How the Red Box works
The Red Box could hardly be simpler, which is much of its strength. You keep one at home, and you drop in spare change whenever you think of it, a few coins after the shopping, what is left in a pocket at the end of the week. Every few months a volunteer from your parish collects it, banks what is inside, and returns the box empty to begin again. There are over two hundred thousand of these boxes in Catholic homes across England and Wales, and the scheme has run, in partnership, since the 1930s. Nobody is asked for much. It is the adding-up, across all those homes and all those years, that does the work.
Missio and Mill Hill: what is the difference?
The Red Box carries both names, and that is where the question comes from. Missio is the Pope’s own charity for world mission. It is a worldwide body, part of the Church’s official structure, and it supports young and struggling dioceses in many countries across the world. Its reach is broad and its work is the whole global mission of the Church.
Mill Hill, by contrast, is one particular missionary society, with its own priests and brothers serving in around 19 countries. Where Missio funds the wider Church, Mill Hill sends its own people, who live in the communities they serve and stay for the long haul.
So the two are not rivals, and they are not the same thing. They are partners with different roles: one the Church’s worldwide mission charity, the other a specific society on the ground. A gift through the Red Box supports both at once. The income is shared, with the larger part going to Missio for the young churches it helps around the world, and the rest coming to Mill Hill. The two have worked side by side this way for the better part of a century.
What the Mill Hill share does
Mill Hill’s share goes, more than anywhere, into the future: into forming and training the next generation of missionaries. Around two hundred young men are in formation now, most of them from the very countries the Society once travelled to, preparing over many years to serve their own peoples and others beside them. When you fill a Red Box, a real part of what you give helps to make the priests and brothers who will still be carrying this work long after the rest of us have set it down.
How do I get a Red Box?
If you would like a Red Box of your own, your parish can help you to one, and you are very welcome to ask. If a box does not suit your life, you can give to the Red Box online instead, through Missio. There is no hurry and no pressure in any of it. The Red Box has always worked by small amounts given faithfully over time, and a part to play in it is open to anyone who wants one.
