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Ecumenical Work
United Witness
CAFOD supports many projects in the Third World in tandem with other
Christian Churches and their agencies.
In September 1997, for example, CAFOD started co-funding a programme for
improved food security in the Philippines together with Christian Aid. MuCARD, the
Muslim-Christian Agency for Rural Development, brings together Muslim and
multi-denominational Christian groups to assist small farmers, fisherfolk and marginalised
women. MuCARD's experience has shown that unified communities generate a high level of
trust and co-operation.
In Brazil CAFOD funds the Ecumenical Centre for Popular Education (CESEP)
in Sao Paulo: a training centre set up by Protestant and Catholic Churches to provide
courses to pastoral agents and Christian "leaders" involved in community
organisations, women's groups, local government, and trade unions.
CAFOD also supports the Foundation for Social Assistance of the Christian
Churches (FASIC) in Chile which works on human rights, legal assistance, and gender
awareness.
At home CAFOD continued its close relationship with CTE (Churches
Together in England) and its equivalent CYTUN in Wales. In November 1997 CTE stages a
"roadshow" to present their programme for the millennium. Carrying the message
"New Start", the roadshow visited ten venues around England. Catholic
participation was made possible by CAFOD's Fr Robert Plourde, who presented on the
theme"New Start for the New World's Poor".
At a local level, in September CAFOD joined with Christian Aid and the
Church Missionary Society to organise a Walk for Central Africa in the Lickey Hills
Country Park near Birmingham. Visitors from Uganda participated in the event and in total
one hundred people took part, raising close to �5000. The walk included a Way of the
Cross with meditations based on life in Central Africa.
Then in October CAFOD helped fund One World Week, an annual week of
activities during which thousands of people from different Churches seek to act together
on development issues.
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CAFOD Review of the Year 1997
