We have been so blessed by the generosity of the Church over the last year which has enabled St Mungo’s to continue our vision of being a missional church, making an impact in both mission and mercy, across the UK and around the world. Our support has clearly played an important role, particularly in the last year, where many ministries have been impacted by Covid-19, and their regular support through mission trips; church speaking engagements and fundraising events has been significantly reduced. At the same time, most of our mission partners have seen a significant increase in the demand for their services.
We continue to give between 15% and 20% of all our income to Mission work. The majority of this is distributed to our 8 main mission partners [reminder of these are listed below and further information for each one can be found here], who received a total of £110,000 in 2020/21. We also gave gifts in response to several emergency situations: £5,000 to each of OM’s Covid appeal for North India, Comfort International’s appeal following the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano in DR Congo and TearFund and OM’s Afghan refugee appeals. In total we gave almost £170,000 to support UK and World Mission, plus our Christmas Gift of almost £50,000, which last year went to support OM’s amazing work in Yemen.
In October, at the start of our new financial year, the Vestry approved gifts for the coming year of £13,800 for each of our main mission partners; £10,000 to Bethany’s Welcome Centre (previously the Winter Care Shelter); £6,000 to Starfish Asia, £5,000 to Just Earth and £5,000 to the Food Bank run by Holy Trinity Wester Hailes. We will also continue to support Kara Packwood onboard Logos Hope, until she returns at the end of the year, plus smaller donations to several other mission organisations.
Local mission ministries remain close to our heart and we love to hear stories from members of our congregation, who take up opportunities to volunteer and support those who are serving our local communities, offering a lifeline to those in need. If you would like to get involved, please get in touch and I can point you in the right direction.
Our main Mission Partners:
Holy Trinity Church, Wester Hailes
Scripture Union Scotland
Bethany Christian Trust
Wycliffe Bible Translators
Operation Mobilisation
Tearfund
Challenge Ministries Swaziland
Comfort International
Wendy Brown