10.12.2012
Black Santa Sit Out Gets Underway Next Week
The 2012 Black Santa sit out at St Ann’s Church on Dawson Street will get underway on Monday December 17, at 2pm. The annual Christmas charity appeal will be launched by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson and the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Naoise Ó Muirí. It is also hoped that members of Ireland’s inspirational Paralympic team will be present at St Ann’s for the launch. The children’s choir of the Kildare Place School will provide festive songs for the occasion.
The annual sit out will continue right up until Christmas Eve. The Vicar of St Ann’s, the Revd David Gillespie, joined by clerical colleagues from around the diocese, will sit outside the Dawson Street Church from 10am until 6pm each day collecting money for a number of charities. They will be joined by different choirs each lunchtime, including this year for the first time the Mater Dei School and Catholic University School choirs, until Christmas Eve when the Stedfast Band will perform.
The Black Santa sit out is modeled on a similar appeal, which has been run by successive Deans of St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast for many years. It became known as the Black Santa appeal because of the long heavy black cloaks worn by the clergy to keep out the cold.
The money collected this year will be distributed to St Vincent de Paul, the Salvation Army, the Simon Community, Protestant Aid, Trust and the Church of Ireland Overseas Aid.
Last year, despite the difficult economic conditions, the Black Santa Appeal raised a record–breaking €30,000. “It was a strange thing to think that the appeal last year raise the largest amount of money ever collected during the sit out,” the Revd David Gillespie commented. “But it was very humbling to meet people who had come especially to donate to the appeal and who had been collecting all year round for it.”