Seven women parishioners at a North Belfast church have each completed a 20-mile walk, raising over £1,000 for Christian Aid Week, the charity’s annual flagship appeal.
The walkers, all parishioners of St Peter’s Church of Ireland on Belfast’s Antrim Road, each covered four miles a day for five consecutive days, setting off from their church to the Waterworks Park on the Lower Antrim Road and back again. The women belong to a walking group at their church and step out together throughout the year, enjoying the health and social benefits that walking brings. Their fundraising walk was sponsored by the St Peter’s parishioners and it has just been confirmed that the total raised was £1,047.
The walk organiser was retired teacher Jill Bradley who gives her time freely as Christian Aid’s representative at St Peter’s, coordinating the church’s fundraising efforts on the charity’s behalf.
Christian Aid Ireland Chief Executive Rosamond Bennett thanked Jill and all the walkers, as well as the Rector, Rev Brian Lacey and all his parishioners for their generous donations. She added: “Our supporters at St Peter’s Parish have been stepping out and digging deep to help people in desperate need around the world, and we are hugely grateful to them all. Kind-hearted people like these are making a difference in the lives of people experiencing poverty, conflict and disaster.”
Christian Aid was established by the main Protestant churches in Britain and Ireland in 1945, in response to the refugee crisis in Europe at the end of WWII. Today, Christian Aid works to ease the suffering of people affected by extreme poverty, conflict and disaster in more than 20 countries worldwide. Every May, during Christian Aid Week, thousands of congregations and individuals raise funds for the charity’s work in what is one of the UK and Ireland’s greatest acts of Christian witness.
For more information on Christian Aid Ireland, visit their website.