Finance

Almost everyone will by now have received a request to give consideration to their giving to St George’s. Each November the PCC has to prepare a budget against which to operate during the following year. The problem is that we cannot accurately predict the income side. There are too many imponderables. How much will the fete make? And the bazaar? How many weddings will there be? Will we receive any bequests? Will there be new faces in church next year or will we lose some regulars? It is hard to set a budget, but nonetheless that is what we must do.

We begin the budget meeting by carefully considering all aspects of expenditure and justifying each one line by line. This year some of these have been pared down to the bone with very little set aside for general repairs and renovations. Within this sum and totalling well over 70% of it is the parish share (or quota as it was recently known) over which we have no discretionary power. We then have to assess the possible income and this is where we go into the realms of “what if”!

Whichever way we looked at things for 2007 we still ran short on the income side of the equation. Hence the note asking everyone to think very carefully about their giving and other various indirect ways to raise funds for the church. If you give regularly in pink envelopes please consider changing to green. Whilst they are both gift aid systems, the green envelope means a commitment to a more regular giving plan on which the church can rely. Better still change to standing order to help the regular flow of funds and to save your Treasurer having to open little envelopes each week and bank the cash.

Giving varies greatly across the Deanery and Diocese. Amounts range from an average of £4 per head per week to nearly £20 in some parishes! I’ll leave you to guess where we lie!

If anyone has any queries about any of the finance accounting in our church please come and talk to me at any time.

Tony Rice-Oxley
Chairman, Finance Sub Committee