Well over $9,000 for the City of God! and still counting!

Let's make it $10,000, folks!

You heard it here first. C',mon. Give our friends five figures.

From a wonderful circle of cyberfriends in several countries gifts have come for the parish of Cristo Rei in Cidade de Deus, Rio de Janeiro. The Episcopal Church of St. Paul (Chatham, NJ, U.S.A.) and St. Francis Church (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, U.K.) have been receiving cheques ("checks" for you estadounidenses), and St. Paul's has set up a PayPal, as many of you already know.

See details here.

TOMORROW DURING THE DAY (Monday, January 7, 2008) IS THE CUT-OFF DATE! (And we'll still take a check if you mail it tomorrow. )

All the financial transactions are being processed by an ultra-scrupulous, competent, honest, keeping-track-of-everything, transparency-is-our-motto church financial officer.

We intend to be a place where all are welcome to be free, especially in the Cidade de Deus (City of God) neighborhood, where poverty, violence and hunger are so well-known. And in order to live this Gospel of liberation and reconciliation of the entire world through Christ Jesus, we also seek to integrate the Church with society, through several social projects. Our mission is bold: to say that Christ is the King is to say that love has the last word in the midst of this world of calamities. However, we are sure that, with Him, we are victorious. (Luiz Coelho on the congregation of Cristo Rei)

AND DON'T FORGET TO GET YOUR ANIMAL COMPANIONS TO GIVE! Maya Pavlova says "If I did it, you can too!"

(She'll also whack you with her Prayer Book if you don't comply with her orders.)