Members

Margaret Davoll - Karen French - Sue Morton - Carole Osselton - Freda Richards

St Mary’s annual charitable giving averages around £2,000, based on 5% of our income, calculated from the budgets of the 2 previous years. £2,682 was budgeted for 2009. In 2009 Mission Group received 14 requests for help from various organisations and individuals and we reported this to PCC on 17 November 2009. PCC approved our recommendations for 2009 giving as follows:

1) Vio - Home of Hope, Romania [Global Care’s Sponsor a Child project] £224
2) USPG Anglicans in World Mission – Revd Nicholas Wheeler in Brazil £372
3) Coventry Myton Hospice £600
4) Gilead Health Development, Luweero, Uganda –
continued support of Nobby Clarke’s ministry [St James’ Church, Fletchamstead] £372
5) Yeldall Christian Centres –
supporting their work to help people overcome alcohol and drug addiction £372
6) Church Army’s UK projects £372
7) Gurkha Welfare Trust £370
TOTAL £2,682

We regularly update the Mission notice board in the foyer so that everyone at St Mary’s has the latest information about the people and organisations supported. Information is also included in the weekly newsletter.

Future Direction of Mission Group, including membership

I have led Mission Group since 1998. I informed PCC in November 2009 that I feel now is the time for me to resign. I remain supportive of the underlying principles of St Mary’s charitable giving and hope this will continue. The Franciscan mission to St Mary’s this September should consider how St Mary’s charitable giving reconciles with the wider mission of the church. As the work of Mission Group is reviewed and maybe changes direction, it needs the vision and enthusiasm of new leadership. In the interim period, Stella has offered to chair the group until a new leader comes forward to serve.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank PCC and St Mary’s congregation for their support of Mission Group over many years. I would especially like to thank my fellow Mission Group “conspirators”; we have enjoyed much fun and friendship and prayerful support within our small group.

Before I finally hand over the reins, Mission Group will be leading a Worship for All Service on Sunday 2 May 2010. We will be telling you much more about the people and groups we are presently supporting. So please keep that date free and come along and hear all about the Vio and the Home of Hope; Coventry Myton Hospice; Nobby’s work with Gilead Health; Nicholas’ ministry in Brazil; the Gurkha Welfare Trust; Yeldall’s work with addicts and the Church Army in the UK.

And if you feel called to become involved in this work; don’t be shy, come forward and offer yourself in service. Join the good news of the Mission Group. We need new ideas and a fresh perspective for this important work.

Sue Morton, for Mission Group
Reproduced from the Annual Parochial Church Meeting Report 2010

The following is an extract from a talk by Sue Morton about St Mary’s charitable giving;
Worship for All service, St Mary’s, 4th March 2007.

As members of St Mary’s, we try to do our best to help people in all sorts of situations, as our Lord Jesus would want us to.
Last year, in 2006, St Mary’s supported 7 charities and I’m now going to tell you more about them.

Sponsorship of Viorica and Global Care’s Home of Hope in Romania
Global Care is a well known and highly regarded local charity, first registered as a charity by Ron Newby in 1983.
Ron, on a visit to Romania, saw how many children in Romania’s orphanages and hospitals were neglected - locked up in hospital rooms and left to die – their living conditions were filthy and wretched. He wanted to help but didn’t want to build a large institution – Ron and Global Care wanted a family environment, and a 2 storey house was finally bought to house 2 family units of 8 children in each – the Home of Hope opened in 1992 and a committed Romanian Christian couple, Doctors Ioan and Lucy Pasca devoted themselves to the new home.
The Romanian Government believed that the children who went to the Home of Hope were mentally retarded and would never improve, but from those simple beginnings of love and hope, those children have blossomed. They attend local schools and have achieved so much against all the odds. The Home has staff called “Mamas” and “Papas”, so that the children have a real sense of family love and security – it’s now regarded as a “centre of excellence” in Romania. The children are well educated, lively, fun loving – many are Christians - many enjoy sport and music.

There are many sponsors of the children throughout the UK.
St Mary’s has supported Viorica since she was 7 – she’ll be 18 this June. We donated £224 in 2006 to sponsor her. Vio has lived in the Home of Hope since 1993 – she was then aged 4 and her mother simply could not afford to look after her and her 3 other children – they were desperately poor. Vio was badly malnourished when she first went to the Home; even today she seems tiny, slight in stature. This was particularly noticeable to us when we met Vio and some of the staff and children from the home – Global Care has arranged for them to come to the UK, to Coventry, in September 2003. We realised how tiny she was compared to some of our young people younger than her. We have agreed to support Vio until she leaves full time education in maybe the next year or so. We send cards to Vio for her birthday and at Christmas. She’s done well at school and is now training to be a baker at the local technical school.

Some of the children, originally cared for since babies, have now left the Home and are independent. There’s a flat for the older children as a sort of half-way house, to bridge that transition from the Home to full independence.

So that’s the good news about Vio and the Home of Hope - I have a video about the home and anyone can borrow it.

USPG – the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel – Archdeacon Stephen Taylor
We have supported the missionary work of the Reverend Stephen Taylor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America since 1996 – in 2006 we donated £400.
We originally heard about Stephen through Margaret Davoll – Margaret was a newly appointed USPG link worker and while attending a training course at USPG headquarters in London, she heard about Stephen, newly appointed to missionary work in Brazil. Many of us met Stephen when he came to St Mary’s in 1999 while on home leave. So, in a way, we feel close to Stephen, we feel connected – we know that he works in some of the most deprived areas of Rio, such poverty and neglect that it’s beyond our understanding – imagine people living on rubbish dumps; imagine communities controlled by drug barons, where healthcare is a lottery, and you might start to get an idea of the difficulties that Stephen lives with day by day. He supports local communities, helping to train local priests and community workers, he represents the disadvantaged. In this way, he reflects the life and work of our Lord Jesus.

Read the “Window” newsletter on the Mission notice board and hear all about Stephen’s latest news.

Nobby Clarke and the Luweero Clinic
We’ve supported Nobby Clarke and the Luweero project since 1999 – Nobby is a fireman, and he worships at St James Church, Fletchamstead Highway, in Tile Hill.
He has been the driving force behind setting up a medical clinic in Luweero in Uganda, Africa - the clinic opened in February 2000 - funds pay for Nurse Gladys to screen hundreds of children for many illnesses ranging from headache to malaria - more serious cases such as TB, HIV, Aids are referred to a doctor, where previously there was no healthcare. Those of you who have heard Nobby give talks at St Mary’s will know of his love and compassion for the children and the community in Luweero; he believes that Africa gets a bad press, that charity is not just about giving money, its about action to help people help themselves.
That is what Luweero is about and Nobby continues his ministry to work tirelessly for the Luweero community – he’s now established the Gilead Health Development Charity which aims to support the ongoing development of the Luweero Clinic. I’ve some leaflets for anyone interested in knowing more about his work - he’s keen for committed people to join him and visit Luweero.

The Coventry Myton Hospice Appeal
We’ve supported the Coventry Myton Hospice Appeal since 2002 - in 2006 we donated £400. As you probably know, the appeal is going well and work should start on building the foundations of the hospice in the grounds of Walsgrave Hospital [UHCW] later this year.
The Coventry Telegraph regularly publishes news from the fundraising team about the progress of the appeal. Of course, once the £5m target is met and the hospice has been built, the fund-raising and support will need to continue. This is a cause close to everyone’s heart.

Headway Coventry and Warwickshire
Headway is a national brain injury charity. Their local branch in Coventry/Warwickshire is based in Harp Place, Sandy Lane, and we’ve donated money for 2 years, in 2005 and 2006 - £280 each year.
The aim of the charity is to directly improve the quality of life for those who have survived serious brain injuries, to help them and their families and carers. This is a small charity and they really appreciative any help given.

The Coventry Diocesan Youth Project
We donated £170 in 2005 and again in 2006, to the Coventry Diocesan Youth Project to help pay for the work of a deanery youth worker, Ed Baynes Clark.
Ed spends much of his time at Ernesford Grange School, supporting children there. He had led 2 youth camps last summer and helped run a city-wide Alpha course which attracted 120 young people from all denominations throughout Coventry. He’s hoping to take a small group of young people to Namibia this summer to give practical help to a local community over there; a project supported by the Cathedral’s International Department. Ed is an enthusiastic individual, committed to young people.

Yeldall
And last but not least I’d like to tell you about the work of the Yeldall community. Yeldall is a residential Christian community located near Reading, dedicated to helping men overcome their addiction to drink and/or drugs. It started off with a chance encounter on a tube train between Bill and Joanie Yoder and a young addict called Derek.
Bill and Joanie were touched by his problems and they started to take in people to their own home and later bought Yeldall Manor in 1977 – they called it a house in the country, a house of healing and hope. And it has been – so many addicts, so many people healed by positive Christian love and support. It’s a tough and challenging place for residents and staff. St Mary’s donated money to Yeldall originally in the late 1990s [3 years from 1997 to 1999] and since 2004, we have given £400 each year. Read the newsletters on the Mission notice-board for more detail about Yeldall.

Some of the good news about mission at St Mary’s.

Sue Morton