Offer helping hand at Christmas

As we gather to celebrate the birth of Jesus, parishes will be conducting the annual Archbishop’s Christmas Appeal at Christmas Masses.

Times of celebration make hardship all the starker. To offer a helping hand to others this Christmas can be a way of stir­ring the great hope of Christmas especially as COVID-19 contin­ues to impact all our lives.

Funds raised will again be used to support the National Council of Churches’ Christmas Bowl Appeal and to help Church communities in Ethiopia, Gaza, Syria, Indonesia and Sri Lankans in India.

Further support will be given for projects in the Dio­ceses of Otukpo in Nigeria and Thamarassery in India along with projects of the La Salette Martha Province in India.

Continuing help will be given to Bethlehem University as well as contributing to construction of a school hall at Vanga Point in the Diocese of Gizo, PNG.

Last year, the Archbish­op’s Christmas Appeal raised $50,000. It was distributed:

• About $5600 for projects in the Diocese of Wilcannia Forbes
• $10,000 to the Diocese of Otukpo, Nigeria
• $6000 to each of the Society of the Oblates of the Sacred Heart (OSH), the La Salette Matha Province and the Diocese of Thamarassery in India
• $5000 to Bethlehem Univer­sity in the Holy Land for student assistance
• $5000 towards construction of a multipurpose hall at a school for migrant children from Kiribati and Malaita in Nusabaruku, Diocese of Gizo, PNG.
• $6500 to National Council of Churches in Australia’s Christ­mas Bowl Appeal, to assist their Act for Peace projects.

Generosity in the face of COVID challenges will again be needed to enable us to reach out and assist our neighbours in need this year.