Faith In Action
What good is it for someone to say he has faith if his actions do not prove it? Can that faith save him?
Suppose that there are people who need clothes and don’t have enough to eat. What good is there in saying to them, “God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!” – if you do not give them the necessities of life?
“So then, as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without actions is dead.”
James 2: 14-16, 26
Without Christ, everything goes wrong, because He is the head governing the whole of mankind. And Christ is present only where there is love.
Father Werenfried van Straaten, founder of Aid to the Church in Need
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) helps Christians around the world who are suffering persecution or oppression for their faith.
Tim is the parish contact person for Aid to the Church in Need.
Some of ACN’s key projects are:
- Financially supporting priests and religious sisters in impoverished areas of the world
- Providing financial support for more than 15000 seminarians each year
- Providing transport (bicycles, cars, boats, mopeds and donkeys) for priests and Sisters in areas where they have to travel vast distances over rough terrain to reach Christian communities
- Supporting programmes of training for lay people to teach the faith and providing catechetical materials
- Funding evangelisation projects such as Christian radio, television channels and websites
- Publishing a child’s bible – this collection of bible stories has been printed in 171 languages
- Supporting schools for Christian children in Islamist north Sudan
To find out more about the work of ACN you can visit the website: http://www.acnuk.org/
SCIAF is the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, the official aid and international development charity of the Catholic Church in Scotland.
SCIAF works in over 16 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America, to help some of the poorest people in the world, regardless of their religion, to work their way out of poverty.
On the SCIAF website, you can read more detail about the work of Sciaf around the world. There are also appeals on behalf of groups that are particularly in need of help and support.
You may like to get involved, not just by giving money but by helping with campaigns, volunteering, or buying Christmas gifts through the SCIAF website: http://www.sciaf.org.uk/
HCPT stands for The Hosanna House Children’s Pilgrim Trust.
Hosanna House is a house just outside Lourdes that can provide accommodation for disabled children or adults. There are a number of HCPT groups throughout Scotland that take groups of adults or children for week-long breaks in Lourdes. In 2016 Group 118 re-started in Aberdeen.
The Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) has these aims:
- To affirm, defend and promote the existence and value of human life from the moment of conception, and to defend and protect human life generally.
- To reassert the principle laid down in the United Nations 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child that the child “needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.”
- To defend, assist and promote the life and welfare of mothers during pregnancy and of their children from the time of conception up to, during and after birth.
- To examine existing or proposed laws, legislation or regulations relating to abortion and to support or oppose such as appropriate.
Among the activities of the society are the following:
The defence of the defenceless (a voice for the unborn) – the SPUC promotes awareness of the humanity of the unborn child to encourage more widespread recognition of the obligation to defend those with no means to defend themselves.
Political lobbying – The SPUC maintains that all unborn children are entitled to the protection of the law.
Educational services – the SPUC has developed a range of educational material, to meet the needs of teachers and school students examining pro-life issues as part of their curriculum.
Disability awareness – No Less Human (NLH) is a group within SPUC for disabled people, their families and carers. Disabled people are threatened throughout their lives by the mentality that says they would be better off dead.
Welfare – While the SPUC is primarily an educational and lobbying organisation, it also responds to requests for assistance from expectant mothers facing difficulties.
How you can help
The SPUC often asks for people to sign petitions or write letters to MPs in support of various actions. Find out more from the website: http://www.spuc.org.uk/
The Apostleship of the Sea (AoS) is a Catholic charity supporting seafarers worldwide.
A few facts:
- 95% of the weight of British visible trade is carried by sea making merchant shipping vital to the British economy.
- Some 150,000 merchant ships visit British ports every year bringing us 354 million tonnes of goods and commodities.(department for trade)
- “Without shipping, the import/export of affordable food and goods would not be possible
- Half the world would starve and the other half would freeze!” (The British Chamber of Shipping)
Many seafarers suffer loneliness, as they are far from home and cut off from their own culture, family and friends. Recognising and responding to the needs of seafarers is part of the Apostleship of the Sea’s pastoral care.
The AoS deploys its chaplains in Britain’s largest ports, where thousands of seafarers visit each year. Aberdeen is among the busiest,along with Tilbury, Southampton and Felistowe.
During 2011 the AoS visited 9,904 Ships; assisted 198,080 Seafarers and celebrated 210 Masses on ships – and that was just part of their work.
Visit the website to find out more about how you might help: www.stellamaris.org.uk