Charities we support
Members of St Mary's support a number of different charities. A record of the charities we supported financially last year can be found in our Annual Report, although support is not necessarily all financial.
Here in the UK we thought that dealing with coronavirus was a major challenge, but we recognise that other parts of the world had to cope with coronavirus without all the medical support and infrastructure that we do. And other disasters have befallen them, from floods and famines, and wars making people homeless in all areas of the world - not just Ukraine! And they don't have access to the resources we do, so in recent years we have supported the Disasters Emergency Committee's appeals for support for Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Ukraine and now Pakistan. Famine has resulted from climate change, which puts pressure on food resources, and also leads to conflict, which in turn causes people to flee from home.
In June 2019 we had visitors from Tanzania, telling us about Tearfund's Church and Community Mobiilsation Process (CCMP) in the Morogoro Diocese in Tanzania. Since then we have received an update on the work there, with more on Hellen and Wilson whose way of life has changed as they have adopted conservation farming to improve their land and protect their ability to feed their family. Their lives have been completely transformed through their involvement with this project, which addresses all the community's needs, physical and spiritual, rather than just trying to relieve poverty.
One of the partner dioceses of our own Newcastle Diocese is the Diocese of Botswana in southern Africa. The church and its people have suffered badly because of coronavirus, and when we were asked by their Bishop to particularly remember them in our prayers in October 2021, St Mary's decided we should also provide some financial support at the end of the year. Bishop XXXX was among those at the Lambeth Conference in 2022, and was able to visit Newcastle Diocese after the conference before flying home
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Tearfund has issued practical guidance on what we can do about disasters around the world.... and how we can encourage G7 leaders to adopt global policies to minimise future disasters. Apart from encouraging our government to adopt climate-friendly policies, a key element in the campaign is to persuade the UK and other members of the G7 to provide financial support to the poorer countries around the world as they struggle to implement climate-friendly policies at a time when commodity and energy prices are at a historic high.
We encourage you to pray for:
- Our government and all the other G7 leaders
- Future disasters when they happen. The effect is much the same whether the disaster is caused by floods, drought, wildfires or civil war.
Further details can be found on the Tearfund and Christian Aid websites
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Tearfund also encourages us to pray for climate Justice:
What does the Lord require of you? Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God
There is so much injustice in this world
· In this country we take far more than our fair share of the world’s resources: contributing to the shortages of food and other necessary resources at the root of conflicts around the world.
· We in the UK have prioritised vaccinating our own people before thinking of those in poorer nations
· Our thoughtless use of fossil fuels puts greenhouse gases into the atmosphere causing global warming – with droughts, floods and gales disproportionately affecting those in poorer countries
· In the UK, non-white members of the community experience discrimination in access to the services they need and in their treatment by police and other official bodies
· Countries like the UK benefit from arms sales to poorer nations, contributing to prosperity here, but fuelling conflict and persecution in other nations, including persecution of minorities
Lord God,
We want to answer your call to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with you. On Good Friday we mark the day that Jesus was unjustly executed: challenge us to be a voice and a force for justice in our lives, our communities and across the Earth. Amen.
This brief meditation and prayer, broadly based on a Tearfund Lent publication, can be downloaded below
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Other charities we support include
The Children's Society - supported by collecting boxes and through the Christingle service each year. During the coronavirus pandemic the Archbishop of Canterbury made an appeal for supporters to pray for Children's Society staff and their work with children especially at risk at this time. We work with the most vulnerable young people. We listen. We support. We act. Because we believe no child should feel alone.
Christian Aid - working closely with our friends at Longframlington United Reformed Church we arrange coffee mornings and other fundraising to support this international relief charity
Alzheimer's Society - for whom we raised over £1800 through the Great Longframlington Cream Tea held in the village Memorial Hall in the summer of 2019
Alnwick District Food Bank - for whom we have a collection box always available in the church porch, and for whom we also collect non-perishable items and cash at Christmastime, when food bank clients are exceptionally hard pressed. We are grateful to our members and the other local residents who contribute regularly to the Food Bank box in the porch