HOW MUCH SHOULD I GIVE?

Sarah and I have been asked to read the lessons on the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.

Both are quite short. In the reading from the Old Testament God asks Job "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?", and goes on to give Job a none-too-gentle reminder of His power as the creator of the physical world; and as the fount of wisdom and understanding. Then, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, St Paul reminds us that "having been made perfect [Jesus] became the source of eternal salvation." In just a few lines we are reminded that we are indebted to God for our very existence; for our consciousness and moral sense; and above all for his love and forgiveness that enables us to escape from our personal imperfections into a higher realm.

We know that we are to repay that debt by loving ourselves; by loving and forgiving our neighbour; and by loving God. These commandments are given practical meaning by the Anglican Church in the concept of Christian Stewardship. Stewardship encompasses our response in worship; in our sharing in Christ's mission to the world; in our attitude to the natural resources of this planet; and in our willingness to see our own powers and possessions as gifts from God to be used in his service.

Stewardship should, therefore be a 24/7 activity, but like Job we need reminders from time to time. So the PCC has decided to run two more-or-less formal campaigns this autumn. These will remind us of the need to devote a proportion of our time and talents to the service of God and our neighbours - and a proportion of our income to the church.

The financial campaign will follow a format that the parish has used before, called TRIO, which is an acronym for "The Responsibility Is Ours". We plan to launch it with presentations in the two churches on 29 October.

In 2005 our regular expenditure as a parish exceeded our income by £15,500. That is over £40 every day. This is before taking account of anything that we spent on the redevelopment project that is part of our Vision for the future.

That cannot continue. Churches cannot be made bankrupt, but they can and do cease to function if they run out of money.

In the medium term we are looking to the realisation of our Vision to revitalise the spiritual and financial life of the parish. In the short term the PCC has agreed on a number of initiatives to increase income and reduce expenditure. These include such things as a shorter working week for Andy Keane, our parish administrator; a ban on heating our buildings until the beginning of October; and the introduction of bag collections at baptisms. We cannot, however, make ends meet unless we can increase the level of planned giving in the parish. We had believed that this was relatively good, but the diocese has recently re-examined the figures for us, and the uncomfortable truth that has emerged is that we fall a long way short of our target, which is based on the "Fairer Shares" income survey. The average parish manages 83% of the target. Our figure is 62%. So we aim to do better, and the message of TRIO will be that no-one else is going to solve this problem for us.

Meanwhile, I would ask you to prepare for the two stewardship campaigns by making a prayerful re-assessment of what you currently give to God in response to all that he has done and still does for us. Some people will be able to give more in money, while the main gift of others will be service. But whatever form your gifts take, please ask yourself whether or not they show that you are putting God first, and then managing the rest. If they do, you are giving the right amount.

Peter Stokes - Treasurer

October 2006

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