Sister Sheela, Volunteer, Caritas Bakhita House
- Saima Ahmed, Volunteer, Westminster Churches Winter Night Shelter
- Helen Granger, Volunteer Coordinator, Sisters of the Assumption
- Siobhan Garibaldi, President, SVP Westminster Central Council
- Sue Masterson, Volunteer, Monday Club
- Joanna Bernasinska, Volunteer, Saturday Club
We would also like to thank the organisations who supported the day:
- Catholic Association for Racial Justice
- PACT
- Westminster Justice and Peace
- SVP Westminster Central Council
