Parish of St Helen Witton Northwich Cheshire

Christian giving 2008 - A Christian giving initiative

Are you prepared?

What is Thanksgiving Sunday really for and how should we approach it? For all of us this is probably one of the most difficult Sundays of the year. For some it is so awkward that they actively avoid it. What business has anyone talking about money in the context of a church service?

It is difficult for two reasons, firstly that the subject of church finances is usually gloomy; like chancellors of the exchequer, church treasurers rarely announce unequivocal good news. Secondly and more to the point, if we sit down and consider our giving honestly we are up against a hard and daunting measure of our commitment. Our use of money says more about our real priorities than any amount of talk.

Another hard measure of commitment is our use of time, how much of my time is for me and how much for others, but money is uniquely measurable and comparable. There are all sorts of temptations. We might feel resentful of the amount we are foregoing, or we might even feel resentful of being asked at all to look seriously at our giving. We might be tempted to brush aside all serious thought and hurriedly evade the whole notion with a token amount. We might feel smug, self-satisfied, tempted to feel justified because we think we are giving more than someone else.

How little all such thoughts make us. How far from God such thoughts take us. No wonder we don’t want to go there. Yet face this we must if we are be more than theoretical Christians.

Somehow we have to connect the ideal with the practical. Christianity is definitely practical religion, the one who obeyed the Father was not the one who said ‘Yes’ but stayed at home, it was the one who said, ‘No’ first, but later changed his mind. See Matthew 21:28-31. ปป Similarly the neighbour to the one who fell among thieves was the one who helped him. We need a vision of what our Church should be in the community of Northwich and then we need the commitment to make that vision happen through what we do and what we give. We are called to reflect a little of the nature of God among all whom we meet and one aspect of that nature is giving of oneself.

Our Thanksgiving service is a time to review our giving, why we give, what we give for. Giving of ourselves for others, not only of money, but in all ways, is a reflection of the nature of God in our own lives. Thanksgiving Sunday is not a time in which we have to feel unnecessarily guilty. We all have living expenses which must be met from our fixed incomes. It is a time to assess our giving to church alongside all the other demands on our money, to decide where it comes in our priorities; to do so soberly, realistically and in prayer.

There packs at the back of church so if you would like one please take a spare one or email your details (name and address) to layreaderA. Alternatively, please fill in a web version of the form ปป print it and mail it to the stewardship recorder.

Each pack contains a leaflet, a pledge slip and an envelope addressed to the Stewardship recorder. Please study the leaflet at home. If you wish to give to the church on a regular basis then please fill in the pledge slip, seal it in the envelope addressed to the Stewardship Recorder and bring it back to church on Thanksgiving Sunday. Please bring the pledge slip sealed in its envelope and put it on the collection plate or if you cannot get to church at all please find some way of getting the pledge slip to Sue Williams, the Stewardship Recorder. Malcolm, Barry, the Wardens and the Readers would all be happy to pass the slips in their envelopes on to her if necessary.

If you already give through the envelope scheme please note that Sue will know that you want to continue with a new set of envelopes for the coming year only if she gets a completed pledge slip from you.

Gift Aid

If your giving is from taxed income and you have not already signed a Gift Aid form then please consider doing so - it makes a substantial difference to the total income of the church. Last year our parish was able claim over ฃ11,000 back from the tax man. We might be entitled to even more and it would be a pity to lose this simply because Gift Aid forms have not been completed.

If you want to know more about how Gift Aid works look here ปป on the HM Revenue & Customs website or here ปป on the Directgov website. If you pay higher rate tax you can claim back the difference between the basic rate of tax and the higher rate on all gross Gift Aid donations made each tax year.

The Church is entitled to reclaim 28 pence for every pound given by tax payers. This means that for every ฃ10 you give, the Church can receive an extra ฃ 2.80 from the Government at no extra cost to you. However, we can only claim this for those people who are tax payers and have signed a Gift Aid form. If you are a taxpayer and have not yet signed a Gift Aid form in favour of St Helen's church then please ask for details.

Andrew Mallin-Jones

A Prayer by Thomas Ken

Giver of all good things, we thank you: for health and vigour; for the air that gives the breath of life, the sun that warms, and the good food that makes us strong; for happy homes and for the friends we love; for all that makes it good to live. Make us thankful and eager to repay, by cheerfulness and kindliness, by a readiness to help others. Freely we have received; let us freely give, in the name of him who gave his life for us, Jesus Christ our Lord.