RESPONSE TO INVASION OF UKRAINE
Homes for Ukraine: Record your interest
If you want to offer a home to people fleeing Ukraine, you can become a ‘sponsor’ as part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
As a church we have people that we are working with that are looking to house Ukrainian refugees. Please let us know once you’ve registered and we can look to connect you with a family.
As we watch the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine, we stand with its people against the aggression and violence they are so courageously trying to withstand. As a Church community, our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Ukraine, their leaders and people everywhere affected by this devastating act of aggression. We are left with a range of emotions from sadness and anger through to a sense of hopelessness. We are all left with the question….’what can we do?’ We want to invite you to respond in a variety of ways.
WE CAN PRAY
We will be hosting regular prayer times when we gather on the weekends and for weekly prayer — watch out for our social media updates.
You can also use this prayer written by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby:
God of peace and justice,
we pray for the people of Ukraine today.
We pray for peace and the laying down of weapons.
We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow,
that your Spirit of comfort would draw near to them.
We pray for those with power over war or peace.
for wisdom, discernment and compassion to guide their decisions.
Above all, we pray for all your precious children, at risk and in fear,
that you would hold and protect them.
We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of peace.
Amen.
2. WE CAN GIVE
We are in partnership with Elim Missions (the family of churches we belong to) and Samaritans Purse who have contacts with 3k churches in Ukraine and have distributed over 600k shoeboxes filled with supplies for children. They have also deployed several Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DART) at border crossings around Ukraine. They assure us the best thing we can do right now is send money which they guarantee will go directly to the people in need. You can give money to LC Global, and if you pay tax we can reclaim Gift Aid which will also be sent to the organisations working on the ground.
3. WE CAN WRITE TO OUR MP
As part of standing with the people of Ukraine we believe it’s right to encourage the government to be ready for us to welcome refugees as well as putting as much pressure on the Russian government as possible. Every letter received carries weight and so the more we write the more the weight! If you would like to write to your MP here is a downloadable PDF template for a letter: