As president of the Brentwood Catholic Children’s Society (bccs), Bishop Alan launched the charity’s Relay 100 Community Event on Thursday evening by walking between the churches of St Therese of Lisieux and Holy Trinity in Basildon.
He was accompanied by some members of the Basildon Knights of St Columba who have been coordinating sponsored walks for bccs for many years. Parish priest Fr Daniel Kelly was there to see him off and to greet him on arrival at Holy Trinity. Bishop Alan, who is a keen walker and climber, said: “I was delighted to start the Relay event off. These have been challenging times for bccs but they have been very creative and flexible in their ways of working, supporting not only children but teachers and parents as well during the pandemic. They do very valuable work and I am delighted to support them in any way possible.” The forecast was pretty awful so he went with rucksack, umbrella and cagoule, he says. “In the event the weather was fine and I enjoyed the walk between the two parish churches, although it was not very long.”
Julie Abbot, who coordinates fundraising for bccs, said: “The aim of our Relay 100 event is to link up every parish church and mass centre in the Brentwood Diocese by recruiting individual supporters to walk, run or cycle one of 100 routes. This is a unique opportunity for us to recommit to our work following the pandemic, to reach families who may need our support and to raise some much-needed funds through sponsorship.
“We are very grateful to Bishop Alan for supporting us in this way and look forward to sharing news of our future Relay participants as we cover the more than 500 miles across Essex and East London.”
She added: “To donate to our Relay 100 event or to sponsor a participant, please click on to our giving page and remember to leave the name of the person you are sponsoring – https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Team/Relay100
“If you would like to take part, we still have lots of legs to allocate – please read more on our webpage and get in touch with Damian at [email protected]. Thank you for your support.”
https://www.bccs.org.uk/fundraising…/all-events/relay-100
