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
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.