Shanklin United Reformed Church

High Street, Shanklin, Isle of Wight. PO37 6LA
Registered Charity No. 1130459

A member of the Evangelical Alliance

For details of URC churches on the Island visit www.iowurc.co.uk

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Support For Others

We Support

We seek to give away at least 10% of our income to other Christian work.  Some of the work we regularly support are:

Wight Churches

IoW Youth for Christ working among local young people

The 'God Bus' street outreach team on the Island

IoW Street Pastors

The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Uganda (see Kalasa below)
GEAR - a voluntary network of Christians who long to see evangelism and renewal become part of the heartbeat of our denomination, the United Reformed Church.
Christian Aid week
The work of Tearfund

 

Christmas Collections

We support a variety of other organisations through our annual Christmas Collections

The beneficiary of our 2023 Christmas Collection was Release International.

We supported the work of Release International supporting persecuted Christians in Egypt, to bless our brothers and sisters going through very challenging times.

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Persecution

The persecution of Christians in Egypt has undoubtedly intensified over the past two decades. Harassment and discrimination, both on individual and communal levels, has risen, as have attacks by Islamist groups.

In May 2017 a bus carrying Christians to a monastery in Minya was attacked by Islamist militants, with 28 people killed. The following year, in November, gunmen opened fire on two buses travelling to the same destination. On that occasion seven Christians were killed and others injured.

Christians in the area known as Upper Egypt (to the south) face the harshest persecution. They will frequently be overlooked for jobs or promotion, shop owners may be boycotted, they may not receive proper treatment in hospital. In some cases Christians are forced to leave homes and possessions, and there have been cases of Christian girls and women being kidnapped and forced to embrace Islam.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples.” John 13:34-35

Details of previous Christmas collections can be found here

Kalasa, Uganda

Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa whose diverse landscape encompasses the snow-capped Rwenzori Mountains and Lake Victoria.

Brian Harley, our Minister, visited the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Kalasa, (a village about an hour's drive north of Kampala) in October 1997, April 2002 and November 2006 during trips from the UK to encourage the various new congregations of what was a new and growing church in Uganda.  The building in the pictures below was roofed with the help of gifts from Shanklin and was subsequently named 'The Shanklin Block'.

Click on the pictures for larger versions

The Shanklin Block at Kalasa - classrooms at the church school that were begun in May 2002 during the visit by our minister who took with him gifts for this work.

The building, which they also use as a school for orphans and five classrooms, has now been built alongside.  Meetings end when it gets dark around 18:00 as there is no electricity.  Pastor Rev Martin Sebbugo and his wife Gertrude visited Shanklin in 1996, which led us to start sending regular gifts to help with their work and mission.

Information about supporting the work in Uganda, and also in Malawi, Ghana and Zambia, can be obtained through The Romans One Eleven Trust.

The Visit of the Sebbugos From Kalasa

Martin and Gertrude Sebbugo last came to Shanklin in May 2011. Here are three photos from their visit (click on an image to view a larger one)