Canon Sarah Hills, Canon for Reconciliation for Coventry Cathedral, awarded charity Christian Aid with an iconic cross this week (Tuesday 4th July) in recognition of its longstanding work to build peace in poor countries across the world.
Christian Aid was awarded a ‘Cross of Nails’ by The Community of the Cross of Nails – a network of over 200 partners in 35 countries, including churches, charities, peace organisations and universities, working together for peace, justice and reconciliation.
The award was presented to Christian Aid’s Chief Executive Loretta Minghella, welcoming the charity as an official member of the network.
As one of the world’s oldest religious-based centres for reconciliation, Coventry Cathedral has been involved in some of the world’s most difficult and long-standing areas of conflict. Additionally, Coventry holds a particularly special relationship with Christian Aid as the city was the birth place of the charity’s iconic annual Christian Aid week.
Canon Sarah Hills said: “We’re so pleased to have an organisation of the stature and operational scale of Christian Aid joining the Community of the Cross of Nails. The organisation is a prime and very global example of reconciliation in practice, seen through the tireless work they do to support the afflicted around the world.
“We look forward to their becoming a core part of our UK member base, half of whom are other charities and aid organisations, who I know look forward to working alongside Christian Aid as much as we welcome it ourselves in Coventry.’’
Loretta Minghella, CEO of Christian Aid, said: “We are humbled by the invitation to join. Christian Aid works towards a world in which everyone supported as having inherent dignity and infinite worth. All must be allowed to thrive and not merely survive. Peace comes from being in relationship with another, and so does justice, with which peace is so crucially linked.”
Peace building is at the heart of Christian Aid’s work. The charity has worked in many conflict-affected countries and communities across the world, and recognises that violence and conflict, if left unaddressed, can undo years of hard work to help lift people out of poverty.”
Read more about Christian Aid’s work on conflict and peace here.
Photo credit: Christian Aid. From left, Canon Sarah Hill, Canon for Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral, Loretta Minghella and Bishop Trevor Williams, Chair of the Board of Christian Aid Ireland.
Notes to Editors:
1. Christian Aid works in some of the world's poorest communities in around 40 countries at any one time. We act where there is great need, regardless of religion, helping people to live a full life, free from poverty. We provide urgent, practical and effective assistance in tackling the root causes of poverty as well as its effects.
2. Christian Aid’s core belief is that the world can and must be changed so that poverty is ended: this is what we stand for. Everything we do is about ending poverty and injustice: swiftly, effectively, sustainably. Our strategy document Partnership for Change explains how we set about this task.
3. Christian Aid is a member of ACT Alliance, a global coalition of more than 130 churches and church-related organisations that work together in humanitarian assistance, advocacy and development.
4. Follow Christian Aid's newswire on Twitter.
5. For more information about the work of Christian Aid, visit http://www.christianaid.org.uk
