Charity
Advent Appeal, December 2025
Our Advent Appeal is Christian Aid’s Christmas Appeal, “No crib for a bed … when you’re fleeing violence”.
When Chance escaped armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, her baby was just two months old and wore only a nappy. Chance lived in Minova, a small farming community on the shores of Lake Kivu, East Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but has been displaced by violence to Katashola Camp. She is separated from her husband, who is feared dead. Her dream is to protect her children so they can grow up in peace — and one day see her baby become a journalist who gives a voice to others like her.
Before the fighting, life was simple and full of love: Chance’s children went to school; she worked as a shopkeeper alongside her husband. “I thought my life would be happy – to work with my husband, feed and educate our children. I never expected to leave my village.”
When violence reached her village, Chance had to make an impossible choice – but she knew her family had to escape to survive. For days, Chance and her children fled on foot, terrified and exhausted, searching for safety. Each step was a fight for survival.
Chance isn’t alone. She’s one of millions forced from their homes in the DRC – one of the largest, and now most urgent, humanitarian crises of our time.
At the Katashola camp, Chance found safety, but life is still hard. With no running water in her shelter, Chance walks long distances to collect water — carrying heavy jerrycans under the blazing sun. Her days are filled with worry about how to feed her children, keep them healthy and hold onto hope for their future.
How you can help
When every essential is out of reach, Christian Aid’s partners offer families like Chance’s a vital lifeline. Your support funds cash grants that help mothers buy the food and medicine their children need.
While many of us share a joyful and peaceful Christmas in our homes and churches, please consider families like Chance’s — facing unimaginable hardship after fleeing violence.
Your donations during Advent would help Chance and her family and so many others. You can make a donation online via the Christian Aid website.
Thank you very much for your support.
Lent
Appeal 2025
The Bishop of Chelmsford's Lent Appeal 2025: Supporting the Christian charity Housing Justice in their work across England and Wales to alleviate homelessness.
Housing Justice works in partnership with churches, community and faith groups to help provide those experiencing homelessness with a safe and stable home. Its work is channelled through four main projects aiming to tackle homelessness at grassroots level:
Citadel – a volunteer-led homelessness prevention project supporting people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness to find or sustain their tenancies and establish a home.
Refugee Hosting and Lodgings Programmes – Housing Justice works with a pool of volunteer hosts who welcome vulnerable individuals into their homes. The Hosting project offers a lifeline to people seeking sanctuary and vulnerable migrants who have no safe housing options. Rita and her son (pictured below) were Ukrainian refugees for whom Housing Justice managed to secure a placement with a host who had a separate two-bedroom annex where the pair could live so long as they paid their own bills, which Rita was able to do with support.
Faith in Affordable Housing – Housing Justice works with churches of all denominations to release surplus land and redundant buildings for the creation of new affordable housing.
The Winter Night Shelter Network – Housing Justice has helped over one thousand churches to respond to homelessness in their local area by supporting them in setting up and operating winter night shelters for people who would otherwise be rough-sleeping.
With an estimated 3,898 people sleeping rough each night in England, the work of faith and community projects like Housing Justice is vital.
Speaking about this year’s Appeal, The Right Reverend Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, The Bishop of Chelmsford said: “The funds raised through the 2025 Bishop’s Lent Appeal will support Housing Justice in providing a community-driven and innovative response to homelessness and those in housing need, including in areas if Chelmsford diocese. Their approach gives individuals the opportunity not only to find suitable accommodation, but to create a home and a sense of belonging.”
You can read more about the Housing Justice on their website at https://housingjustice.org.uk/.
Making a Donation
Donations can be made online at www.chelmsford.anglican.org/lent-appeal. If you would prefer to donate by bank transfer please use the following details:
Chelmsford Diocese Board of Finance
Barclays Bank
Sort Code: 20-20-35
Account Number:
60269603
Reference: Lent Appeal 25
Donations will be accepted until 1 July 2025.
