Charity

Great St Bartholomew’s has been a focus for charity for over 900 years.

Since our foundation, the priory church of St Bartholomew the Great and (from a later date) the church of St Bartholomew the Less have been closely connected with the work of St Barts Hospital as well as charitable works throughout the City of London, particularly around Smithfield and its market.

Our Annual Charity

The Whitechapel Mission

What is our ‘Annual Charity?

Every year, alongside our other charitable activities, we choose to support a local charity.

This year, we are pleased to support the work of the Whitechapel Mission, which has been serving the homeless since 1876.

The Whitechapel Mission has a Methodist foundation and continues to live out this almost 250 year-long calling to this day.

The Stated Purpose of the Whitechapel Mission


”The Whitechapel Mission is called to serve the men and women caught in the cycles of poverty, hopelessness and dependencies of many kinds, and to see their lives transformed to hope, joy and lasting productivity.”

How do we support the Whitechapel Mission?

(and how you can be involved too).

Breakfast volunteer mornings

A few groups of St Barts parishioners have gone to volunteer at the Whitechapel Mission, serving breakfast on bank holidays. This is not as easy as it sounds.

It is an early start, beginning at 05:30 AM, and is usually over by 11:30 AM. The challenge consists of cooking and serving a cooked breakfast, teas and coffees, as well as handing out hygiene products.

The Whitechapel Mission sees upwards of 350 people each morning for breakfast (among other facilities).

This has been a great opportunity to live out our Christian vocation to help those who are struggling. We hope to return very soon.

Parish Christmas Carol Collection

Looking back to the legacy of Dickens, we acknowledge Christmas to be a time of great charity. Therefore, we thought it would be a good idea to process around the parish, lanterns in hand, stopping periodically to sing a Christmas carol and take a collection on behalf of the Whitechapel Mission.

We are happy to say that this will be resuming in 2024 with parish carolling in aid of the Mission on Saturday 21st December, beginning at St Bartholomew the Less at 6PM.

Children very welcome.

Advent Appeal 2024

We ask for your help this December by gathering together a number of items from the ‘Christmas Shopping List’ that will go directly to Whitechapel Mission.

For most of us, Christmas is usually a time of celebration with family and friends, but for those who are homeless, it's too often a day of painful memories of wrong turns, families lost and forgotten love.

You can find the list on this site, or in the form of a leaflet in church.

Please bring donations to St Bartholomew the Great, and leave them in the apportioned section in the Lady Chapel. We will be taking donations to Whitechapel on Sunday 22nd December. Thank you.

In your charity, please pray for this appeal.

Thou art never weary, O Lord, of doing us good; let us never be weary of performing thy service. May we always be fervent in charity, good will and work, for thou hast taught us that love is the fulfilling of the law. Amen.

The Butterworth Charity

On Good Friday each year, the Rector distributes the “Butterworth Charity” to poor widows of the parish, in our very own version of the famous “Maundy Money” service. The whole congregation are invited to share in hot cross buns.

This ancient ceremony, supported by a legacy left by legal publisher Joshua Butterworth (d. 1887), continues to act as a reminder of the importance of charity to our lives as Christians, on one of the holiest days of the year.

‘Movember’ Appeal 2024

A group of congregants (and clergy) sought to raise money for prostate and testicular cancer treatment, as well as men's suicide prevention, by growing marvellous moustaches this Movember.

They were very successful in this endeavour, not only successfully growing excellent facial hair, but also raising over £1400 in just a single month.

Thank you to all those who took part, and donated. Special thank you to Joshua Scott, who spearheaded this campaign.

You can visit the ‘St Barts Boys’ Movember page by clicking here.