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Have you ever thought that it might become necessary to close St George's Church? Would you miss St George's if it closed? In the past twenty years or so the Church of England has closed and sold off many former churches for various reasons. Because the Church of England is what is called the Established Church in England, each parish has a church, like St George's, which is the spiritual home of all the residents of that parish, of all religious traditions and none. The Parish Church is available to everyone in the parish for Baptisms, Weddings, Funerals and is required by law to have "Divine Service" every Sunday. A Vicar/Rector is also appointed to be the Parish Priest/Minister of all the inhabitants even if they do not make use of him/her. He/she is always there to meet the pastoral needs of all the parishioners. In some country areas in recent years, he/she is probably the Vicar/Rector of several parishes in what is called a 'United Benefice' Each Parish Church, like St George's Church, does not have any financial support from outside, other than as a charity and as such benefits from the Gift Aid Scheme. The cost of running St George's is considerable and well over £1,000 per week. The Church Commissioners in London, used to subsidise the stipend (wages) of the clergy, which was then made up by each diocese, but this will now no longer be possible, as they are having to use their funds for other expenditure in the church. Because of all this, each parish will have to find more money for what is called the Diocesan Quota. In our case St George's current contribution for 2001 is £38,890, next year (2002) it will be £41,807, all this before we even begin to pay for any of the day to day running expenses of St George's Church. We have a number of generous givers who support our church, but it is important that every single person who values the life and witness of St George's, many who may not be regular worshippers, will help us to meet this extra financial commitment. There are many within the regular congregation who are on fixed incomes and may find it difficult to increase their giving, which is why we are making this appeal to regular readers of this magazine and to the community at large. Please do give this matter your urgent support. In particular, would you consider giving a regular amount, however small, to the work of the Church of Christ in this parish? A tear off form for your use is on the back page of this magazine. Fr Malcolm Ferrier. Tony Rice-Oxley (Churchwarden), Lynn Winter (Churchwarden) |
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page last updated 25 OCTOBER 2001 |
