Do you know how much it costs to keep our churches open for services for the local communities?
A vital part of belonging is helping to ‘pay the bills’. Making a regular financial contribution to the work of the church is not only biblical but a very practical way of standing shoulder to shoulder with the whole church and demonstrating your commitment and support.
A full financial report, audited accounts and annual budget are published each year and made available at the Annual Parochial Church Meetings. The elected PCCs scrutinise and authorise expenditure throughout the year.
In addition, part of the normal parish income is donated to charitable organisations. Occasionally we will also take up special offerings in the event of a disaster or for a specific campaign. These are taken in addition to regular giving.
Visitors to the church are under no obligation to give.
How can you give?
- On a Sunday: collections are taken as part of our worship at each of our Sunday services.
- By Standing Order: by far the easiest and most tax-efficient form of giving, helpful for our own budget projections, is to set up a monthly Standing Order: you can download a form (PDF format) here to return to your bank. If you are a UK taxpayer, please fill in the gift aid envelopes in order for us to claim back 25 pence for each pound donated (see below).
- By Bank Transfer: please use the account number and sort code given on the Standing Order form available from the treasurers. Please ensure that your name is included when you make a transfer or email your name and donation amount to the treasurer. This enables us to claim back Gift Aid where appropriate.
Many of you have already returned your Gift Aid Declaration, thank you! If you haven’t yet completed and returned your forms, we would be really grateful if you could do so.
Gift Aid is a scheme which enables our churches to benefit by an additional 25p from every £1 that you give. In order for the churches to reclaim this additional money from HMRC, you need to satisfy the following conditions:
- You need to be a UK tax payer (paying an amount of Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax for each tax year that is at least equal to the amount of tax that all the charities or Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) that you donate to will reclaim on the gifts for that tax year)
- You need to have filled in a Gift Aid Declaration and have returned it to the Church
It costs more than we might think to run our churches so every penny counts!