Working here and overseas

Overseas projects
Each year Christ Church gives 5% of its annual income towards projects and charities overseas. A project or charity is supported for four years, generally giving £1000 for the first 3 years, and then £500 in the fourth year. The fourth year is considered a phase-out year in order that the charity has time to replace the funding for future years.

We currently support theological education in the Anglican Church of Papua and New Guinea, a school for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, a palliative care project in Lalitpur, North India, the Center for Environment and Mission Studies in Tamil Nadu, South India, a project supporting people recovering from alcohol addiction in Romania, a youth project in South Africa, an educational programme in Brazil, and a community development project in Rwanda.

UK projects
Christ Church also gives 10% of non-designated legacy income (i.e. the income which is received in legacies to the church which is not dedicated to a specific purpose) to UK charities. These are also normally supported for four years.

We currently support the work of the Edinburgh Interfaith Association (EIFA), and Shakti Women's Aid; and on an ongoing basis we also support St Catharine's Convent of Mercy (homelessness), Fresh Start (homelessness), and the Eric Liddell Centre dementia services.

When looking for new projects to be supported, the UK and Overseas Support Committee considers the following:

• Is the project reaching those in need?
• Is it likely that the project would get funding from elsewhere (we are particularly interested in small organisations)?
• What is the future plan for the project, and is it sustainable?
• Does the project fit the geographical and thematic range of our activities (we try to support projects in different parts of the world, and working in different areas e.g. health, education, social development, church growth)?

We ask all projects which we support to complete an annual feedback report with details of how the project is going and how the money from Christ Church has been spent.

The committee’s expectation is that nominating a project for Christ Church to support indicates a willingness to serve as our link person with that project, including obtaining the annual feedback report from the project, normally for International Sunday in November.