Give more than money

Supporting local charities

The Cathedral has a proud tradition of giving money to a wide range of local, national and international charities. This is now overseen by the Mission Giving Team who are working hard to develop a more strategic approach to this giving, exploring the impact our donations make in terms of turnover, reserves policy and how the charity aligns with the Cathedral’s own strategic aims and priorities. Coupled with giving to three charities from the annual fireworks display and a donation from a portion of our Christmas collections, this will be a sum of just over £70,000 for 2022. This is wonderful and will make a tangible difference to the lives of many through the work of these charities. But it is not the only way that we can support charities and I want to mention three ways, in addition to monetary donations, that can also be valuable.

Prayer and Awareness Raising

We seek to pray for the work of charities and we can do that in our own personal prayer, intercessory prayer within our services and we occasionally light up the West End of the Cathedral to highlight a cause. Alongside this, sharing information and advertising events on behalf of local charities through our notice sheets, website and social media posts can really help to get their message known more widely.

Network and providing a forum

The Cathedral can be a place that brings together a wide range of people to raise awareness and promote the work that charities and organisations are doing. Recent concerts for Ukraine, an interfaith event in November and exhibitions in the North Transept are all good examples. On 10 June we will be organising and hosting the first ever St Albans Community Showcase bringing lots of local groups together under one roof to celebrate their work, and our partnerships with them, as we serve our local communities.

Practical skills and help

We are blessed with many people at the Cathedral who have considerable gifts and experience that can also be of great benefit to local charities. After an appeal in the notice sheet, two members of our congregation have offered their time and skills in administration, grant applications and life coaching to benefit Emmaus who work with homeless people in St Albans.

These three examples show that giving to a charity can be about more than just our money.

Will Gibbs

Take action