Christian Aid in the Parish of Mottingham

Christian Aid Week 2021

Churches Together in Mottingham CTIM Christian Aid Week 2021 - Diane Hudson, CTIM Co-ordinator

The Result

The decision on what activity to undertake this year was difficult. In 2020 the choice was dictated by the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, which limited activity essentially to two Zoom events - Mick Wood's Quiz and Revd Ian's Read-in & Sing-in. Together, these events raised over £3,400 (inc. gift aid), making a significant contribution to Christian Aid. The question in my mind was whether or not the novelty of Zoom had worn off and if so, what else could be done as restrictions were beginning to ease. In the end, I decided to go with the programme outlined below, which included a re-run of the two 2020 Zoom events, 'Red Envelopes' delivery and collections, the CA paper quiz and Dawn Watts' bracelets.

Following consultation, I printed 800 labels for specially designed 'delivery only' envelopes and these were delivered to houses in 20 roads in Mottingham by a team of volunteers. Representatives from each road volunteered their homes as collection/drop-off points - people were very willing to act as a 'post box'! Some residents were members of local WhatsApp groups and they helped spread the word. I'm especially grateful for the support given by the delivery team - Beverley Howard, Iris Miller, Jeanne Perkins and Sue Wood. In 2019 house-to-house collections raised more than £1,770 (excluding gift aid). I thought we would be lucky to raise £200, but we received 62 envelopes containing over £925 (over £1090 with gift aid) - more than half the 'normal' amount!

Mick Wood hosted another great quiz night which attracted 40 participants and raised £1007.50 (including gift aid). Revd Ian Welch's 2021 Read-in & Sing-in was his second, six-hour Zoom session (sixteenth event in total to date). Twenty four participants (15 minutes apiece) read poetry and prose, stories (serious and funny) and sang a variety of lovely songs. The appreciative, virtual audience donated almost £800 (including gift aid). Special thanks to our two hosts, Mick Wood and Revd Ian for organising these events. Particular thanks to Chloe King (age 9) for reading from Harry Potter novels and to Imogen Roose, Margaret Cameron and Holly Fisher for singing so delightfully.

Other activities raising significant contributions included: Dawn Watts (Methodist Church) handmade bracelets (£165 including gift aid); Kay Ash Christain Aid paper quiz sales plus St Alban's Church collection and family & friends donations amounting to £515 (including gift aid); Beverley & Geoff Howard's two coffee mornings (one for St Andrew's Church members and one for West Park residents) which raised over £630 (including gift aid). Thanks go to Beryl & Norman Woodard, Tessa & Ray Andrew and Alison & Bob Lawrie for helping at these events. Thank you too, Mary Wyborn (Our Lady Help of Christians), for taking part in both Zoom events and identifying post-box volunteers for the house to house collection. St Edward's Church raised £160 from a church collection, which is much appreciated given ongoing commitments to the Food Bank and vaccination centre. Finally, very many thanks to Brian Sebborn for his work as CTIM treasurer for Christian Aid for over 20 years.

I'm delighted to report that the total amount CTIM has raised for Christian Aid this year is over £4,800 (with gift aid)! Thank you, everyone for your generosity and to all who helped me fulfill this year's programme. I hope you have enjoyed taking part in the some or all of the events. Recalling Holly Fisher's closing song in the Read-in/Sing-in, 'We'll Meet Again', I look forward to seeing you all again in Christian Aid Week 2022 - to join in fellowship, have some fun and raise money to help fight poverty around the world.

Diane Hudson

Please join me in giving special thanks to Diane for her unwavering commitment over more than 20 years in helping to fight poverty around the world, by raising funds for Christian Aid through Churches Together In Mottingham. Committed to this cause, she has led from the front and found ways to continue the good work during difficult and challenging circumstances On behalf of our community, thank you for your dedication and commitment, Diane. Bob Lawrie.

The Programme

Christian Aid Week runs from 10-16 May this year. The following activities have been arranged:

Mick Wood will be hosting a Zoom Quiz again on Friday 14 May at 8pm. Joining details will follow nearer the time.
Revd Ian Welch will be hosting a Read-in & Sing-in on 22 May from Noon - 6pm. Come and go as you wish - participate for as long as you wish. Joining details will follow nearer the time.
Kay Ash is selling the paper version of the Christian Aid Quiz to friends, family and church members. Please feel free to print and copy this if it will work in your church and with family and friends. We ask for a £1 donation. The quiz paper is attached below (J204653 CAW2021 Quiz questions (1).pdf) and can be printed from this website.
Dawn Watts has kindly donated some of her hand-made bracelets to raise money for Christian Aid - generous donations welcome! The bracelets will be available in St Alban's on 2 May and in St Andrew's on 9 May.
Some red envelopes will be delivered in Mottingham. To comply with regulations and keep everyone safe there will be no personal calling.
I will be delivering red envelopes to churches that want to place some in their buildings.
If there are other Christian Aid Week activities happening in your church please let me know.

The CTIM team Just Giving website can be accessed at https://www.justgiving.com/team/MottinghamCAW2021. This will allow us to track the amount raised from most activities including the online activities (items 1 & 2) - amounts raised from red envelopes will be counted separately. As we are arranging to send out some red envelopes, any money we receive has to be counted and sent to Christian Aid in cheque form together with any signed gift aid declarations. Gift aid is reclaimable by Just Giving from personal donations so cannot be attributed to CTIM. If you envisage your church holding an event your own team member(s) can create their own web page on the CTIM Just Giving website (contact me for guidance if needed).

Christian Aid virtual activities this year can be found here https://www.christianaid.org.uk/appeals/christian-aid-week/virtual-events

Another Quiztan Aid will take place at 7pm on 8 May. Special guests Tobi & Prisca Bakare, Rhidian Brook, Kris Marshall, Kate Bottley and Rowan Williams will run the quiz.
Song of the Prophets, a Requiem for the Climate, a new orchestral work, will be performed from 7-8pm on 9 June. Christian Aid has collaborated with the Chineki Orchestra, Europe's first majority BME Orchestra, and St Paul's Institute in arranging this.Dr Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury will give an address and this will be followed by a panel discussion.

To attend these events sign in through the Christian Aid Virtual Events website (above).

We are living in very difficult times so I leave it to you and your individual churches to decide to what extent you are able to participate in Christain Aid activity this year.

Diane Hudson

Christian Aid Week 2020

Churches Together In Mottingham CTIM Christian Aid Week 2020 - Diane Hudson, CTIM Co-ordinator

Christian Aid Week usually starts for me in January when I order the stationery for the event, e.g. red envelopes, activity packs for schools, Big Brekkie packs and posters. This year was no exception. When lockdown was announced on 23 March I thought there was no way that Christian Aid Week could happen. I was wrong!

I received a call from Christian Aid (CA) in the middle of April to tell me that Christian Aid Week was not cancelled, but that we all needed to 'move to a new experience'! Panic set in - I'm no IT supremo. Caroline from CA suggested setting up a JustGiving page for Mottingham as it's important to be able to let the community know how much has been raised. I struggled to set up the web page on my own. Finally, I asked an IT professional to Zoom into my computer and set up the page for me. I then asked Mick Wood to run a virtual quiz and along with Bob Lawrie we ran testing sessions to check that everything would be 'alright on the night'. Mick worked very hard and the quiz was a great success. Revd Ian organised and ran a successful, virtual six hour Read & Sing-in. Reports of both events are on this website's News page and are accessible from links below.

Additionally, Kay Ash, St Alban's churchwarden raised £300 from the distribution of CA Quiz sheets and Tessa & Ray Andrew raised £200 from the manufacture and sale of iBeanies (small bean bags used to support iPads, tablets and mobiles). In all we have succeeded in raising over £3,300 (inc. gift aid) - an excellent result given the restrictions of the current lockdown!

My role this year was to send information to CTIM member churches and others and to encourage them to join in with these events. This was a very different experience from previous years and I did worry about whether or not the IT and this new 'virtual' venture would work. Many prayers were asked for a successful outcome - thankfully all went well!

Thank you to everyone for taking part in the events we have staged this year and thank you especially for your generosity in giving to Christian Aid. Did I miss anything about not being able to do the house-to-house collections this year? Well, I did; I missed catcning up with all the people (and their news) I have got to know over the many years I have collected for CA in Mottingham. I also missed having my Big Brekkie at the Methodist Church!

31 May 2020 Update

The news report (by Sarah Welch) of the virtual Read & Sing-in Zoom event held on Saturday 24 May 2020 can be viewed here

16 May 2020 Update

The news report of the 15 May virtual quiz on Zoom can be viewed here. Details of the 'sponsored' Read-in/Sing-in on 23 May are on the attached pdf below. To join the Zoom meeting at noon please use this information: Zoom meeting - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6750146024?pwd=dDVXRUFMNWphUWk1ZlB4bVhtc004UT09 ; Meeting ID: 675 014 6024; Password: 859013.

6 May 2020 Update

Details on how to join the Zoom Quiz for 8pm and also how to make a donation to Christian Aid are here

2 May 2020 Update

The churches of St Andrew with St Alban have always been great supporters of Christian Aid Week. This year no red envelopes will be put through the doors of Mottingham, because of the lockdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. If you would like to continue to support Christian Aid you can by giving a donation online. Acting on advice from Christian Aid we have set up a Churches Together in Mottingham (CTIM) JustGiving web page to help see and manage the amount raised by our community and that webpage is accessible through this link - https://www.justgiving.com/team/st-andrews-mottingham. If you look at http://just giving.com you can see that other churches in the UK are doing the same. If you are unable to make online donations and would like to give to Christian Aid please phone Dian Hudson on 020 8857 0953 and she will provide you with an envelope. Diane says, "I have taken a leaf out of Captain Tom's book and set the target to raise £1000!"

Mick Wood is working hard to set up our fundraising quiz on Friday 15 May 2020 starting at 7:45 for 8pm. Please email Mick at mickwood66@sky.com if you wish to take part. He will will send you the Zoom link and meeting login details nearer the time. Mick advises logging in from 7:45pm for a smooth and prompt 8pm start. If you would like to try a sample quiz beforehand and also donate then please see the printable quiz attached below. Thank you so much for your help in fighting poverty and disease around the world.

26 April 2020

The ongoing global pandemic and current lockdown means that Christian Aid week will be a very different experience this year as you will see from the 2019 report below, but it is NOT cancelled! Our parish supporters will do all they can to make it the same life-changing week that Christian Aid has been running since 1957. Now, more than ever our gifts, prayers and action are desperately needed.However, in-person events, such as house-to-house collections and Big Brekkies cannot go ahead, although there is a possibility that house-to-house collections may be postponed until the Autumn.

One of the events we are thinking of holding is a Virtual Quiz at 8pm on 15 May 2020. Mick Wood has kindly offered to be our Quiz Master. If you have an Internet connection and would like to participate please email Diane Hudson (address below) at the earliest opportunity. The Quiz will be held using the Zoom application and we hope that you will be prepared to donate generously to Christian Aid. We are looking to raise more than the £3,200 donated last year! More details on how to participate will be published as soon as possible.

Other fund raising events could include a sponsored read-in via Zoom, a sponsored singing event via Zoom and/or a direct appeal for donations. If you are interested participating in a sponsored read-in or singing event, please contact Revd Ian Welch. If you have any other ideas for fundraising, please contact Diane.

Why not try the Cristian Aid Quiz (below) and donate to a good cause at the same time. Answers will be available towards the end of May. Contact Diane Hudson for further details.

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What Happened - 12-18 May 2019

Full details of Christian Aid Week 2019 activities, including how you can get involved are shown on the attachment below. Please contact Diane Hudson for information T: 020 8857 0953 or E: dianehudson412@btinternet.com. Information on 'All mums should live' and the the "Circle in the City Sponsored Walk' are shown in the other attachments below. Don't forget - 'You're invited to the Big Brekkie!' at Mottingham Methodist Church from 9-11am on 11 May.

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