There will be a special service for Christian Aid week for the whole of the Canterbury community, held at St Stephen’s Church on Sunday 22nd May at 6.00pm.
Everyone is welcome and we look forward to seeing you there.
Next Sunday, 21st November, Traidcraft will be back again in the church Hall with their usual beautiful cards and gifts for us to buy as we enjoy our coffee after church. Do come and support them!
Next Sunday, 3rd October, is our Harvest Festival. It is our tradition at St Stephen’s to support the work of Catching Lives and the Canterbury Food Bank with the generous donations of members of our congregation. If you are thinking about donating something next weekend, you might find the following suggestions useful:
Catching lives are particularly looking for Bottles or cartons of water, juice or squash; Hand sanitiser, treat items – chocolate, crisps, etc; packs of tissues, baby wipes, cotton buds; totes and batteries, waterproof ponchos, foil blankets; underwear; dog treats; fruit cereal bars; lip balm; hand cream
Canterbury Food Bank is currently very low on the following items, but would also appreciate any non-perishable goods: laundry detergents; cleaning sprays; cereal; long-life milk; fruit juice; instant mash; large nappies (size 5/6); baby wipes
Donations can be made at any of our services next Sunday, and don’t forget that we have yellow bins for the Canterbury Food Bank in the church porch and church hall all year round.
Wednesday September 22nd
from 10.30
In St Stephen’s Church Hall
In aid of MacMillan Nurses
Cakes and paperbacks
Do join us
Dear All – it would be great if you were able to join us for the charity Coffee Morning on Wednesday of next week – even if you were able to pop in briefly!
There will be a stall for sweet and savoury items and also paperbacks. We will not be having other stalls so the hall will not be so crowded.
Items for the bakery stall will be most welcome!
It would be lovely to have your support!
Jenny and Libby
SATURDAY 14th AUGUST 2.30 P.M.
To enjoy nature without getting lost in it, and to raise money for Christian Aid, we have organised a guided Saturday afternoon walk through Blean Woods. The walk should last approximately one and a half to two hours depending on energy levels.
The meeting point will be the Blean Woods Nature Reserve car park, off Rough Common Road, at 2.30. For those coming by public transport, the Triangle and Number 4 buses stop by the Rough Common roundabout on the A 290, from which a short stroll takes you to the car park.
There is no need to book in advance. But please consider making a donation to Christian Aid (£5 minimum?) in cash on completion of the walk, or online at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/canterburychristianaidfundraising
On 1st July members of the Canterbury Christian Aid group, from churches all over the city and the surrounding villages, will walk for six hours (10am to 4pm) in the High Street, carrying water cans, in solidarity with all those who walk long distances to collect water. To sponsor this event, please go to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/canterburychristianaidfundraising
On 27th July three members of the group, John Ward (St Mary Bredin), Lucy Bryan (St Peter’s Methodist Church) and Brian McHenry (St Dunstan’s, St Mildred’s and St Peter’s Canterbury), will walk the Elham Valley Way from Hythe to Canterbury (22.5 miles). To sponsor this event please go to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ealhamvalleywalk
Christian Aid Week
The Canterbury group invite you to a Zoom service on Sunday 9th May at 630 pm.
Lord Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chair of Christian Aid, will give an address during the service.
Please book your place at the service by emailing brian@mchenry.co.uk
What are YOU going to do for Christian Aid week?
In previous years members of St Stephen’s have raised £2000 through door-to-door collections – mostly in small change. We can’t do that this year, but the need has not gone away – remember Rose, the Kenyan grandmother who has to walk miles each day for water because the dam near her house is too small?
We have already raised over £600 by donations from the congregation to our Lent Appeal: Christian Aid week (10th–16th May) is when we go beyond that group, reminding other well-meaning people of the need and getting their help.
We can’t go door to door, but we can reach out in other ways:
Let us know what you plan to do at pewsnews@ststephenscanterbury.net and we can publicise it for you in our weekly mailing; also if you need someone to help with your idea we can let people know that too.
Here are some links to help you do your bit towards Christian Aid Week fundraising:
The Christian Aid website
https://www.christianaid.org.uk/
Lots of information, online activities to support and ideas for your own fundraising activities.
St Stephen’s Just-giving page.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ststephenschristianaid2020
Donate here to make sure we meet our target of raising as much as in a normal year.
St Stephen’s Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/ststephenscanterbury/
Use this to publicise your activities and to keep up with what others are doing.
Christian Aid pictures and banners for e- envelopes
My e-envelope message – I’m posting this here because it includes the figures I quoted in my sermon which you may want to use in your e-envelope message.
Dear Friends
This is Christian Aid week. Normally we would be collecting house to house, but the Covid-19 epidemic makes this impossible. The epidemic also however makes it even more important that people have access to soap, clean water and sanitary facilities. At least 10% of the world’s population doesnt have access to safe drinking water. One in 4 don’t have a toilet, and 673 million people have to defecate in the open. Not surprisingly this leads to a lot of illness, apart from Covid19. The latest figures from 2017 tell us that more than half a million children in the world under 5 die each year from diarrhoea. That’s more in one month, every month than those of all ages who have died in the UK from coronavirus. The death rate in children under 5 from diarrhoea is 100 times that in developed countries including the UK.
There are three ways in which you can help:
Make a donation yourself:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ststephenschristianaid2020
forward this email to others and encourage them to donate
sponsor me in my “knitathon”. (details below)
A Novice Knitathon
I only learnt to knit last November so I’ll be knitting a scarf (it’s the only thing I can knit!) and asking to be sponsored for every inch I knit during Christian Aid week. To give you some idea what to expect the four foot scarves I’ve knitted for Yvan and for his mother so far have taken me about two months each.
Here is a photo of my casting on so you can see what I plan to knit.
I’ll post a message saying how much I have managed to knit (with photographic evidence) on my blog next Sunday.
You can sponsor me by sending an email, by adding a comment to my Christian Aid blog post or on St Stephn’s Facebook page, or direct to the just-giving page. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ststephenschristianaid2020
When I’ve finished the scarf (probably sometime in the Autumn) it will be given to a charity working with homeless people so it can help keep someone in the UK warm next winter.
Normally this week many of us would be getting ready for our house to house collection of Christian Aid Week. St Stephen’s usually raises around £2000 through this – a significant some for those in poor countries living on a few pounds a week.
This year we cannot do that but instead we have set up a “Just Giving” page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ststephenschristianaid2020 so that all of us, whether we normally collect for Christian Aid or not, can both to make a donation and also encourage our friends and neighbours to contribute.
Some people usually raise money through activities – cake sales, coffee mornings etc. Instead of (or as well as) asking people for donations why not be imaginative and create some online fund raising activities people can take part in? There are ideas and more information on
https://www.christianaid.org.uk/news/coronavirus-guidance-christian-aid-week-events-and-activities
Please help to make sure we don’t let those who rely on Christian Aid down in this year when they too face the problems of Covid-19 but without the NHS and our comfortable houses to help us ride it out. Start planning NOW what you are going to do this week Christian Aid week. Why not post your ideas on the St Stephen’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ststephenscanterbury/ ?
2.3 billion people don’t have somewhere safe and hygienic to go to the toilet. (WHO/Unicef)
Almost 1,000 children die every day from preventable diseases linked to dirty water and unsafe toilets. (UN)
663 million people live without safeChildren worldwide miss 443 million school days each year because of dirty water and poor sanitation. (UN)
The lack of a loo makes women and girls a target for sexual attack as they go to the toilet in the open, late at night.
Every year, women and girls spend 97 billion hours finding a place to go. (World Bank)
How Twinning Works
For a donation, you can twin your loo with an impoverished family’s household latrine, in a country of your choosing. Your smallest room becomes the proud owner of a certificate, complete with a photo and GPS coordinates so you can look up your twin’s location on Google Maps. Your donation will be used to provide clean water, basic sanitation, and hygiene education.
We aim to raise £240 to twin the Church Hall toilets this Lent – but why not twin your own loo this Lent for £60?