GIVING
Giving is central to our Christian life, whether it is giving our money to help maintain the Church and support its work, or giving our time and our talents to do God's work here.

There are many yardsticks for what makes a generous giver.

The Old Testament set out the concept of the 'tithe' - 10% of your wealth to be given back to God.
Ten percent of everything you harvest is holy and belongs to me, whether it grows in your fields or on your fruit trees. Leviticus 27:30

Jesus praised the poor widow who gave all that she could.

The Church of England's target, set in 1978, is that church members should give 5% of their after-tax pay to fund the work of the church. 5% is one-twentieth. Some people combine 5% to the Church and 5% to charity to make up a tithe, while others try to give a whole tithe to the Church - "sacrificial giving".

As a simpler calculation, some people pay £1 per week for every £1,000 of their annual income - this works out at 5.2% of gross salary. The national average regular weekly gift to the church in 2001 was £7.03.

If you consider yourself to be a member of the Parish, please join the Planned Giving Scheme, and if applicable, Gift Aid your donation so that we can reclaim the tax you have already paid: this makes your contribution worth 28% more.

Perhaps you could ask yourself two questions:
Does what I give reflect the real state of my finances?
Does what I give reflect my understanding of God's goodness to me?

"The thing that God gives more than anything else is himself. Receiving the grace of God is like a crevice half way down the Niagara Falls saying that it receives some water! Receiving isn't the word to describe the abundance of the water. There's not a great deal of point in the rocky crevice half way down saying, "Well, I think I would like to hold on to some of this water..." You really haven't got much option. It falls on you and it bounces off. That's what waterfalls do! It's given to us to be givers, to pass on an intensity of outpouring."
Archbishop Rowan Williams

October 2006 magazine article on Stewardship