Please note that the Cafe is only licensed to provide hot drinks and cakes. We are not insured for the cooking or provision of hot food. There are regulations around hygiene and food safety which we would have to meet, before we would be able to offer cooked or heated food to Visitors to the Cafe. Also, only someone with the required Health and Safety certification is permitted by Law, to prepare food for public consumption. We can, of course, apply for permission to provide cooked or heated food in our Cafe and as long as we can satisfy all the requirements, we would receive permission to do so. This is what we have done in the past for special occasions. If we were to use the cooking facilities and equipment in our Cafe and provide food, without the required permissions, we could be in difficulty. If an accident occurred in the kitchen or someone became unwell after consuming food, we could well face a very large fine or even the compulsory closure of the Cafe. Please speak with me, well in advance, if you would like to suggest an occasion when we could provide cooked or heated food. We would need to satisfy all requirements and seek the approvals needed, which we could do. Many thanks.

Please do your best to bring members of your family, your friends, neighbours and colleagues who normally have little, if any contact with our Catholic parish, to the Olde Forge Cafe. Please remember that those you bring with you DO NOT give a donation for their coffee and cake. Only us, who are regular members of our parish, are asked to give a donation, each time, to cover the cost of the Coffee machine, coffee beans, heat, light etc. Dear Bakers and those who provide milk, please remember to take your expenses from the donations received.

OLDE FORGE CAFE BAKERS/PROVIDERS ROTA MARCH 2026 7: Lauren 14: Margaret Fuller 21: Anderson 28: Mary Please, if possible, could you provide enough cakes for the whole of each week. Thank you to everybody who is helping to provide cakes. To avoid having too many cakes, Coral mentioned to me that non-perishable cakes can be safely stored in the Cafe for a short while. When it is your turn to provide a non-perishable cake, please bring your cake to the Cafe a few days before the date of your turn. OLDE FORGE CAFE - HOSTS ROTA MARCH 2026 3: Maggie, Regina 7: Phil, Mary 8: Patricia, Jim 10: Colette, David 14: Marian, Lesley 15: Lesley, Emmanuela 17: Patrick, Paul 21: Simone, Gaberielle 22: Bridget, Jannine 24: Ros, Lizzie 28: Kelly-Ann, Carolyn 29: Giannina, Lorenza  31: Linda, Maggie Please note that for each of the above dates when the Cafe is open, one of the two Hosts has been trained in the use of the new coffee machine. Please would that trained person be the only person operating the machine and also please train the other person in its use. Many thanks. Thank you to everybody who acts as a Host. If an unexpected emergency occurs on the date you are scheduled to be a Host, please don’t worry about the Cafe. No need to try to find someone to ‘stand in’ for you. There is no need whatsoever to ‘swop’ with someone! We are not a Business, having to stay open to make money! - we open when and if we can. We take this role of ‘Host’ as a Vocation from the Lord to be his Missionary and his Prophet. Actually, the Cafe has, at times, functioned well with just one Host. The success of our Evangelisation Cafe depends on us. The more we speak to others of our Cafe, inviting them to visit us, the more successful it will be. Please invite members of your families, your friends, your neighbours and colleagues. Please check when it is your turn to be a Host (or a Baker!). Please see this role as a Calling, a Vocation from the Lord which you are generously telling the Lord you will do”. Thank you so much for your trust in the good Lord

Thank you so much to all the wonderful people who act as Hosts in our Olde Forge Cafe. If you are not yet a Host, please speak with me. It would be great to increase the team of Hosts. All training to operate the Coffee Machine, will be given.

Part of our parish response to the words of Fr Jim McManus (see this week’s ’Thought for the Week’) is the existence of our Evangelisation Cafe. The Cafe is, first and foremost, a way of encouraging new people who do not yet know the Lord Jesus, to get to know him through us. The Cafe as a place where retired people can have somewhere to go is not the reason for its existence. Nonetheless, of course, we do hope that the many retired people living in our area have meaningful and happy lives and feel that they can get to know the Lord Jesus through us, in the Cafe. Our Cafe is simply an attempt to break out of an inward-looking pastoral strategy built on maintaining things, to an outward-looking pastoral strategy built on ‘mission’, which is the very task that the Lord lays upon the shoulders of every adult Catholic person in our parish. The Cafe is not a place for us to simply sit down and enjoy sponsored food and drinks. It is, rather, a place where each of us is asked by the Lord to bring someone we know, but that someone we bring is to be a person who doesn’t yet know the Lord and his Church. The success of this project is entirely in our hands. Hopefully, one day, the Lord will say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Now, enter into my Kingdom, your work for me is done.”? Social Workers do great work but we are not Social Workers; we are Missionaries of the Lord Jesus.

Our Olde Forge Cafe has been up and running for some time now. There have been very wonderful signs, during these past months, that the Lord has been working through our efforts in the Cafe, to bring his love and truth to others who don’t yet know him well. Thank you so much especially to everyone who ministers as a Host or Baker. Thank you to everyone who has invited friends, family members, neighbours, colleagues to join them for refreshments in the Cafe. Of course we are delighted to offer our guests free drinks and cakes, while we ourselves offer a donation to cover costs. If you haven’t yet come into the Cafe or if you haven’t yet brought a guest with you, please may I urge you in the name of the Lord and at the request of our Archbishop, to please do so. Every one of us is called by the Lord to bring others to know him. If you do or even if you don’t think our Cafe is the best way to do this as a parish Faith community, nonetheless please take a full and active part in this initiative. In that way we really are trying to fulfil what our dear Lord Jesus is asking of us.

Thank you so much to everyone who helps as a Host and/or a Baker at our Evangelisation Cafe. Your perseverance and generosity are sure signs of your great Faith in the Lord. We would be delighted to welcome more Hosts and Bakers, especially parishioners who are not yet active in the parish. Please let me know.  One request, please to our wonderful team - May I ask everyone who uses the Coffee Machine to be careful about which buttons are pressed. Types and amounts of coffee, for example, are fixed but some buttons when pressed, change how the machine operates! Also, If you are not sure about how the machine’s self-cleaning process works, please do ask.

Thank you to all our wonderful Hosts and Bakers for their faithful commitment to this great enterprise. At the recent Diocesan Jubilee, Archbishop John spoke of the Holy Spirit of God prompting us all to develop new ways of being missionary. Our Cafe is a way of reaching out to those in Sanderstead and beyond who do not yet have a connection with our Catholic Faith community and through us to the Lord Jesus. Thank you so much to everyone who uses their gifts and time to be Hosts, Bakers or just invites their family members, friends, neighbours, colleagues to join them and visit our Evangelisation Cafe. Thanks be to God, we are beginning to see people visiting the Cafe - Strangers who can become Friends, through your warm words of invitation. Please may I just remind you of how the Cafe operates: Guests are asked not to pay for their drinks and cakes but to please accept our hospitality. If our Visitors insist on making a contribution, then we graciously accept their kindness but please make it clear that no contribution is needed or requested. Members of our parish however, each time they visit the Cafe, are asked to give a donation towards the cost of drinks and cakes, so that we can meet the expenses of running the Cafe and our parish. Please, dear Bakers, continue to deliver your cakes each Saturday morning. Hopefully, we will then have enough cakes for the Saturday and the following Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the days when the Cafe is open each week. We do not offer a ‘take-away’ service so please, dear Hosts, do not give cakes to take away, to our own parishioners or visitors. Any cakes left over, after a session on Saturday, Sunday or Tuesday, please leave for Wednesday. Dear Parishioners of Holy Family parish, Sanderstead, please double your efforts to bring new people to your Evangelisation Cafe. Let the Holy Spirit fill your hearts and support this practical way of helping others to get to know the Lord Jesus better and better. Your Evangelisation Cafe is normally open each week, on; Saturdays 11.00am - 1.00pm Sundays 12.00midday - 1.30pm Tuesdays 10.00am - 12.00midday Wednesdays 12.00midday - 1.15pm  Please let me know if you are not yet an active member of your parish. Becoming a Host or Baker would be an excellent way of fulfilling what the Lord asks of us all.

It’s good to remind ourselves, from time to time, that the Cafe is not about making money nor is it about attracting lots of people because our coffee is good! The Cafe exists because if even only one person gets to know us and our Faith a little better, then that is great success. We leave the rest to the Lord! Let’s not view the Cafe with pagan, secular eyes but with eyes of Faith and hearts filled with a desire to make the Lord known and loved.