CHRISTIAN AID’s eightieth anniversary was commemorated in a service at Westminster Abbey on Thursday, with a celebration of the charity’s past campaigns.
Substantial changes to the structure of Christian Aid are currently being considered, because the charity attempts to maneuver away from a direct-delivery model of aid work. The proposed changes would involve almost the halving of staff numbers, as employees within the UK and in country offices world wide could be subject to redundancy (News, 2 May).
As guests queued and filed in through the nice west door of the Abbey, children from St Mary’s C of E School, Walthamstow, sang. The congregation included staff members, volunteers, and church leaders.
Christian Aid’s chief executive, Patrick Watt, and its chair, the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, delivered a joint reflection, speaking on the charity’s achievements over the past 80 years. Bishop Mullally expressed due to “supporters who give, act, and pray”.
Placards featuring the charity’s past campaigns were then carried in procession past the high altar. Phrases similar to “Hope has no borders”, “Food is a human right”, and “Give tax dodgers nowhere to cover” were written within the charity’s signature colors of red, white, and black.
In his address, the final secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Revd Professor Jerry Pillay, drew on the parable of the Good Samaritan. He applied it to own experiences, referring to an occasion when he was nearly dragged out to sea by a whirlpool.
DEAN & CHAPTER OF WESTMINSTERChildren from St Mary’s C of E School, Walthamstow, sing because the congregation arrives on the Abbey
Many within the congregation were Christian Aid supporters who had come from across the country. None of those that spoke to the Church Times after the service had been aware of the restructuring proposals
A Methodist minister from Ealing, Stephen Day, was on the service. He had noticed that Christian Aid had been shifting its work to concentrate on empowering local partners quite than directly delivering programmes — a trend across the help sector in recent times (Comment, 3 January).
Long-time fund-raisers for Christian Aid, Vernon Morris and Marian Heald got here from north Wales for the event. They were also unaware of the restructuring and proposed cuts. “It appears to be happening in all places,” Ms Heald said.
An ex-employee of Christian Aid, who worked on the charity from 1998 to 2007, didn’t know of the restructuring, but said that it happens “on a regular basis” within the charity sector.
A bake-sale veteran, who wished to stay anonymous, said that, after the service, she had felt inspired to grow to be more involved with the charity, and was disillusioned to listen to of the proposed cuts.
A pair who travelled from the north-east to attend the service blamed the UK Government’s cuts to oversees aid (News, 25 February 2025), saying that the decrease in spending would “affect the NGOs who do good work”. They had been campaigning against the Government’s decision and said that “the UK is presupposed to be a world player; so pulling back is just not the reply.”
Each member of the congregation received a magnetic badge featuring Christian Aid’s logo and “80” to mark the anniversary, plus a flyer with a prayer on one side written by the final secretary of East Jerusalem YMCA, Peter Nasir. On the reverse were words on hope by the spoken-word poet Storm Cecile. The flyer was printed on seed paper, meaning that it might probably be planted.
