‘No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main……… all mankind is of one author and is one volume’. (17th Century John Dunne, Meditation xv11 )

On our Parish Day of 2008 one of the needs that that arose for the parish to address was that of single people. Our parish is enriched with many talents and single people are part of this treasure of riches. The single state has got tremendous riches which needed to be explored.

Like every other state, single people feel very different things about their single state. Some may feel part of the whole or an island with very good links to the mainland. Other may feel that their links are not so strong or indeed may feel that they have no links and therefore perhaps feel isolated and forgotten. Some have riches that would like to share but do not know how to get onto the island.

There are also different reasons for the kinds of islands people belong to. For some, their island may be freely chosen, whilst for others as a result of the pattern of life’s circumstances or caused by an eruption, such as separation, divorce or death of a partner. It may be that they belonged to another mainland and had to move and therefore join another mainland. Each one’s island is different. It may be a sunny paradise, an island sufficient in itself or a rocky out crop, barren and isolated. For some their island may be situated in an estuary with constant passing ships or a stop off point for ships to take on supplies and enabling passengers to share with the residents of the island.

For this reason, the Parish organised an evening where single people were invited to meet others and share a meal and discussion. Questions were provided to generate discussion. The evening was friendly and informal and the people who attended all said that the evening had been a success. The participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire about how they found the evening. A group of ten people left their name to become part of a focus group to look at the different needs of single people.

At present, the ideas that flowed from the discussions and the questionnaires are being collated to bring to the next meeting of the Parish Pastoral Council.

We hope that this will be the start of something lively and inclusive for single people and to bring to everyone’s awareness the riches that the single state holds and also to look at the difficulties that this state may throw up.

So all you who are single make sure that you stay in touch with us. The person on the Parish Council to contact at this point is Antoinette Dalli. If you have ideas, concerns or anything that you might like to offer or see happening contact her.