Charity

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland set out how UK denominations were responding to Hurricane Melissa, from a £24,000 Methodist grant to the Jamaica Methodist District to appeals by the United Reformed Church, New Testament Church of God and Ascension Trust.

The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania shared proceeds from selling the former St Philip-in-the-Fields church in Oreland, giving $130,000 to food ministries across 10 deaneries and $130,000 to the merged congregation.

As Hurricane Melissa crossed Jamaica as a Category 5 storm, the Christian relief group Samaritan’s Purse put teams on standby and began loading tarpaulins, shelter materials, water systems and solar lights for an airlift from North Carolina.

Toronto’s Evangel Hall Mission, which houses more than 165 formerly homeless people, argued in a 2025 article that churches redeveloping land must keep affordable community space, not just build housing.

St Joseph’s parish in King’s Park, Belize City, founded in 1949 and home to the country’s first concrete Catholic church, launched a Walk, Run or Ride fundraiser towards BZ$160,000 of renovations to its two main buildings.

The Jamaica Seventh-day Baptist Conference launched a $5-million campaign in 2025 to restore its century-old headquarters at 29 Charles Street, downtown Kingston, once home to Crandall High School, into a modern ministry and community hub.

The Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, agreed to sell its Diocesan House at appraised value to New Bethany, a poverty and homelessness nonprofit it helped found, and to move its staff into space at the neighbouring cathedral.

Ontario Lutheran churches are partnering with the Christian charity Indwell to create affordable homes, including 41 apartments at St Peter’s in Kitchener with more than $14 million in public funding, and a Hamilton church sold at about half its value.

The Salvation Army closed its King Street thrift store in Bermuda after 41 years, saying the shop had become hard to sustain, and redirected the space to expand its Harbour Light addiction programme from 10 to 14 beds.

The Missionaries of the Poor said all seven of its homes were full, with more than 350 written requests for shelter and about 10 calls a day, as it raised $115 million to fix a roof.

Peterborough Cathedral launched a crisis appeal to raise £300,000 by March 2025, warning that without it the building, which costs more than £2 million a year to run, might not stay open seven days a week.

A Gleaner history of the Salvation Army in Jamaica traces its start in Bluefields in 1887, the sale of its first Kingston temple after an 1889 controversy, and the homes and hostels it runs today for women, the blind and retired officers.

Notre-Dame drew €843 million in donations, but France’s 42,000-plus mostly publicly owned churches are decaying as rural populations shrink, with some 3,000 to 5,000 religious buildings thought to be endangered.

Bermuda’s Anglican Church has partnered with Habitat for Humanity and the hospitals board to turn the derelict former St James Rectory in Somerset into Bridge House, a residential treatment home for up to eight psychiatric patients.

A Christian accountability council has launched in Jamaica to help churches meet 2022 charity rules on audits, receipts and donor records, saying most lack the resources to comply and that accredited churches become more attractive to donors.