For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Matthew 25:35-36
Appeals and Mission Giving 2024 & 2025
St Michaels Harvest Appeal and Mission Giving in 2025
As part of St Michael’s Mission Giving initiative, with the agreement of the PCC, a donation of £500 was made from the Church’s own finances to each of the following:
The Alzheimer’s Society
https://www.Alzheimer’s.org.uk
Weston Turville Wells for Tanzania.
WTWT work in northern Tanzania, “ creating sustainable pathways out of poverty.”
https://wellsfortanzania.org/
Rennie Grove Peace Hospice
In a warm letter of thanks, they say that they “Continue to provide patient-centred palliative care and bereavement support within Bucks and Herts “. and that they are ”also here for family, friends and supporters”.
https://renniegrovepeace.org
- Weston Turville Wells for Tanzania (WTWT) Based in nearby Western Turville, WTWT supports the Maasai in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania, East Africa. These resilient people, with their rich culture, have historically lived sustainably in harmony with the wildlife. Since being moved from their wide-ranging lands of the Serengeti in 1959 their lives have become increasingly difficult. Strict conservation practice and ever-increasing climate change limit their ability to care for their families and livestock.
WTWT helps the Maasai find solutions to the issues causing widespread hunger and ill health. Projects include methods of accessing clean water, year-round food availability, sponsoring child and adult education, improving healthcare facilities, health education and microfinance loans with training for women, opening up business opportunities. The charity ensures its projects are managed by people in Tanzania.
- Alzheimer's Society is a well-known national charity active in our community with 45 years’ experience of supporting and advising people living with Alzheimer’s, funding research and campaigning for dementia care and research. Dementia devastates lives and is the UK's biggest killer. The Society’s research programme works with world-leading scientists, and those affected ensuring high quality research.
- Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care: The charity provides patient-centred palliative care and bereavement support within Bucks and Herts with local shops in Amersham and Chesham. Patients are supported to live the best quality of life through outpatient, rehabilitation and care services, hospice, home and inpatient care. They also help family, friends, and carers, ensuring everyone receives the right support, wherever and whenever they need it.
Appeals in 2025
There were three separate appeals to the congregation for donations. Each chosen charity had local connections. There was a balance between international and domestic charities, as follows:
The Lent Appeal raised £1,927, including gift aid, for the Friends of St Anne’s Hospital, Liuli, Tanzania.
The Harvest Appeal raised £1,146, including gift aid, for Karibuni Children, Kenya after a presentation by Nigel Roberts (a resident of Amersham).
The 2025 Christmas Tree Festival at St Michael’s was a riot of colour and sparkle with 32 Trees, generously sponsored and decorated by local Community Groups. The Angel Tree in the Narthex, where visitors are invited to hang a bauble and make a donation, proved ever popular. 'Choirs, Coffee and Cake’ was a joyous event, much enjoyed by the participating Choirs and the 'roving' audience. Grand Total raised from the ongoing collection, Christmas Fayre, Choir event, Crib Service and Gift Aid, totalled well over £4,500, thanks to a great team effort by helpers from St Michael’s and Wycombe Homeless Connection.
Looking ahead
As reported last year your Church intends to continue its Mission Giving programme and own appeals at Lent, Harvest and Christmas.
For 2026 we have chosen Project Possible for our Lent Appeal: https://projectpossible.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Accounts-2024-25-double-page.pdf.
A moving presentation was made at St Michael’s by their CEO on the First Sunday in Lent. Formerly named ROPE the charity was founded and first based in Amersham, now run locally from High Wycombe. It exists to support community development in Africa, Asia and South America.
The beneficiaries of our Mission Giving and Harvest Appeal will be decided at the first PCC meeting after the APCM.
St Michaels Harvest Appeal and Mission Giving in 2024
This year’s Harvest Appeal is “Carers Bucks”. https://carersbucks.org. This charity supports unpaid carers of all ages, from all backgrounds and in all caring roles. This includes young carers, parents of children with disability, older carers, carers from diverse communities and those looking after someone with a mental health condition. The charity provides support for unpaid carers and those cared for whilst in Stoke Mandeville, Amersham, Wycombe General and Wexham hospitals.
Their Head of Fundraising, Beth Sawyers, will be speaking to our congregation at our 10a.m. service on Sunday, 22 September and the Appeal will then run for three weeks until we celebrate Harvest Festival itself on Sunday, 13 October.
The Group also recommends three charities each receiving £500 if the PCC agree to £1,500 being allocated to Mission Giving from the Church’s own finances.
Three more charities will also receive £500 each which will be allocated to Mission Giving from the Church's own finances:
- Chiltern Samaritans, Amersham https://www.samaritans.org/branches/amersham/
- Talk Back, Amersham https://talkback-uk.com
- Embrace The Middle East, High Wycombe and Palestine https://embraceme.org
“Chiltern Samaritans”, Amersham is one of 200+ branches affiliated to the national Samaritans body all providing support to people in distress. Their current national and local strategy is to focus on the now major societal issue of suicide by supporting those affected and advising on government strategies to alleviate the impacts. Chiltern Samaritans, as all other branches, is entirely volunteer led with 130 volunteer listeners providing round the clock services on a rota basis to people in distress.
“Talk Back” have a base in The Old Barn near the Lifestyle Centre in Amersham and provide autism and learning disability support and service programmes in Bucks and the surrounding areas. They are all designed around all key stages of life from pre-16 through to 100+. For the younger people they provide transition programmes to help people move from school to college and minimise anxiety, for over 16s they provide education support to individuals in colleges, including Bucks College Group, Berkshire College of Agriculture and Reading College. For over 18s they offer personal development and social skills, including cooking and general household tasks, practical skills - including woodworking and other trade-based activities, travel and money management training and many others explained on their website.
“Embrace The Middle East” is well-known to us and used to be based in Old Amersham. They now have an enormous task to fulfil which is clear from watching the news and reading their website. Their vision statement is “As a Christian development charity, we partner with Christians in the Middle East as they work to transform lives and restore the dignity of the most excluded and marginalised communities. Our goal is to contribute to a culture of human flourishing in a troubled region.” They have a “latest news” page which is harrowing and speaks for itself.
Lent Appeal 2024
This year's Lent Appeal raised £1,598 (before gift aid) for The Friends of St. Anne's Hospital Liuli, in Tanzania, an increase of £157 on last year. The charity is organised by members of the congregation of St. Boniface Church in Chandler's Ford Hampshire, who have again expressed their gratitude to St. Michael's for our continued support.
Appeals and Mission Giving 2023
This year the Lent Appeal raised £1,441 (excluding gift aid) for the Friends of St Anne’s Hospital, Liuli.
An appeal was also made at the special Coronation Service which raised £250.50 for The Princes Trust.
The Church also gave £500 during 2023 to each of the following charities: the earthquake victims support charity “Samara's Aid Appeal” www.samarasaidappeal.org; The nature-based Health and Wellbeing Charity based in Wendover, “Lindengate” www.lindengate.org.uk and the recently established charity supporting immigrants, especially those from Ukraine, “Chiltern Welcomes” https://chilternwelcomes.org.uk
The sponsored Christmas Tree festival, and supporting events raised £3,300 for “Wycombe Homeless Connection” https://wyhoc.org.uk/
In 2022 over £2000 was raised during the annual Harvest Appeal and was given to the Chiltern Foodbank, based in Chesham. This year the Harvest Appeal is for “Medic to Medic” https://www.medictomedic.org.uk/ a charity supporting potential medics in East Africa, whose CEO comes from Amersham.