What it means to be the Link person for your church

A big thank you to all who take on this task. This is vital to the way the local church responds to the programme, leading to the raising of money and deepening understanding of the issues facing our partners.

The basic task is to receive the regular mailings on the church's partners and campaigns and to disseminate this within the church as imaginatively and persuasively as possible.

This might include:

• Preparing publicity for the church on a regular basis e.g. in the church magazine, using the partner updates, leaflets, and campaign news. Circulate materials to key people, including the Minister. Helping others to be informed is critical as collectively we work for a fairer world.
• Campaigning is part of our work. Think about the best occasion to get people to sign cards, or to take other actions. Who might help you draw attention to the action? Do you need to order more cards so that several people can send them off?
• Promoting fairtrade is an important part of our campaigning so be sure that your church drinks only fairly-traded drinks. Raise this at church meeting. Ask for extra copies of leaflets on fairtrade if you think this would be useful. Ask for a certificate as a Fairtrade church.
• Making sure the Church Meeting is kept informed. Ask that Commitment for Life be on the agenda at each church meeting so that you can share what information you have received eg. Lent, harvest and Advent resource or campaign actions. Suggest a follow up action.
• Encouraging the church to dedicate at least one Sunday a year to a focus on your partner and the appeal. It is an important occasion to explore the theological perspective which underpins our continuing commitment and to share stories of our partners. It is desirable to have the maximum participation by the congregation, to involve the children and to use every means available to help people understand the culture of our partners. See below.
• Pray for partners regularly. Ask for prayers to be included in the intercessions. This is especially important during times of crisis such as the present crises in both Zimbabwe and Israel/Palestine.
• Once a year we produce new posters and a printed leaflet which we hope everyone will be given a copy of. Please order plenty. Otherwise during the year we send one copy of a resource, newsletters or partner updates. You are free to order more copies or to photocopy.
• Organising a special a special event, e.g. Perhaps inviting a speaker who knows your partner, having a special meal, devising a short quiz - whatever works best for your church.
• Make Commitment for Life visual in your church. The notice board is useful for pictures but not for pages of text. You could advertise what is available and invite people to take copies.

Marking a special Sunday

• A new resource is available to help make Commitment for Life Sunday special. It includes ideas for displays, using artefacts and materials from the partner country, food and music – and involving the children. You might invite a speaker who has visited the country. You might invite people to stay and watch the partner video. You might have a meal, and prepare food from the partner country.