Charity Giving
Throughout the year, people at St Michael & All Angels devote considerable time and energy to charitable work. We’re very grateful to all those who help us raise money for a range of charities, at home and overseas. A list of charities we've supported in recent years can be found on the Links page.
St Michael & All Angels' Charities for 2010
- including our Lent Appeal, Quiz Supper (Saturday May 8th) and the Bedford Park Festival (June 12th to 27th)
This year St Michael & All Angels will be devoting all its charitable activity, throughout the year, to three charities:
St Michael's Advent Calendar & Christmas Appeal 2009
St Michael's Advent Calendar helps raise money for our annual Christmas Appeal. In 2009 the works were created by 24 local artists and were sold by silent auction, at a party in the Parish Hall on Sunday January 10th 2010. The artists generously agreed to donate a third of the sale price to the Appeal charities. This Advent, the Appeal raised a total of £6,884 and the proceeds are going in their entirety to:
- Bhola's Children in Bangladesh
- St Mary's Convent & Nursing Home in Chiswick
- The Upper Room, feeding the community in need in West London
This sum includes the collections from three of our Christmas services - Nine Lessons and Carols, the Children's Crib Service and Midnight Mass - and the money raised by our carol singers at Turnham Green tube station and other events.
Cards for Good Causes at St Michael & All Angels
Each year, through Cards for Good Causes, we sell hundreds of Christmas cards for charities at our shop in the Church (see also Cards for Good Causes shop). The charities are listed here. They include St Michael's own cards - the 2009 image shows St Michael & All Angels in the snow, photographed by David Beresford.
Harvest Thanksgiving 2009
At our Harvest Thanksgiving in October, we distributed food and other goods to the Upper Room and St Mary’s Convent & Nursing Home, with generous support from Orchard House School and Chiswick & Bedford Park School.
Chiswick Book Festival 2009
A team from St Michael's also runs the Chiswick Book Festival, though this doesn't directly form part of the church's charitable giving activities. The 2009 Book Festival raised a total of £6,195.36. St Michael's and three book-related charities each received £1,548.84. The charities were:
RNIB Talking Books Service and Books for Children. The Festival's contribution has been used to sponsor the recording of Claire Tomalin's The Invisible Woman and Sandi Toksvig's children's book The Littlest Viking, and is acknowledged on the CDs.
InterAct Reading Service, which provides a reading service for stroke patients in hospital. One of its patrons is Chiswick resident Richard Briers. It was one of five winners in the Guardian's Charity Awards 2009.
The Letterbox Club, which works with local authorities to send monthly book parcels to children aged 7 to 11 in foster families, to improve their educational outlook. It's part of the Book Trust and one of its patrons is Jacqueline Wilson. This year it will deliver almost 30,000 parcels to 4,600 children in 140 local authorities across the UK.
Bedford Park Festival 2009
Bedford Park Festival names The Microloan Foundation (which makes loans to the poor in Malawi) and the Upper Room (feeding the community in W4) as its charities for 2009.
Final figures for this year's Festival are still being compiled and will be published as soon as they are available.
Christian Aid Week 2009
For several years we have held a Quiz Supper for Christian Aid. This year's was on Saturday May 16th, at the end of Christian Aid Week when we also take collections.
The total funds raised during Christian Aid week 2009 were £2,246. These were made up as follows:
£195 from collection at Turnham Green tube station
£200 from collection on 10th May at morning church service
£387 from other donations during the week
£1465 (after expenses) from Quiz Supper
Lent 2009
Our Lent charity in 2009 was The Upper Room, which has been helping people in need for over 18 years. The charity provides a broad range of services for the homeless, vulnerable, and socially disadvantaged of West London, including serving over 30,000 meals a year (right). We raised £3,141, through Lent lunches and collections in our Lent Jar in the church.
Bach Cantatas
The Upper Room also receives the retiring collections from the Bach Cantatas concerts on Sunday evenings in the church.
Sums raised for charity in 2008
St Michael's Advent Calendar & Christmas Appeal 2008
Many people gave very generously to our Christmas Appeal in 2008, whether at the Christmas services, to our Carol singers at the Tube station, or through individual donations. We raised £6,429 which was shared between the following charities:-
HAY: Hounslow Action for Youth,
The Upper Room, feeding the needy in West London, and
The Lamb Health Project in Bangladesh
You can click on the names to find out more about them.
Bedford Park Festival 2008
Bedford Park Festival named Musequality
as its charity for 2008
The Bedford Park Festival in 2008 raised over £12,000 for two local charities: £9,000 for Musequality, funding music projects that change young lives; and £3,111 for the Upper Room, feeding those in need in west London; as well as substantial sums for St Michael & All Angels Church and its Trust. Thank you to everyone who donated so much time, effort and money.
Musequality is the local charity set up in 2007 by violinist David Juritz, leader of the London Mozart Players. It is using the Festival funds to support two projects:
- Ban Mok Cham, Thailand - building a performance centre, and paying for instruments and teachers’ salaries;
- M-LISADA Band, Kampala – paying for a promotional CD of Christmas carols. You can help them further by buying a copy for £8 
at St Michael's or by e-mailing david@musequality.org.
Lent 2008
Our Lent charity in 2008 was USPG - Anglicans in World Mission - and its Lent Appeal, focussing on the Church of Bangladesh (right). We raised £2,239.71 for USPG, through Lent lunches and collections in our Lent Jar in the church.
Sums raised for charity at St Michael & All Angels in 2008
In 2008, we raised £25,493, spread across six separate charities (see below). The Charities Group is led by Mary Pears. If you'd like to help in any way, please contact her via the Parish Office.
Charity giving in 2008 |
£ |
USPG - Anglicans in World Mission Lent Appeal |
2239 |
UPPER ROOM including Bach Cantata donations |
3013
3111 |
| MUSEQUALITY Share of Bedford Park Festival proceeds |
9000 |
| CHRISTIAN AID Quiz supper and tube station collection |
1800 |
| ADVENT APPEAL (includes collections at Christmas Services and carol singing at Turnham Green tube station |
|
| Lamb Project Bangladesh | 2110 |
| Upper Room | 2110 |
| Hounslow Action for Youth | 2110 |
| TOTAL FOR 2008 |
25,493 |
In addition, funds were raised for the repair and redecoration of St Michael & All Angels Church, for St Michael & All Angels Trust Fund and for the Bishop's Discretionary Trust.
Links to these charities' websites are on the Links page.
Christmas 2007
At Christmas 2007, we raised money for people in need, through our Advent Calendar & Christmas Appeal. The 24 pictures were painted by local artists, including this one by Alfred Daniels (below right).
Four charities benefitted from the 2007 Christmas Appeal: the LAMB health project in Bangladesh; the Christian school in Ramallah, Palestine; the MicroLoan Foundation, a Chiswick-based charity which funds start-up businesses in Malawi; and Hanworth Action for Youth in west London.
The 24 pictures from the Advent Calendar were sold through a silent auction, with a third of the proceeds generously donated by the artists to the appeal. It closed on Friday January 4th 2008: you can see the final bids here.
The Christmas Appeal also receives the collections from our four main Christmas services, after some costs, and from carol-singing at Turnham Green tube station. At Christmas we also sell Cards for Good Causes in the church.