Unfortunately God's decision to grant us free will, means that we don't get a free ride. If we are to maintain all of the good things that go on at St Aldhelm's then we need to think "money". We realise that this is often a source of complaint for "occasional" church goers but there is no escape from this fact. Of course that doesn't mean that it has to be boring. This page is designed to keep you up to date with this side of the church.
Of course we raise this money to go towards a wide number of needs. These needs can be directly related to the day to day running of the Church (for instance the Ministry costs), the long term maintenance (at the moment, the roof and the chairs) but as part of the Christen ethics, it is important that we also think of others needs and we therefore raise funds towards the Salisbury Diocese Sudan fund.
Questions
for each of us to answer:
How much do I give now?
Am I being fair to God – to myself – to our Church?
Can I adopt the principle of percentage giving?
Can I aim to increase my present percentage now?
And again next year?
And the year after until I reach the 5% target?
The main fundraising routes are the weekly collection, donations and the TFR (towards full responsibility) Scheme.
Through our TFR Scheme members of the Church commit a regular amount of money each week/month/quarter/year in order that St Aldhelm's may be able to rely on a predictable income to meet its needs and responsibilities.
This, of course, is a matter of conscience or a matter between each of us and God. The Church of England has asked its people to adopt a target of 5% of their annual income (take home pay) for regular giving to and through the Church.
The new "Gift
Aid" scheme was introduced in April 2000 and allows
charities to reclaim 28 pence in every £1.00 which is donated by
a taxpayer.
As a result, we are able to reclaim from the Inland Revenue an
additional £25.00 on average per week from our loose collections
through the use of the yellow envelopes. He or she need only to
write their name and address on one of our yellow envelopes and
add their signature to confirm that they are taxpayers. The
signed envelopes are kept in a confidential file by our Treasurer
as a record of the donation. This scheme is in addition our TFR scheme.
Anyone who may be interested in making a donation to the church
through either system would be very welcome. Please contact the Treasurer or either of the Churchwardens in complete confidence and they will be
very pleased to give you full details or print off the application
form (Microsoft Word format) and pass it
to the treasurer.
First, we pay into the Salisbury Diocesan Funds towards clergy
stipends (ministry wages)
pensions and housing and the general running expenses of the
Diocese. To put this into context the figure for 2002 is £33,252
!
Then we have to pay for running St Aldhelm's maintenance heating,
lighting, music, insurance and general expenses, again reaching a
figure of £30,205
So for year 2001 to cover just our basic needs we need to find £63,457
For the coming year (2002) we estimate our income will be £62,750 including fund raising and donations, however some simple arithmetic shows this will leave a projected shortfall of £750
As well as the spending on the everyday running of the Church, there are other areas for which we earmark the money raised.
If you are a regular at St. Aldhelm's you will have experienced taking your life in your hands (or another part of the anatomy) just by sitting through a service. Over the next few years, we need to raise many thousands of pounds towards for the replacement of the 100 year old chairs, many of which are now very much passed their best. The fund to date (02/07/02) currently stands at £2582.45
In common with many Churches across the world, we too have roof problems. The problem area for ours is the lead-work which needs to be completely replaced - work likely to cost in excess of £20,000!
We hope to apply for the faculty for the repairs shortly, with an application for a grant from English Heritage under the Joint Grants Scheme being made in September 2001. The work will, God willing, be undertaken soon after. The fund currently stands at £3,261.10(02/07/02)