Donate Our Parish Share is paid to the Diocese to cover the cost of salaries to priests, training and housing of priests and the pensions and insurance of priests and staff. The costs and on-costs of a full time priest amount to about £86, 000 a year. As Jane works part-time for St George’s, this is halved. The Priest does not receive all of this amount as salary- in fact they receive less than half as the rest pays for pension and housing costs. Last year our Parish share was calculated at £46,000 plus and we struggled to pay this. In the end we paid about £20.000 towards our costs. Thankyou to all those who contributed in any way, standing orders, collection gifts and support at events- we couldn’t have paid it without you.
The share is a voluntary contribution; the intention is that each Church makes a voluntary contribution and those that can pay more, do so. We have been supported by voluntary contributions from more wealthy Churches and are being supported next year by nearly £14,000. Our new Parish Share assessment for 2022 has been received and this year we are asked to pay £29,654 by the end of next December. For us this is much more affordable and I feel encouraged that with a little effort we can manage to pay a good proportion of this. Bearing this in mind we can do this in 3 ways.
•By increasing the number and amount of Standing Orders that members pay •By putting more in the collection each week or contactless on SUM UP •By fundraising events throughout the year.
As it is New Year and we are considering making New Year resolutions, I am asking if you could help. If you have a standing order set up already, could you consider increasing your payments? If everyone increases by a little – it adds up. If you have not paid by standing order before, could you consider setting up a regular standing order payment? Forms are at the back of the Church , see Lesley or the Churchwardens for details.
Money put in the carboy or on SUM UP is gift aided and we get back 25% tax on this, the more you give, the more comes back. Could you give a little more? Lastly, St George’s people regularly support our events. Can we encourage more people to come to Church and join us, to increase the spread of our fund-raising. Our Church is active in the wider community, and is well regarded by local people. Can we publicise what we are doing, how good our services are, how friendly our community is and encourage more people to come along? We are coming out of the uncertain times of vacancy and moving forward. We can all spread the word.
Easyfundraising Did you know that whenever you buy anything online-from your weekly shop to your annual holiday - you could be collecting free donations for St George the Martyr Church- Brentwood? There are over 3,000 shops and sites on board ready to make a donation, including Amazon, John Lewis. Aviva, the trainline and Sainsbury’s- it doesn’t cost you a penny extra! It’s as easy as 1,2,3……. 1. Head to https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/stgtmbrentwood/ and join for free. 2. Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping. 3. After you’ve checked out, that retailer will make a donation to your good cause for no extra cost whatsoever! 4. There are no catches or hidden charges and St George the Martyr Church- Brentwood will be really grateful for your donations.
The Essex Lottery TEL is an exciting weekly lottery that raises money for good causes in Essex. All good causes supported by the lottery will benefit Essex and its residents. Play the lottery, support Essex - it’s that simple! Tickets for the lottery cost just £1 a week. Each ticket has a 1 in 50 chance to win a prize each week, with a top prize of £25,000! That’s a better chance of winning than the National Lottery or the Health Lottery. Each ticket has six numbers and each number is between 0 and 9.
There will be a draw every Saturday night when a six digit winning combination will be picked. Prizes will be given to players with tickets that match the first or last 2 to 6 numbers from the winning combination. Match all six and you win the jackpot! The lottery and its prizes are our way of putting the fun in fundraising. The real winners are the good causes. From every £1 ticket sold 60p will go to good causes in Essex. To put this in perspective when you play the National Lottery 25% goes to good causes – we’ve more than doubled the ticket percentage that goes to good causes.
Even better, you can choose which good cause gets 50p of the 60p (the remaining 10p will be distributed to other local good causes). If you choose St Georges Church as your good cause, we benefit. Please consider supporting this cause. You never know- you may win a prize! Go to essexlottery.co.uk