Parishioners responding to Archbishop's Gaza appeal

Parishioners across Wales are responding to the Archbishop of Wales’ urgent appeal for money for frontline medical centres under attack in Gaza.

They are raising money for medical supplies and equipment for healthcentres, run by churches in Gaza, including a mobile dental clinic funded totally by the Church in Wales. It is feared the dental clinic was destroyed by a direct Israeli missile attack on a family healthcentre it was parked outside of on Saturday night.

The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, has written to all parishes in Wales urging them to donate money to the appeal to support the Near East Council of Churches which runs the vital health centres and clinics. He also asked them to continue to pray for peace in the region.

He said, “We still do not yet know whether the mobile dental clinic survived the attack on the Shij’ia Family Centre on Saturday and therefore what its future, and that of the remaining healthcentres in Gaza City, will be.

"When they are able to function again, however, there will be a great need for money to buy supplies and equipment to keep them running so that they can provide basic humanitarian aid where it is most required.”

The Archbishop’s appeal is being supported by other church denominations in Wales, through Cytun (Churches Together in Wales) and by Plaid Cymru’s vice-president, Jill Evans, MEP.

Ms Evans was working in Gaza last year and is returning next month. She said, “I can only express my horror at the destruction of the centre and the continuing deaths and injuries. I urge people to contribute whatever they can to the appeal so that the primary health care work of the NECC can continue in the future.

“Thankfully there were no casualties but hundreds of thousands of pounds of medical equipment has been lost. Israel claims to be targeting military installations, yet this was a clearly marked healthcentre.”

The Archdeacon of Margam, the Ven Philip Morris, who co-ordinates the Church in Wales Jubilee Fund which raises money for the mobile dental clinic, said parishes across Wales were responding to the Archbishop’s appeal.

Rev Morris said he had received phone calls and emails from people anxious to help, including Newton Nottage in Porthcawl, which is using the Archbishop's appeal as its Lent Appeal this year while people from Cymmer and Porth are going to collect in Pioneer, Porth’s main supermarket on Saturday.

"Most of the medical supplies for the dental clinic would have been lost when the healthcentre was bombed. So everything that comes in as a result of this appeal will be sent for the general medical work of the NECC through its family healthcentres," he said.

"The NECC is determined to continue its work as noone else is providing medical provision for the 70,000 people living in that part of Gaza City.”

Meanwhile, the Archbishop has written to the Israeli Ambassador to London asking for an explanation for the missile attack on the family health centre.

He said, “We find it tragic and incomprehensible that any armed forces anywhere in the world would want to destroy such a building.

"It is hard to understand why Israel would allow, let alone commission, an attack on a facility which provides support mostly to young babies and their mothers.

"It does raise questions about the credibility of Israel’s values and purposes.”

The Church in Wales launched its Jubilee Fund in 2000. Since then it has raised more than a quarter of a million pounds to fund the mobile dental clinic in Gaza.