One of the ways we seek to be 'outward looking' at AFC is in our financial and prayerful support of the charities selected for our monthly Communion Offerings and our annual Christmas Offerings. Our Partnership in Mission Committee organises this part of church life for us and they recently met, in person, for the first time since The Crisis began in March.
In light of the fact that Communion Offerings were not taken up between April to August this year it's been decided that all those charities who missed out on a collection will be 'reinstated' in the list for next year. This will be our way of honouring the brilliant and often vital work they do.
Recently we've held our Harvest Offering for 2020 and we've received something of a 'record' sum of around a thousand pounds. Wonderful evidence, I believe, of the generous beating heart that is AFC.
The October edition of Reform, The URC monthly magazine, has an article outlining the current crisis facing Charities. It points out that Christian Aid expects a shortfall of £6m this year and that the loss of the London Marathan was a blow to the sector as it raised £66m in 2019. On average it's expected that charities will see their income fall by 24% this year, even as 52% of them say they have 'delivered' more services in lockdown than before.
With that in mind, at AFC we will be making a special effort (as we did last Sunday) to highlight our 'Charity of the Month' at our services both on-line and in-person. They do a great work in the name of God and compassion, and merit our support.
Church Life Focus
This Tuesday we'll be holding a Team Meeting as the Ministers, Secretary and Treasurer come together to talk about our life together.
Also on Tuesday there's another 'first' for AFC as our Book Discussion Group gathers on Zoom to discuss 'Sitting at the feet of Rabbi Jesus'.
Next Sunday's services will be led by our Church Secretary, Janet Reid with our Associate Minister, Erna preaching
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