Click here to download a PDF copy of the latest farm newsletter.
All queries: mariascott2000@yahoo.co.uk
Click here to download a PDF copy
of the latest farm newsletter.
All queries: mariascott2000@yahoo.co.uk
[House of Hospitality] [Destitute women] [Mission Statement] [Peace Making] [Donations] [Top]
We are in need of an Intern here at the Catholic Worker Farm. An Intern would work and live here at the farm. But not as a farmer! We are located between Rickmansworth and Denham. The 724 bus goes to both locations and from there the Metropolitan line goes into London (3/4 hour and about £7.80 round trip). We are a community of the London Catholic Worker. The C.W. Farm is located on 2 beautiful acres of land with lake front and an orchard, which is a decent size for the U.K. We live in a very large house.
The person interested in living here would have to be involved in our work which is; The Gospel norm to "feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked..." and so we offer hospitality to destitute asylum seekers; we have 5 living with us now and are open to 1 more. We offer food and accommodation, do advocacy work and accompany them. You would be willing to work in our soup kitchen 1 day per week in Hackney; which is a deprived part of London, participate in justice and peace work, round table discussions, permaculture gardening, household chores and fundraising.
Underlying this would be prayer (or meditation if you don't pray) and study. The rent is low so that you can work 1 day per week and contribute the £45 per week to the community (or you would have to contribute £45 per week from another source; fundraising before you come or from savings for example). An Intern would have 2 days per week free. This is an opportunity to radicalize your life and faith.
Email us: mariascott2000@yahoo.co.uk. If you are interested please let us know!
The Catholic Worker Farm Community began in August of 2006, although it began in our hearts years earlier. Each of us having yearned for community as far back as we could remember, each with a willingness to build the Peaceable Kingdom. We are slowly learning not to love community but to love each other. We see our community as your community and an expression of God's community; the Trinity.
Peter Maurin spoke often about a synthesis of Cult, Culture and Cultivation. A faith based community farm within the Catholic Worker tradition is something entirely new in Europe. As far as Cult we pray through the Gospels, host faith and resistance retreats, try to live a contextual theology for the first world and attend St. Paul's R.C. Church in Harefield. We engage in our Culture by continuing and supporting resistance to the domination system i.e.; militarism and the arms trade. We also offer hospitality those who need help. Presently we host 5 marginalised people. These women need advocacy, accompaniment and emotional support. Living on a farm has given us the opportunity to become as self sufficient as possible, growing organic fruit and vegetables in the permaculture style and hoping one day to have chickens (Cultivation).
We are deeply grateful to God and to His Mother for the blessings we have received. However we need you help. We still have 2 rooms that need extensive renovations and our heating costs and rent are very high. We have spent a great deal of our own money, time and selves in doing this work and need your support.
[House of Hospitality] [Destitute women] [Mission Statement] [Peace Making] [Donations] [Top]
Peter Maurin, co-founder of Catholic Worker, advocated that every home should have a `Christ room', a place set aside to provide lodging and to welcome the stranger. The heart of hospitality here at the Catholic Worker Farm is that premise. When a new guest walks through our doors they are no a longer stranger, they become family, taking their place in the Original community, a community with no borders.
Our work here involves people from war torn countries such as China, Sierra Leone, India, and the Congo. We offer accommodation to women who have been trafficked and abused. Women stay in our family home with free room and board, friendship, solidarity and an opportunity to build community with us. The needs of each person is wrapped in their life story and our hope in taking personal responsibility is that we come close to that individual through living and working together, standing along side them in advocacy, listening to them in counselling and accompanying them on their journey. We have a Pastoral Care Programme for each Guest and English lessons are available here at the farm.
[House of Hospitality] [Destitute women] [Mission Statement] [Peace Making] [Donations] [Top]
There is no such thing as an `illegal' or `bogus' asylum seeker. Under international law, anyone has the right to apply for asylum in the UK and to remain here until the authorities have assessed their claim. (Oxfam)
Asylum seekers are not economic migrants. The top ten refugee producing countries in 2005 all have poor human rights records or are places where war or conflict is on-going. Most are political asylum seekers fleeing danger, torture and death threats. (Refugee Council)
Immigration Detention Centres (IDC) are run for profit by the same companies that are running the new private prisons, and immigration detainees are also held in HM Prisons - an entire wing of HMP Rochester is devoted to refugees. Immigration detention is the most horrendous abuse of life and liberty in the UK . Refugees are imprisoned without charge, trial, time limit or proper reason given. (Refugee Council)
The Home Office detains roughly 2,000 asylum-seeking children with their families each year. (Save the Children (2005) No place for a child)
In 2005, the Home Office refused 92% of applications from Iraqis at initial decision-making stage. (Refugee Council)
Home Office decision-making remains poor. 20% of asylum appeals decided in 2005 resulted in Home Office decisions being overturned. (Refugee Council)
Women form over 80% of trafficking victims, Potential kidnappers exploit lack of opportunities, promise good jobs or opportunities for study. Through agents and brokers who arrange the travel and job placements, women are escorted to their destinations and delivered to the employers. Upon reaching their destinations, some women learn that they have been deceived about the nature of the work they will do; most have been lied to about the financial arrangements and conditions of their employment; and all find themselves in coercive and abusive situations from which escape is both difficult and dangerous.
The main motive of a woman (in some cases an underage girl) to accept an offer from a trafficker is better financial opportunities for herself or her family. In many cases traffickers initially offer ‘legitimate’ work or the promise of an opportunity to study. The main types of work offered are in the catering and hotel industry, in bars and clubs, modeling contracts, or au pair work. Traffickers sometimes use offers of marriage, threats, intimidation and kidnapping as means of obtaining victims. (Edited from Wikipedia)
[House of Hospitality] [Destitute women] [Mission Statement] [Peace Making] [Donations] [Top]
The Catholic Worker Farm is located at Lynsters Farm, Old Uxbridge Road, West Hyde, Hertfordshire , WD3 9XJ . Tel. 01923 777201. It is situated on a working farm in a rural setting with 2 acres of land and lake frontage. At present members who comprise the community are Scott, Maria, Christian, Justin and Francis Albrecht, and Roo Kenney (Scott, Maria, being the core members).
We are a Christian community within the Catholic Worker tradition. The Catholic Worker movement began simply enough on May 1, 1933, when a journalist named Dorothy Day and a philosopher named Peter Maurin teamed up to publish and distribute a newspaper called The Catholic Worker. This radical paper promoted the biblical promise of justice and mercy.
Grounded in a firm belief in the God-given dignity of every human person, their movement was committed to non-violence, voluntary poverty, and the Works of Mercy as a way of life. It wasn't long before Dorothy and Peter were putting their beliefs into action, opening a house of hospitality where the homeless, the hungry, and the forsaken would always be welcome.
Over many decades the movement has protested injustice, war, and violence of all forms. Today there are some 185 Catholic Worker communities throughout the world.
We are committed to the Aims and Means of The Catholic Worker. `The aim of the Catholic Worker movement is to live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ. Our sources are the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures as handed down in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, with our inspiration coming from the lives of the saints, men and women outstanding in holiness, living witnesses to Your (God's) unchanging love'.
We are a community of the London Catholic Worker. It is through the fellowship, dialogue, commitment and love of all those past and presently involved in LCW that we are strengthened. And we in turn commit ourselves, the space and time that we have available to us at The Catholic Worker Farm to strengthen others in Faith and Resistance.
We are committed to Prayer, Personalism, A Decentralised Society, A Green Revolution, Non-violence, The Works of Mercy, Manual Labour and Voluntary Poverty.
[House of Hospitality] [Destitute women] [Mission Statement] [Peace Making] [Donations] [Top]
|
Following on from the Faith and Resistance retreat in 2006, Scott has been doing a weekly vigil at Northwood Military Headquarters. Currently Northwood is being heavily upgraded by Carillion PLC and HSBC Infrastructure Fund Management Limited. Construction for the base will cost 1.15 billion pounds and is being carried out daily by Carillion and local building companies. This is so that the headquarters can meet Britain's military needs for the 21st. Century. Scott has been physically harassed by the police and given a written warning to desist, but that has passed and all is well at the Vigil. He is looking for anyone who is able and willing to vigil for an hour a week outside the `nerve centre' for the invasions on Iraq and Afghanistan and the possible attack on Iran. Scott and Simone Kenney marked the MOD on Ash Wednesday 2006 as a sign of repentance. Scott and Simone also vigiled outside the MP David Gaukes office in Rickmansworth; this was in response to his willingness to support plans to attack Iran. |
Scott is available to give talks and workshops on:
[House of Hospitality] [Destitute women] [Mission Statement] [Peace Making] [Donations] [Top]
Please send donations to: Catholic Worker Farm, Lynsters Farm, West
Hyde, Herts. WD3 9XJ.
(cheques made payable to: The Catholic Worker Farm)
We need:
[House of Hospitality] [Destitute women] [Mission Statement] [Peace Making] [Donations] [Top]