Down and Dromore parishioners raise thousands for overseas aid
In parishes across Down and Dromore Diocese, congregations have raised thousands of pounds to support Christian Aid Week, the annual flagship appeal of the overseas aid agency the Church of Ireland helped to found in 1945.
In Ballywalter Parish, Christian Aid representative Marilyn Armstrong helped to raise awareness of the charity’s work when she was pictured in the Newtownards Chronicle showing off the food plants she’d been growing in repurposed containers. Her gesture was inspired by the urban farmers of Nairobi whose project tackling poverty and hunger in a low-income neighbourhood of the Kenyan capital was the focus of this year’s Christian Aid Week appeal. With funding from Christian Aid, women in Nairobi are growing food in cramped city spaces, on rooftops, vertically on walls and on every available scrap of land, enough to feed their families and surplus to sell for an income.
Marilyn was among several parishioners of Holy Trinity Church in Ballywalter who raised £2,000 for Christian Aid Week when they prepared and served more than 100 cooked breakfasts during an event that was open to the local community.
A breakfast fundraiser was also the choice of St Gall’s Parish Church in Carnalea near Bangor which yielded more than £1,100 for Christian Aid. The St Gall’s parishioners also worked with members of West Church Presbyterian and Carnalea Methodist to deliver Christian Aid Week envelopes to thousands of homes in the Bangor West area, the proceeds of which helped bring the total for the three Carnalea churches to around £8,100.
Meanwhile, Groomsport Parish Church and Groomsport Presbyterian Church worked together to raise more than £3,600 for Christian Aid Week, with a coffee morning held in the Walter Nelson Halls contributing more than £600 towards the overall total.
Although the fundraising events took place some time ago, donations have continued to come in and the totals are only now being confirmed.
Christian Aid was established by the main Protestant churches in Britain and Ireland in 1945, in response to the refugee crisis in Europe at the end of WWII. Today, Christian Aid works to ease the suffering of people affected by extreme poverty and conflict in more than 20 countries worldwide. Every May, during Christian Aid Week, thousands of congregations and individuals raise funds for the charity’s work in what is one of the UK and Ireland’s greatest acts of Christian witness.
Christian Aid Ireland Chief Executive Rosamond Bennett thanked the parishioners of Ballywalter, St Gall’s and Groomsport for raising funds to help people in desperate need around the world. She said: “The congregations mentioned, and several others besides, worked hard and dug deep this Christian Aid Week and we are hugely grateful to them all. Kind-hearted people like these are making a difference in the lives of people experiencing poverty, conflict and disaster.”