WEDNESDAY'S NEWS

The Bishops’ Appeal for World Development - news report
(from Elaine Whitehouse, Communications Dept, RCB)

The Bishops’ Appeal for World Development announced recently that it had donated euro50,000 in aid for the current humanitarian crisis in Iraq following the recent military conflict. The donation was made possible by generous giving to a special collection held in parishes throughout Ireland over the Easter period.

During discussion of the Standing Committee’s annual report the Rt Rev Michael Mayes, Bishop of Limerick, encouraged generous giving to humanitarian causes and said that it was also time to “ask hard questions about the kind of policies that were being put in place by those who wield the most power in the world today”.

In its report to Standing Committee the Bishops’ Appeal thanked the dioceses for their continued support, which made it possible for it to support a wide range of projects in places as far apart as Africa, Central and South America and Asia.

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The report also made special mention of generous bequests received from the estates of the late Miss Elizabeth Ferrar, John Illingworth Gill of Coleraine and Fred South of Cork.

The Committee’s work in Northern Ireland will soon be further facilitated by a recent amendment of the Memorandum of Association of the Church of Ireland Trustees to enable Bishops’ Appeal to be established as a charity for the purposes of tax-efficient giving. Meanwhile, the existing mechanism for tax-efficient giving in the Republic of Ireland remains available and the Committee wishes to encourage the use of this facility as it may enhance qualifying donations by up to 72%.

The ongoing work of Bishops’ Appeal includes responding to emergencies arising from drought, famine and natural disaster, in addition to which it distributes funds towards education projects, health work and sustainable development. Recipients of funds in the past year have included a youth training project in Burma arranged by the SPCK and a number of Christian Aid projects including HIV/AIDS work in Malawi and the Sow Seeds for Sudan Project.

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