Fund-raising Evening for Christian Aid

Christian Aid is a major worldwide charity which helps people of all faiths and none. It works through 507 local organisations in 47 countries and provides urgent and practical assistance. It provides local communities with the tools and skills to enable them to find their own sustainable solutions to their challenges, and helping them to a fairer chance in life now.

From the description of a similar event by Chris Mann held in London in October

This event takes the form of an extended meditation on love. Its sequence of accessible poems and song-poems with the guitar outlines the growth of spirituality in a relationship over the years. The performance provides personalised yet archetypal expression of eros, agape and caritas at work in a turbulent world, and moments of silence in which the audience is invited to reflect on and deepen their understanding of love in its different forms.

“These poems tell a story that is as profound as it is familiar. The poems are delicate, shaded, sometimes startlingly direct, but above all honest. They are sacraments to love.” Reverend David Jasper, Professor of Literature and Theology, University of Glasgow.

“…the poetry and song of Chris Mann is delightfully refreshing. The sacred is wonderfully ordinary and extraordinarily close…” Reverend Tim Gray, Rector, St Francis of Assisi, Johannesburg.

Chris Mann, Honorary Professor of Poetry at Rhodes University, Grahamstown is one of South Africa’s most prominent writers. A playwright, singer-song writer and poet, he has published numerous books and won numerous awards, including the Newdigate Prize for Poetry while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. Please Google his name and ‘Poetry International’ for more information. The evening performance is based on his volume of poems, Rudiments of Grace.

For every pound you give, the UK Government will give a pound more. Donations made to the Christmas appeal between 6 November 2015 and 5 February 2016 will be matched up to £5 million.