Bishops' Appeal Committee
Thank you from Bishops’ Appeal!
Thank you to each person, each family and each congregation who has given so generously to support the work of Bishops’ Appeal in 2023.
Thanks to you and your generous donations we have been able to support a wide range of health, education and rural development projects around the world. From Uganda, to DRC, Malawi, Burundi, Kenya, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cambodia to Chile and Peru, there are literally thousands and thousands of people who have benefitted from your support and generosity.
There are girls whom you have enabled to stay in school, survivors of domestic and sexual abuse who have benefitted from your kindness, farmers affected by climate change who have benefitted from training and support, literacy projects run by the Mothers’ Union which have enabled women not only to prosper in running their businesses but also read their Bible, and people at risk in leprosy hotspots who have been spared a lifetime of intense suffering – to name just a few.
You responded with incredible generosity to our appeals for those impacted by the disasters following earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, the floods in Libya, and most recently to our Advent and Christmas Appeal for Gaza and the Middle East. Bishops’ Appeal also sent emergency support to those impact by the earthquake in Morocco.
In the face of almost overwhelming suffering, your generosity has enabled Bishops’ Appeal to support our partners working on the ground, demonstrating the kindness and compassion of Jesus to people facing incredible challenges. Together we have been able to make a real difference to the lives of many vulnerable men, women and children around the world.
It is a sad reality that there are still so many people living in poverty, in areas devastated by natural disaster, or displaced by violence and war – but what we have been able to do to help at least some of those affected is an expression of the Body of Christ in action – reaching out with our prayers and our gifts to help his children around the world.
The hymn–writer Graham Kendrick in his beautiful hymn God of the Poor (ICH 494) wrote these words:
God of the poor
Friend of the weak
Give us compassion we pray
Melt our cold hearts
Let tears fall like rain
Come, change our love
From a spark to a flame
Refuge from cruel wars
Havens from fear
Cities for sanctuary
Freedoms to share
Peace to the killing–fields
Scorched earth to green
Christ for the bitterness
His cross for the pain
Thank you for all that you have done in 2023 to support the work of Bishops’ Appeal! Let’s pray for a peaceful and Christ–centred 2024 around the world.
Bishops’ Appeal is the Church of Ireland’s World Aid and Development Programme. It was set up by the Bishops of the Church in 1972 in response to the commands in the Bible to bring good news to the poor and relief to the suffering. A registered charity in the Republic of Ireland (20019068)
and in Northern Ireland (101325).