Scarborough Unitarian Church invites people to light candle for Ukraine

It's holding its Sunday service today and the public can go have a chat over tea, coffee and cake

Author: Karen LiuPublished 6th Mar 2022

A small church in Scarborough is inviting people to pay their respects to those affected by the Ukraine conflict.

The town's Unitarian Church is holding its Sunday service today at its site on Victoria Parade.

The public can go and light a candle or chat over tea, coffee and cake.

It says it has been doing its bit to help raise money for Ukraine with donations going towards the appeal by the Red Cross.

Andrew Parkinson, Lay Person in Charge at Scarborough Unitarian Church, said: "Historically we've always tried to focus on small, local charities where the money really does go directly into their pockets and does the most good. With the current conflict in Ukraine, this situation is a bit different. I think everybody involved feels really strongly that they want to try and help.

"We have this precept formula where we always try and do local charities so I had to do a little bit of a ring round and a few emails to say 'I've had this thought, can we change this formula for once?' And it was an absolute completely united 'yes' from everybody involved.

"Our Minister that's with us for the year is actually Polish. He probably had the strongest feeling out of any of us that he desperately wanted to do something, so if anybody does want to come then you're absolutely more than welcome. Come and light a candle, share a cup of coffee or a cup of tea and we might even have cake.

"The strength of feeling I think within our group is tremendous and I think it's the same nationally. We all want to try and do something and not like a lot of conflicts, this one does feel a lot more closer and a lot more personal."

You can find out more about Scarborough Unitarian Church on their website.

They have also started a Just Giving page for donations which will go to the Red Cross here.

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