Care for Our Common Home

Sunday, 7th December

St Teresa's Church Hall, after each Mass at around 10:15 and 11:30

Joint coffee morning with CAFOD

Extra Volunteer Day at St Teresa's:

Saturday 29th November at 10-12 am

Volunteers needed for 2026
Just one morning, usually the last Saturday morning of each month.

St Teresa’s Estate Update – November 2025:

A very wet morning greeted our small band of volunteers who gathered once again to enhance the estate of St Teresa’s. But as work commenced the sun came out. A most sincere vote of thanks to you all.

We all got busy in the Memorial Garden. Fionnuala, Siobhan and John cleared away leaves from the garden and courtyard, the areas got a good tidy up and prepared for its annual blessing. The ladies then moved to the front of the church and John got down to doing some weed clearing in the car park. In the Orchard we commenced construction of a ‘Dead Hedge’. Inspiration for this was taken from last month’s ‘Care for Our Common Home’ meeting. Dead hedges, provide a natural habitat for insects, birds, and small mammals, while also tidying up the waste and acting as a natural, low-maintenance alternative to discarding or burning.

Even though we were low on numbers, a great effort was made and it was nice to enjoy a cuppa and a biscuit together at the end of the morning.

As to 2026, it would be wonderful to see a few more helpers. No special skills are necessary, just work clothes, hardy shoes and most importantly: YOURSELF. Thank you again to all the volunteers who helped this year.

From the newsletter:

Care for our Common Home:

COP30, the annual conference devoted to addressing climate change

As COP30 continues this week it is worrying to see that the leaders of the world's biggest polluters, i.e. the USA, China and India are absent. Negotiations are likely to be dominated by delegations from fossil fuel, IT, pharmaceutical and other companies who don't want any limitations on their profit-making activities. Please sign up to Make Them Pay and hold them to account. Pray that there will be resolutions for actions to reverse the climate crisis and financial help for countries suffering 'natural' disasters.

Researchers are warning that the Amazon seems to be in danger of reaching a tipping point beyond which it will start to release CO2 rather than store it. This is very serious. Despite some useful restraint on deforestation by President Lula there is still increasing deforestation for timber production, biogas, cattle ranching and soya production. Indigenous communities are also constantly under threat. If you are able to join campaigns and donate even a small amount, 2 reputable organisations are Ekō and Survival International. Please continue to pray for the success of COP30:

God of blessings,
the universe sings of your glory.
Deepen our gratitude for all you have made
and awaken in us a renewed commitment
to care for the earth, all living things and each other.

Inspire world leaders at COP30,
with openness to listen to those most affected by climate change
and with courage to act urgently and wisely,
so that our common home may be healed and restored
and all people, and generations to come,
may delight in it.
Amen.

What we have been doing

Making a difference in 2025

We started the year with

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

fOR THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF POPE fRANCIS' ENCYCLICAL LETTER, WE OFFERED:

6 weeks of LENT

6 chapters of LAUDATO SI’

or ‘CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME’

This has now (obviously) finished, but you can follow this material any time you like. Therefore, we have left it here for you to access and use at any time.

Planting trees

We have made a Woodland Trust urban tree pack available to all free of charge. Trees in the Urban Tree Pack for the Wales and West of England are:

• Crab Apple

• Rowan

• Silver birch

The Season of Creation

We celebrated the Season of Creation from 1st September, Creation Day, through to 4th October, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi.

• We gave a short talk at each Mass on 31sth August / !st September.

• There was a Prayer each week during the Season.

• There was a Coffee Morning on 15th September with displays on our work.

• Our desire for an Ecumenical Prayer Service did not materialise (this year).

Clean Green Energy (Octopus Energy)

We offered people the chance to get a no-obligation quote from a major renewable supplier Octopus.

• Check if you are on a green energy tariff with your current supplier.

• If not, switch to your supplier's green energy tariff.

• If you're willing to switch supplier, we can give you a quote from Octopus Energy (clean and green) here.

Fitting Solar Panels

South Gloucester Council are trying to help enable homeowners to fit solar panels through a bulk buying scheme. Interested?

Register for free with no obligation.

Plastic-free July

We joined millions of people reducing their plastic waste. We chose to refuse single-use plastic when shopping as much as possible.

Plastic Free July® is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities. Will you be part of Plastic Free July by choosing to refuse single-use plastics?

In March, some of us took part and counted our plastic waste for a whole week, uncovering that UK households are discarding a staggering 1.7 billion pieces of plastic each week. This collective effort highlighted the alarming scale of the plastic waste crisis in the UK.

The Results are in:

https://thebigplasticcount.com/results

We started with recycling by promoting Recycling for Good Causes for our chosen charity CAFOD, to give people an opportunity to recycle their unwanted mobiles and gadgets, cameras, jewellery and watches, currencies and stamps.

https://thebigplasticcount.com/results

Volunteer Days

Each month during the summer, there is a Volunteering Day at St Teresa's on the last Saturday of each month to care for the church gardens and surroundings. Come and join us.

The wonderful external estate of St Teresa’s, comprises 6 main areas plus some additional associated areas: The Memorial Garden, Courtyard, Path and Side Steps; The Orchard, Fernery, Bank and Woodland Path; The Main Car Park, Rear Tree Line and Drive;The front of the Church – Front hedges, the Courtyard, Paths and Planters; Small Car Park and Pavement area; The Old Church Hall, Small Car Park and Pavement area; Finnegan’s Corner and the front & rear footpaths of the Social Centre, plus the rear steps and waste area behind the Church Hall;

Let's care for our own patch as well as we can!

Where we are : our churches

St Vincent de Paul

Glencoyne Square
Southmead
Bristol
BS10 6DS

UK

St Teresa of the Child Jesus

71 Gloucester Road North
Filton
S. Gloucestershire
BS34 7PL

UK