St Barnabas has a strong tradition of charitable giving as a church, and of promoting fundraising and volunteering in support of charities.
The church devotes part of its own income to donations to charities, with an emphasis on local and Christian organisations. We offer an opportunity to suggest recipients and the donations list is reviewed by the PCC each November.
Three major fundraising events are organised each year:
- A Handyman Sale in May
- A Garden Party (with community involvement) in June
- A Christmas Fair in December
The proceeds of the Garden Party are usually devoted to a special project within the church. The money from the other events is distributed to three charities that St Barnabas has continuing links with:
Education for Life
Education for Life is working in Mombasa, Kenya, shining the light of Jesus by providing employment for local people; feeding and educating children; providing homes for orphaned and abandoned children and families in need of a helping hand and reaching out to the community through the local church. www.educationforlife.net
Christian Engineers in Development
CED is a group of professional engineers who are committed to using their skills and resources to assist people in developing countries to overcome poverty. They work in a wide range of developing countries, on a wide range of projects, in response to a conviction that there is a need for professional engineers, and others, who were committed Christians to use their skills and resources in overseas development work. www.ced.org.uk
Olives Childcare and Orphanage Project
Olive’s Rehabilitation Centre is an informal (“slum”) school located in the suburb of Bombolulu in Kenya’s second largest city, Mombasa. It was set up in 2001 to educate, clothe, feed and provide counseling and religious education services to some of Mombasa’s most vulnerable children. www.gvi.org.uk/projects#olives
Other charities supported
More details of the charities we support are in this leaflet:
In addition to these activities collections from special festival services such as Christmas are passed to charities nominated each year. Examples include:
St Barnabas also supports Christian Community Action (CCA), a Reading based charity committed to helping local people in need.