What's on? Next Messy Church: Sunday 14th June 2026
Services Toddler group
GROWING HOPE with FAITHFUL ACTION!
1 Thessalonians 5: 24 ‘The one who calls you is faithful’
Have you ever grown fruit and vegetables in small spaces?
What links our gatherings for worship over this week with seeds, water bottles, and a cone of pots?
It is the connecting force of HOPE with Faithful Action - that grows from within the many little red envelopes available for donations this week.
Yes, it is Christian Aid Week (10-16th May) 2026. It is the money raised through this week by amazing volunteers, possibly like you, that enables Christian Aid to respond rapidly to ‘disasters’ or emerging projects. During Christian AId week, we are encouraged to focus on a particular community and project to discover how Christian Aid implements the core values of equality, dignity, justice, accountability and love.
This year we are hearing about the ‘Imarisha Kilmo’ Project (Swahili for ‘Strengthen Agriculture) through the experiences of Fridah Moraa and her family. Fridah says ‘life is hard, but in God I trust, for the strength to keep going everyday’ The family live in Dagoretti, one of the poorest informal settlements surrounding urban Nairobi in Kenya.
For over 80 years, Christian Aid has provided humanitarian relief and long-term development support for poor communities worldwide. They also highlight the struggles people have to survive in these communities; tackle social, climate and debt injustices; promote peace building and champion people’s rights to land, health and education for all. Although its role has evolved with the changing world of people, places and politics, Christian Aid remain true and steadfast in their work. Each organisation partnering with Christian Aid is also required to demonstrate how they work within the same core values.
This Christian Aid Week, let us consider what we are each being asked to do.
Whose voices and whose requests are we listening to? And how are we each responding?
It’s all too easy for us to draw boundaries around our generosity and compassion, as though love were a scarce resource that can only be spread so far. Jesus’ words tell us that God’s love is greater than this and that it is offered to us freely.
What might we do with that gift of love? How will we allow it to shape our lives and actions?
A prayer for Christian Aid week
Gracious God,
when we stand on the plains of uncertainty,
with no path before us,
we look to you.
We remember what you have done before and our anxious hearts are comforted.
Showing mercy, you delivered us then; in your love and faithfulness, you will do it again.
Give us the strength to step forward in hope.
Give us faith that changes us,
hope that feeds us,
love that moves us.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.