By Tyler Wright
The Anglican Parish of Mount Dandenong will be holding a morning tea on Saturday 27 August to raise funds for Christian organisation Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF).
A $2 admission fee will get attendees a boarding pass into St Matthews Anglican Church in Olinda, tea, coffee, cake and biscuits, with jerrycan fuel gift card donations available for purchase as part of MAF’s ‘Fuel for Father’s Day’ initiative.
The equivalent of one jerrycan, or $50, fuels an flying aircraft for 20 minutes, helping MAF support development agencies, missions, local churches and other national groups in delivering medical care and emergency food to those in need.
Andrew Smith, Vicar of both St Matthews Anglican Church in Olinda and St Michaels Anglican Church in Kalorama, said the Anglican Parish of Mount Dandenong tries to support other churches, mission agencies and the local CFA when it can.
“We have been doing a similar thing at our church at Kalorama since the big storm event up here in the Dandenongs and Kalorama last year,” Reverend Smith said.
“In Kalorama we run a drop in and a coffee and a chat session and have some food relief available.”
The inspiration to help MAF came from ties within the Anglican Parish of Mount Dandenong’s congregation.
“One of our elderly ladies who’s now in a nursing home…is in her 90s, [and] her husband used to be a pilot for Mission Aviation Fellowship back in probably the 1950s, when they were first starting,” Rev. Smith said.
“She actually met her husband when he was flying planes for this organization., and we didn’t realise until MAF [visited] a couple of years ago there was a picture, and we realised that the vintage airplane on the picture was the one that her husband had used to fly, so that was rather extraordinary.
There’s a little bit of a historical link between us and them as well.”
All are welcome at the morning tea which will run from 10am to 12pm.
St Matthews Anglican Church is located at 17 Monash Ave, Olinda VIC 3788.
