How Can My Parish Help?

Parishes have always been the cornerstone of support for Aid to the Church in Need’s work. They are vital in their generous support of Aid to the Church in Need’s priority areas of Prayer, Information and Action.

As Christians in the UK, we enjoy the freedom to practise our beliefs, to gather together as a parish for Mass without fear for our safety, and to receive the sacraments regularly.

For millions of persecuted and suffering Christians around the world, this is an unimaginable privilege.

Your parish can show your solidarity with priests, parishes, communities and people who suffer persecution, oppression, discrimination and poverty simply because they believe in Christ.

Become an Aid to the Church in Need parish representative

Millions of Christians around the globe suffer persecution or oppression for their faith in one form or another. But the media rarely reports on their plight.

Aid to the Church in Need would like to change that, and make Christians in the UK aware of their suffering brothers and sisters in Christ. Can you help us reach out by becoming Aid to the Church in Need’s representative in your parish?

We will send you regular updates about the suffering Church, including materials which you can distirbute in the parish. You can help us by raising awareness, encouraging prayer and responding to our urgent priorities – like Pope Benedict XVI’s request that Aid to the Church in Need should offer urgent support to the Christians in the Middle East.

Please get permission from your parish priest to become an Aid to the Church in Need parish representative – you can nominate one person, or come together as a parish group, if you prefer.

Please contact us to find out more about becoming a parish representative..

Remember the suffering Church in prayer

Why not make the needs of persecuted and suffering Christians an integral part of your parish prayer life? Please remember them at Mass, in prayer groups and at prayer days and pilgrimages.

Please visit our Prayer page to join in. There you can pray along with recordings of the Angelus and the Rosary, and read Thoughts for the Day by Aid to the Church in Need’s late founder, Father Werenfried van Straaten, who was a great advocate of the power of prayer.

We also sell a range of devotional items in our online shop – why not find something that inspires you in prayer?  

Request an Aid to the Church in Need speaker

If you would like an Aid to the Church in Need speaker to speak at the weekend Masses in your parish, to attend an event you are holding, or to address a parish group, please complete our Book a Speaker form.

Support our projects

Would your parish like to raise funds to support one of Aid to the Church in Need ’s projects helping persecuted and suffering Christians?

You can let us know about your fundraising targets and what type of project you would like to support by completing our Adoption Projects Enquiry Form. We will be able to offer you a choice of projects based on your requirements – or you can choose to support one of our established Reach Out in Faith projects.

Find out more about adopting an Aid to the Church in Need project

Join us on a pilgrimage

Please join us for a day of prayer and reflection on Aid to the Church in Need’s annual pilgrimage to the English National Shrine to Our Lady in Walsingham. Each year several hundred of our friends and supporters gather together for this special day of solidarity with persecuted and suffering Christians.

Details of Aid to the Church in Need’s 2010 Walsingham PIlgrimage will be announced soon on our Events Calendar. 

In 2010 we hope to develop an Aid to the Church in Need pilgrimage to Carfin Grotto, Scotland’s National Shrine to Our Blessed Lady.

Aid to the Church in Need is delighted to announce that we will be hosting two pilgrimages in 2010, in conjunction with Pax Travel. One pilgrimage will be to Santiago de Compostella in Spain while the other will be to the Holy Land.

All bookings and travel arrangements will be handled by Pax Travel – please visit www.paxtravel.co.uk  to request a catalogue.

Please feel free to advertise details of all our pilgrimages in your parish newsletter. Details will be announced soon on our Events Calendar.

Adopt a Confirmation project

If your parish runs a Confirmation course, you might like to include a section about Aid to the Church in Need in the programme. Or why not adopt an Aid to the Church in Need project as your main fundraising focus?

Along with general materials and prayer cards, we can supply ‘The Courage to be Christian’, a short Powerpoint presentation with notes, contrasting the reality of being a young Christian in the UK with that of being a young Christian in a part of the world where Christianity is threatened by persecution or oppression.

Confirmation Groups leaders might like use the presentation as it is, or adapt it for their own parish needs.

Please contact us for more information about our educational materials.

You may also like to visit our online shop for commemorative gifts for Confirmation candidates. 

Sell our products in your repository

Aid to the Church in Need can supply Christmas Cards, rosary beads, crucifixes and other devotional items for you to sell in your parish repository or on stalls at events and fairs. A number of our products are made by the persecuted and suffering Christians you are helping.

See our full range of products in the Aid to the Church in Need shop