Christian Aid Week

Circle The City – 2014

Circle The City: On Sunday 18th May 2014 I accompanied my wife who was taking part in a sponsored walk around churches in the City of London to raise money for Christian Aid, part of the activities in Christian Aid Week. The 2025 Christian Aid Week ended yesterday (17 May 2025) but it isn’t too late to donate towards their work with local partners and communities in countries around the world “to fight injustice, respond to humanitarian emergencies, campaign for change, and help people claim the services and rights they are entitled to.”

Christian Aid is one of the better aid charities, currently working through local grass roots organisations in some of most vulnerable communities in 29 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. They don’t give money to governments and the projects they support are organised and managed by local people – with robust procedures to ensure the money is spent effectively. Some of those they support are Christian but many are not – something which has led to some churches failing to support their work.

Other churches have decided against supporting Christian Aid because of their political campaigning, “pressing for policies that can best help the poor…. All we care about is eradicating poverty and injustice and the causes of these.” Compared to some other large charities they are more efficient, with 84p in every pound donated “working for long-term change, responding to humanitarian emergencies and using our voice to call for global change“.

The event was extremely well organised, with those taking part getting maps and directions at St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside where there was a service before the walk. People also collected red helium-filled balloons to carry on the walk, and some of these were tied to mark the route and the various points – mainly churches where marchers could get their sponsorship forms signed as they walked around which also had Christian Aid bunting.

*Bevis Marks Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in Great Britain, built in 1701*

Most of the churches were open for people to walk around and some had refreshments and toilets. It would have been hard to get lost, but some people have zero sense of direction and find it difficult to hold a map the right way up and my presence was helpful. But I had really gone along to keep my wife company – and of course to take some pictures, some of which appeared in her church magazine.

*A yurt at the rear of St Ethelburga-the-Virgin within Bishopsgate*

I’d visited most of the City churches before and photographed inside them, but there are a few that are seldom open to the public but opened up for the occasion, and I also took other pictures as we walked around. Most of them, even those of other buildings include other marchers and some of the churches were crowded with them. Those red balloons didn’t always improve my pictures, but I also ate more cake than on my other city walks.

There are many more pictures in the post on My London Diary at Christian Aid Circle the City.

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London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

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Circling The City Quiz 2019

Circling The City Quiz: I don’t often now go out camera in hand with no specific aim in mind but Sunday 19th May 2019 was a day without any photographic plan. I was keeping my wife company on a sponsored walk and making sure she didn’t use her powerfully inverse sense of direction to get lost.

The walk was organised by Christian Aid and came at the end of the annual Christian Aid week which always takes place in the second week of May (this years it was 12-18 May.) There are events organised by churches across the country as well as some door-to-door collections (the largest in the UK, though these are becoming increasingly difficult), as well as regional events like this walk. You can add your donation at this link.

Christian Aid was founded at the end of the war in 1945 to give aid to the millions of refugees and displaced people in Europe, but now works with grass roots groups of all faiths (and none) in 24 countries across the world. This year its appeal was focused on Burundi where over 70% of the people face hunger and poverty every single day.

Whatever one feels about the faith that motivates its work, I think it is one of the better large NGOs in various ways. As well as working with local grass roots partners in the countries where it gives support, its activities in fund-raising in the UK are also very important in educating many across the country in development issues and the problems faced by ordinary people across the world.

We were given a very clear map and guide to take us around a series of churches in the city – mainly of course rebuilt by Christopher Wren and his co-workers after the 1666 fire, most of which were open for the event and some were offering refreshments. So our progress was slow and a few were closed by the time we arrived, but I was able to take some photographs inside 8 or 9 of the the dozen on the route we followed, including a couple I don’t recall having been inside before.

Here I’ll mainly post some of the pictures I took on the streets as we made our way around the city, along with a few from the churches.

I’ve deliberately not captioned them so those who know London can have a little fun in trying to work out where they were made. If you can get more than ten out of the fourteen you know London pretty well, and anyone who gets all 14 deserves (and probably already has) a London Green Guide badge. Unfortunately I can’t award these and you will need to take a course to get one.

You can check most of your answers in the post on My London Diary at City Churches Christian Aid Walk.

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London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

Christian Aid Circle The City 2009

Christian Aid Circle The City: This week every year is Christian Aid Week, when thousands of people engage in various activities to raise money for the work of this charity in the majority world. These include people trudging the streets of towns and cities delivering and then collecting gift envelopes, tea parties, sponsored walks and many other activities which to raise money.

Christian Aid is a charity embodying Christian principles but its support goes to people and grass roots organisations in many countries in the global south, many not Christian. It states it “exists to create a world where everyone can live a full life, free from poverty” and in 2021-2 helped 1.4 million people through its programmes. It provides humanitarian aid in emergencies but also runs many projects, particularly with women and promoting women’s rights and supporting the poorest and marginalised people.

Their web site lists the 25 countries in which they are currently active, working with local people and partner organisations – Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republisk, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iraq, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, Kenya, Lebanon, Malawi, Myanmar (Burma), Nicaragua, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Syria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Although I think they are a very worthwhile charity I’ve long supported others which work in similar ways but my wife is a local Christian Aid organiser and I’ve supported her in this work – including this year helping with a sponsored walk around the churches in our own area.

For a number of years she took part in an annual sponsored walk around the City of London, Christian Aid’s ‘Circle the City‘ a fund-raising sponsored stroll from church to church to church in the city. And often I went with her to keep her company and make sure she didn’t get lost. Of course I took a camera with me and took a few pictures, mainly of the many Wren churches we visited on the route. But in 2009 I decided to photograph it a little more seriously.

The pictures here are all from the walk on Sunday 17 May, 2009, and this is the post I made on My London Diary about it.

Sunday afternoon I followed a woman with a red balloon on a six mile (10 km) trail around the city, or rather two cities of London and Southwark, which led us to around 30 different ritual locations. We gained access to many of these and in several were offered drinks and food.

It was Christian Aid’s ‘Circle the City’ a fund-raising sponsored stroll from church to church to church… the woman was rather well known to me and all I got to drink was tea, coffee and lemon squash, though the asparagus quiche at All Hallows by the Tower was delicious.

In the course of our walk we got to see – if only rather briefly – the interiors of some of Wren’s finest, and one or two by other architects. And the event at the end of Christian Aid Week had raised a considerable amount for the projects that Christian Aid supports in the majority world.

More pictures from the walk and captions on My London Diary at Circle the City: Christian Aid.

If you don’t get a collector calling this week you can still make a donation to this worthwhile charity online at the Christian Aid web site. And of course donations are welcome at other times too, so if you are reading this later you can still support their work.