By Mike Morgan, editor of the Dorchester Parish Magazine and member of St Peter's Church, Dorchester

IF WE work together we can achieve amazing things.

Christian Aid Week has just passed and in our magazine we've been reading about how women in Bangladesh have been organising fresh water supplies to their village through a pari parishad, a local water council.

To get people to join, the organiser Rehka, tells them that if they come together, they can achieve things they usually couldn't on their own.

Things like a clean safe supply on tap instead of a long walk to the nearest unpolluted well.

That's how Christian Aid works, by giving local people resources and skills to make a difference to their own lives.

It's also about how the money is raised.

Each church gets together a small group of volunteers who collect coins and the odd note from their neighbours.

In the Dorchester area alone that raises over £25,000 a year, which is amazing.

Church often works in the same way - through ordinary people coming together to share their joys and their problems and to make a difference to their community.

This could be through organisations like Dorchester Poverty Action or the Credit Union.

Or it could be through little nameless acts of friendship and neighbourliness.

That's why we still need churches, even in this age when it is fashionable to pursue your own private spiritual journey.

Together we can achieve things we couldn't do on our own.

Last Sunday was also Pentecost, Whit Sunday, when we remembered a group of frightened and demoralised people hiding in a locked room in Jerusalem.

Something happened to them that sent them rushing out into the streets with a message that changed the world and goes on changing lives today.

They called what happened to them the Holy Spirit of God.

If we work together, we can all achieve amazing things.