GUILD’S VIRTUAL SOUP LUNCH FOR CROSSREACH

The Very Rev Dr Russell and Margaret Barr taking part in the Guild’s Virtual Soup Lunch

Church of Scotland Guild members have raised over £3500 for CrossReach by holding virtual soup lunches throughout the country.

With many members missing the soup lunches that would usually be held at this time of year, the Guild office in Edinburgh suggested that they hold lunches at home, while thinking about the friends they would normally be sharing them with.

Linking it in to the 2.6 Challenge, a nationwide fundraising event held on Sunday April 26 (which should have been the day of the London Marathon), they also asked that people taking part make a donation to the Church of Scotland social care operator.

Karen Gillon, associate secretary of the Guild, said: “We noticed that folk had been asked to do what they could to help CrossReach, and so we thought that we would ask our members to hold a virtual soup lunch. We launched it on the Wednesday before with the hope of getting 260 people to do it and had set in our minds a fundraising target of £5 a head, so raising £1300. We are overwhelmed to be honest with the £3696 raised online and over £400 offline.

“With gift aid it is over £4500, which in less than a week is amazing, and goes to show that even in the middle of this pandemic Guild folk are showing how good they are, particularly at action and prayer.”

The Guild’s event was part of a nationwide eff ort that raised a total of more than £12,500 for CrossReach through the 2.6 Challenge, including:

• The Moderator of the General Assembly, the Rt Rev Colin Sinclair, and his wife Ruth raised more than £5,500 climbing stairs at their manse.

• Claire Griffiths of Glasgow played 26 tunes 26 times on her violin and raised a total of £420.

• Martha Bogle, wife of the Very Rev Albert Bogle, who runs digital church Sanctuary First, walked 2.6 miles around the Bridge of Allan and raised nearly £1,500.

• Ian Hunter of Glasgow, a member of CrossReach, raised more than £1,000 through a putting challenge; and his 11-year old granddaughter, Abigail Lamb, of Wishaw in North Lanarkshire completed a maths challenge and raised a total of £37.

For more news follow us at www.lifeandwork.org

This article appears in the July 2020 Issue of Life and Work

Click here to view the article in the magazine.

To view other articles in this issue Click here.

If you would like to view other issues of Life and Work, you can see the full archive here.