Dear Church Family,
I am writing to you to say a heartfelt thank you for all the support you have given to the life of our church, particularly during the recent difficult months of the Coronavirus pandemic. Your backing, in so many ways, has made a huge difference to the work we have been able to do in our community over the last 2 years as well as keeping the parish churches up and running.
As we continue to return to more regular and usual practices, we are also finding that a lot of the habits developed during the 2020 lockdowns are still with us. This has meant that we now have greater commitments in terms of staffing, volunteer ministry and due to recent increases in inflation: bigger bills! As we enter this next phase it is likely that some of the support our church has received may not continue as organisations and individuals feel the impact of the removal of furlough funding and the potential for companies to flounder and even close, resulting in redundancies.
As The Daily Bread Café has grown, we are now delighted to employ Revd Lisa Whymark as our Community Outreach Worker – something we could only dream of three years ago when Lisa started her training. On top of this commitment, we need to consider our church buildings as they both require regular expenditure on upkeep. We have recently redecorated the church hall at St Peter’s, but a recent assessment of the organ at All Saints has revealed that it requires some expensive maintenance, costing around £10,000, to prolong its life as an vital part of the worship and celebration there.
Moreover, we are also asked to contribute to the Diocese of Chelmsford to help pay for clergy and housing and training costs. This is known as our “Quota” and the amount we are required to pay for this year is £75,082.
To do all that God is calling us to do, we are reviewing our finances, income and expenditure, and would ask for your help. Please would you give prayerful consideration to the following suggestions:
This parish has recently signed up to the Parish Giving Scheme (PGS) which we are able to do as members of the Diocese of Chelmsford. The PGS is a national scheme which is run at no cost to parishes or donors and which carries out the work involved in collecting donations and claiming any associated Gift Aid, if appropriate, all of which is paid to the parish in a regular and timely manner. Some members of our Parochial Church Council have already signed up to the PGS and it has been found to run smoothly and efficiently. If you could consider using this method to make your donations via direct debit, more information and how to sign up can be found at parishgiving.org.uk, and by entering the code 080608206. The correct name for our parish on this site is "Hutton All Saints with St Peters". Simply enter your details, setup the Direct Debit and the rest is done for you. PGS also allows you to cancel or amend your giving at any time. We would encourage as many of you as possible to use this way of giving.
If you Gift Aid your donations, then you are already helping. However, we are asking all existing Gift Aid donors to complete a new gift aid form to ensure that our records are up to date and that no changes in circumstances have occurred since an earlier declaration was completed. Existing donors can also use this form to start gift aiding their donations. You can Gift Aid at no extra cost to yourself if you are a UK taxpayer.
Faithful and consistent giving to the church enables us to budget plan more effectively so if you do not already do so, it would be most helpful if you are able to consider giving regularly by PGS or by Standing Order. For those of you already giving, we ask that you review the amount you give. This may mean for some of you that you might be able to give more but we also realise that some of you may need to give less. As a helpful guide, if all 120 people on the electoral roll were able to give £50 each month, we would be able to meet our full Parish Share Quota payment comfortably – before we claimed back any Gift Aid. I realise that for many of you this would be too much but for others it wouldn’t be much of a stretch. All we ask is that you faithfully give what you can, and we trust God to provide all we need and to do more that with what we offer! If you are unsure about any of this and would like further information, please speak to Jason Manning (Treasurer – 07793 283301) or Lynn Rae (Chair of Finance Committee – 07763 733549).
Bothe standing order and Gift Aid Form can be downloaded here:
Please be assured that all personal information is stored in line with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). The financial details of your response will be confidential to the Stewardship Officer.
These are certainly challenging times, and we want to be a church that continues to serve the parish, as well as grow and develop. The Gospel we proclaim is Good News to all people and for our communities.
Your giving to God through the ministry of All Saints with St Peter will not only help our parish ministry, it is also our response to God’s overwhelming generosity and will help and encourage others to give sacrificially as they think and pray about this. Once again, if you could prayerfully consider increasing your donations this would be very much appreciated.
In closing, let me thank you again for your special contribution to the ministry of this parish. I pray that we will continue to work together in the mission and service that God has entrusted to us here.
With every blessing,
