Record number of Christians participate in generosity challenge

Christian charity Stewardship reported its campaign attracted over 100,000 subscribers in 172 countries.

Debbie Wright from the charity tells Premier’s News Hour why so many people wanted to take part.

“We started off with 5,000 people that signed up initially and I think it’s a couple of things… people introduced their friends, they told their friends and their families and people at church about it. I think also that other communities wanted to get involved.”

Now in its eighth year, the campaign has used social media and digital communications to create an online community that has taken generosity into their own communities across the world.

Speaking about the range of generous acts people did, Wright told Premier: “An absolute favourite, which seems quite trite… we have something called chocolate Tuesday and people do literally give out chocolate to their friends, their families, people on their commute and in their workplace.”

40acts encourages subscribers to perform a simple and meaningful act of generosity each day during Lent via a daily email written by various leaders and writers.

For the first time this year, both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York wrote one of the daily reflections and challenged subscribers to see Lent through a different lens.

40acts project lead, Daniel Jones said in a press release: “To see the momentum grow…