St Luke’s Gift Day 2025- Jamie Jameson
Dear friends,
Those in our regular St Luke’s congregation will need no reminder that every October, in view of God’s great goodness to us, we take a Sunday as a church to share in God’s work, both locally and further afield, with a missions’ Gift Day.
Here at St Luke’s at the moment, we have pledged to support nine mission focuses that have been chosen over the past few years. They are all Christian NGOs (non government organisations), and all have links with St Luke’s. Each has a representative in the congregation, who keeps us in immediate touch with their work.
Over a three year cycle of giving, alongside the mission work in our parish, we give particularly to three main mission focuses each year, with the other six focuses also receiving gifts. Our Gift Day this year is on the 19th October, and on the three Sundays preceding that day, each of our three main focuses will present itself through a video, which will then be available on the church website. For those without online access, a transcript will be available. This will help us understand fully to whom and to what part of God’s work we will be giving!
Our three focuses for this year are A Rocha, Genesis and Ripple Effect (Send a Cow!).
A Rocha UK is an inspiring Christian charity working to equip Christians and churches to protect and restore the environment – for God, nature and all people, who aim to inspire individuals and families, equip churches and church leaders, build partnerships and manage land for nature and people. As Ian and Polly McKay remind us often, in the face of accelerating climate change and species loss, we all need more and more to take action and care for nature; thanks to their hard work, St Luke’s is a developing ‘ecochurch’…and they will tell us more in their video presentation.
(https://arocha.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are/)
Genesis Trust is a local Bath organisation, and Ian Mckay has been a trustee and more for a long time. His article in the Newsletter for ‘Mission of the Month’ is a very helpful description of all the Trust does, and a reminder of what a pivotal role the organisation plays in our city.
(https://genesistrust.org.uk/)
Ripple Effect (formerly Send a Cow) is a Bath based charity, recently having moved from the beautiful location of Newton St Loe to offices in the Centre of Bath…and consistently, Ann Hatton, in our congregation and Community Manager for RE, has been brilliant in keeping us in touch with their work.
Ripple Effect empowers families in rural Africa to learn more, grow more and sell more, transforming their lives while protecting their environment. Families share what they know and have with their neighbours and wider communities, so that for each one family they work with directly, they know that three more will benefit. This is the ripple effect of their work and of our support! Ann has often shared with us the stories of individuals blessed by RE, and I’m sure that she will give us a very clear up-to-date picture of things developing now in her video presentation.
We can really look forward to these presentations about the three organisations and the strategic and significant part they play in God’s work, and can let them inform us as we prayerfully consider our giving on the Gift Day. If you miss a Sunday service with a presentation, or wish to see it again, the video will be online.
The other six mission focuses are Five Talents, the Leakes and Land for Life, Lux (Bath Youth for Christ), Open the Book, Operation Mobilisation and RedEarth Village Schools.
If you have any questions, please contact jamiejameson48@yahoo.com.
If you would like to give an offering to our Gift Day causes, you can do so in two ways:
1. Bank transfer to the St Luke's Bank account with the reference ‘Gift Day’.
The bank account details are: St Lukes PCC, sort code 56-00-34, account number 02504154
2. By using the envelopes provided marked Gift Day Offering. This can be cash or cheques made payable to St Luke's PCC