Dear Fellow Members of St Bartholomew’s
I bet you’re thinking, this is the Treasurer speaking, and he’s going to bleat on about the church being short of money. Correct – we do have a hole appearing in our finances. We are down £2,200 in our reserves to the end of June, and June itself ran a deficit of over £1,000.
We are missing income from weddings, Fritillary Sunday, and plate collections at services, and we are incurring additional costs as a result of Zooming services both from the Rectory and the church.
We currently have 40 people giving regularly to the church, either through the Parish Giving Scheme or by standing bankers order. If every one of these gave an extra £5 a week (£25 a month) that would enable us to balance the books going forward. We wouldn’t be gaining anything but at least we wouldn’t be losing anything. If we don’t do something we are going to end up with our reserves dropping below our £8,000 safety net before the end of the year. This £8,000 is because our outgoings are in excess of £4,000 a month and most of these costs are fixed – there are no more savings available.
Another concern is that we are very reliant on the generosity of 8 families who in total contribute 50% of the planned giving. This is a somewhat dangerous situation as the loss of even one of these contributors would have a devastating impact on our finances. We have already lost two families from the congregation this year which has had a sizeable impact on our income.
So please pray for guidance, and consider if you are able to be more generous in your giving to support our church, and the mission of the Church of England. Let’s try and maintain Ducklington as a thriving independent parish, which will be a difficult call if we can’t show financial independence.
To change your giving through the Parish Giving Scheme let them know either by phone or email.
Phone: 0333 002 1260
Email: info@parishgiving.org.uk
- Your PGS reference number (found below your address on PGS correspondence or ask me)
• How much your existing gift is for
• What you would like it changed to
• When you would like this change to be brought into effect
If you would like to join the PGS please either take an enrolment form from the table by the north door or contact PGS direct.
Alternatively create / update your standing order to Ducklington Church: Account number 00179381 Sort code 30-99-78.
My apologies for being so blunt about our financial state but we do need to find a solution before it is too late.
Roger Barnes, Churchwarden & PCC Treasurer. 07891 633429
treasurer@ducklingtonchurch.org.uk