Mission Partners
As well as working in our Parish and using our groups to 'evangelise', introducing Christianity to many who have never been to Church, or not been for many years, we also support four international mission organisations.
Support means more than money. It is vital that we pray for and support the Missions concerned. Speakers from the Missions we support often visit us to tell of the latest situations that they and their workers are in. Encouraging us to continue to pray for and support them. We also receive regular information from them, detailing their work wherever it may be.
The Church Army
The Church Army is a Society of Evangelists within the Anglican Communion, which exists to enable people to come to a living faith in Jesus Christ. Many people, even within the Church of England, for which it provides evangelists, are unaware of the Church Army and the work that it does.
The reality is that Church Army has been at the heart of Evangelism within the established Church since 1882 when Prebendary Wilson Carlile a young Curate at St. Mary Abbots, Kensington, founded Church Army to take the Gospel to all, but particularly those suffering the injustices of the age. This has been Church Army's goal ever since.
Church Army Evangelists share the Christian faith through words and action and equip others to do the same. 350 full-time evangelists and 180 further staff are devoted to a wide range of service in Anglican churches, projects and ministry teams throughout the British Isles.
Barnabas Fund
Barnabas Fund serves the suffering Church and makes their needs known to Christians around the world, encouraging them to pray. It provides practical help to strengthen and encourage the Church in many different ways. Barnabas Fund was established in 1993 and channels aid to projects run by national Christians in more than 40 countries.
The problems faced by Christian minorities in some parts of the world range from discrimination to genocide. Even in places that allow worship and evangelism, a convert to Christianity will almost always be rejected by family and community. Whilst many ancient churches are declining because of intense social pressure, new growth is suppressed by the persecution of converts. The recent spread of anti-Christian violence is reducing Christian numbers by the most savage means.
Care
Care are a mainstream Christian charity involved in caring, campaigning and communicating. CARE has offices across the UK and in Brussels, with Headquarters in London.
The fields of CARE's work are Bioethics, Family, Media, Citizenship and Education. CARE provides radical caring solutions through thousands of volunteers and acts as a think tank on matters of public policy.
SAMS
SAMS are a Mission Agency that has long worked in partnership with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of Latin America, and some Diocese of the Episcopal Church of Brazil. More recently SAMS has also begun work with the tiny but growing Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church and the Lusitanian Church of Portugal. The organisation seeks to help the Churches of England and Wales and the Scottish Episcopal Church to become linked with the Churches of South America, Brazil, Spain and Portugal. Recently SAMS has seen its role changing from becoming a traditional sending agency to becoming part of a multi-way international mission. With an annual budget of £1,500,000 the mission is entirely voluntary and depend upon live giving with 60% of this coming from parishes such as St. John's Church, Yeadon and of course individuals.
The mandate of SAMS is to help the church to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, visit the prisoner, care for widows and orphans, bring Good News to the poor and set free the oppressed. SAMS wants only to be a link in a chain that helps the churches of South America reach out to its future - to the needy children, whether through orphanages, schools, programmes for street kids, feeding programmes, health care, education, or evangelism. In every way it wants the church to be equipped to introduce the new generation to the fullness of life offered in Jesus.