What's so Christian about Christian Aid (Week)?

“What on earth made me agree to run 70km in May to raise money for Christian Aid Week?”

The rain was pouring. My running kit was soaked through. Cars were splashing me as they drove past this forlorn jogger, pounding the pavements in a thunderstorm. And I found myself wondering: “What on earth made me agree to run 70km in May to raise money for Christian Aid Week?” But as I arrived at the entrance of St James’ church in Clapham, I was greeted by the vicar – who gave me a towel to dry off and a warming cup of tea.

I was just one of the thousands of people and churches across Britain and Ireland who every May hold cake sales and coffee mornings, organise sponsored walks, host quiz nights, stand outside Sainsbury's or Tesco to collect cash, or who deliver envelopes door to door to raise millions of pounds for Christian Aid Week.

We’re all familiar with big fundraising events. Comic Relief. Children In Need. Macmillan Coffee Mornings. But long before any of them were started, right back in 1957, Christian Aid Week became the country’s first big charity week. For almost 70 years, the second week in May has been the moment when churches come together to raise their voices and to raise funds to tackle extreme poverty and injustice around the world. But why do Christians do this?

Churches saw how that terrible conflict had left people across Europe hungry, homeless and in need of refuge.

At its heart, Christian Aid Week is so much more than a fundraising week. It’s a way for people to live out and to share their Christian faith. Christian Aid was established by churches in Britain and Ireland at the end of the Second World War. Churches saw how that terrible conflict had left people across Europe hungry, homeless and in need of refuge. Christian Aid was established to support churches across Europe to respond to this need. And 80 years on, Christian Aid continues to work with partners across the world responding to humanitarian crises and conflicts – such as those in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan – that push people into poverty.

We live in a cynical age – and some of us might wonder why the Christian faith motivates people to support Christian Aid to tackle these challenges. It’s not about guilt. Nor wanting to be perfect. Christians don’t think that it’s a way of buying your place in heaven. And it definitely shouldn’t be about being a “white saviour” – helping less fortunate people “over there”.

Instead it flows out of the teachings and the way shown to us by Jesus in the Gospels. And the very nature of who God is and who God created us to be, revealed in the Bible.

It’s not about guilt. Nor wanting to be perfect. Christians don’t think that it’s a way of buying your place in heaven.

When we go right back to the first book of the Bible, Genesis, we are told that humanity has been made in God’s image. Each of us bear God’s likeness. Each of us are a unique manifestation of the divine. And if we roll forward through the Old Testament, we can read the words of the prophets – people who were sent to encourage us to live lives that recognised the worth and dignity of each other. When telling the people of Israel how God wanted people to live, the prophet Micah said to “do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.”

If we wonder what doing justice and loving kindness looks like in practice, Jesus tells us through the famous story of “The Good Samaritan”. Someone asks him how to live a good life. And Jesus says “Love God and love your neighbour.” And then the question comes, “Who is my neighbour?” So Jesus tells a story of a man who is beaten up and left for dead on the side of the road. A religious leader and a Levite (also a religious worker) don’t help the man, but rush by. Instead the injured man receives help from the least likely source – a Samaritan. Someone from a different race and nationality – a hated outsider. Jesus asks “Who was a neighbour to the injured man?” The answer of course was the Samaritan – and Jesus says “Go and do likewise.”

Continued below...

It's this unlikely, unexpected call to love one another as God has loved us - which goes beyond national boundaries and transcends our differences - that calls Christians to live out their faith with acts of kindness and justice. Simply put, we believe that God is calling us towards a more just world. And that we should both pray for this world – and do things to make it a reality. Jesus encouraged his disciples to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, to care for people who are ill, and to visit people in prison.

Simply put, we believe that God is calling us towards a more just world.

That’s why throughout history, churches and Christians have been at the forefront of setting up some of the UK’s most well known charities to tackle and address big social challenges and needs. It’s not just Christian Aid. If you visit St Stephen Walbrook church in the city of London, you’d find an old black telephone, which dates back to 1953. This was the phone that became the first “hotline” for people wrestling with their mental health and who needed someone to talk to. It became the first of many emergency phone lines that resulted in the creation of Samaritans. From Coram to the Children’s Society and more, a huge number of organisations committed to social action and social justice have Christian roots.

The wonderful things about many of these endeavours is that they’re not just for or organised by people of the Christian faith. Returning to the story of the Good Samaritan, when thinking about the question: “Who is my neighbour?”, the answer very clearly is “Everybody!” And that is why Christian Aid – like many other Christian charities – works with people of all faiths and beliefs. Not only that but Christian Aid Week has always been this incredible moment when churches join together in looking beyond their buildings and church services and encourage people in their local community to join in with this call to show God’s love, to do justice and to show kindness.

Families do not have to go hungry. Children can get an education. Women can start businesses.

Anyone and everyone can get involved, and join in with what God and God’s people are doing in our world. Every Christian Aid Week shines a light on just one of the many projects that Christian Aid supports around the world. In 2025 that was a project in Guatemala and a community who are being pushed into poverty by climate change. Working with Christian Aid’s local partners, the community has been able to adapt to the changing climate, to farm new crops and to find new ways of accessing water.

Families do not have to go hungry. Children can get an education. Women can start businesses. These are things that we all want. Christians believe that as we all bear God’s image – a community in Guatemala should flourish as much as a community in Grimsby. And that each one of us can do something, even if it's as small as running 70km in May, to be part of God’s call to love our neighbours everywhere.

If you want to be part of this, to find out more about Christian Aid’s work or to join in with Christian Aid Week, then go to the Christian Aid website.