Diocesan News21 Dec 15

Clergymen raise over £5,000 for refugee charities by thinking ‘inside the box’

A pre–Christmas ‘Container Sit–out’ by three Eglinton clergymen has raised more than five thousand pounds for two refugee charities.

Faughanvale Rector Rev Paul Hoey, Eglinton Presbyterian Minister Rev Lindsay Blair and Faughanvale priest Fr Noel McDermott, took it in turns to ‘camp out’ for a weekend in a container, outside the village credit union, to highlight the plight of Syrian refugees.

Parishioners and passers–by, who visited the trio, were invited to contribute to Tearfund and Trócaire, two of the charities helping refugees on the ground in Syria and in neighbouring countries. This week, the proceeds – £5,600 – were shared equally between the two charities.

Tearfund’s North West Regional Co–ordinator, Alan Rowan (third left), with Fr Noel McDermott, Rev Paul Hoey and Rev Lindsay Blair.

The ‘Eglinton Refugee Container Sit–out’ coincided with one of the coldest spells of the winter so far, with hailstones falling in the first half hour. Rev Hoey says they got the idea after hearing a news report about a refugee family who had been forced to live in a container in Eastern Europe.