Christian giving

Christian giving

Chelmsford’s Christian Giving Strategy was launched in June 2008, with the objective of seeking to encourage and enable God’s ministry to be resourced with generosity.

In summary the strategy consists of:

1. Helping parishes to find God’s vision and to be outward looking and focus on mission rather than the accounts and to resource that mission.
2. Helping parishes to take tithing seriously and raise average giving from just over 3% to the General Synod’s target of at least 5% of after-tax income to be given through our local churches as part of a tithe.
3. Identifying parishes with good Christian Giving strategies and encouraging them to share their good practice with others.
4. Continuing to invest in and resource Advisers at Episcopal Area level.
5. Providing training opportunities for clergy, Readers and other lay leaders in preaching and teaching on aspects of giving within a theology of grace and discipleship.
6. Making full use of conferences and training opportunities outside the diocese.
7. Continuing to promote TRIO and helping parishes to operate it and pointing parishes to other Christian giving programmes which are available.
8. Using the Diocesan Communications Unit to provide targeted, printed material and website information to communicate the message and monitor progress annually.

Measuring responses to a given strategy is never an exact science, as parishes may be prompted by various factors in reviewing their strategies.  However, there are encouraging signs from the parishes since the Giving Strategy was launched last summer as the results of the 2010 Budget Consultation show.

1. 71% of respondents stated that they had discussed the Giving Strategy and had taken part in some form of giving initiative.
2. In 2009, actual parish giving increased by 3.9% in comparison to 2008 – in spite of the recession.  This was more that the 3.2% Parish Share that was requested.
3. A significant improvement has been demonstrated by the 34% of churches that have a history of challenge in paying their share.
4. The 66% of parishes that have historically paid their share in full continue to perform well with little change.
5. 18% of respondents reported that they had paid more than 100% of their share in order to assist their Deaneries.

These figures are collected from those parishes that responded to the Budget Consultation on Parish Share and do not reflect other local and wider mission giving which is known to be considerable in many parishes.

The figures are a most encouraging first sign of the effectiveness of the Diocesan Giving Strategy.  Our task is to continue this upward trend so we can release more financial resources for the Mission of the Church in Essex and East London.

Giving for Life

The Church of England has published some significant resources entitled ‘Giving for Life’.  They follow a debate at the General Synod in the summer of 2009.  Both the name of the initiative and the content match the Chelmsford Diocesan Strategy closely and can be used to complement the diocesan resources.

Christian Giving Strategy

Chelmsford Diocese approved a strategy for Christian giving in March 2008. The aim of the strategy is to liberate the gifts of faithful people to resource God's mission through the churches of the diocese.

• Christian Giving Strategy
• Guidance for PCCs on the strategy

Further information

Parish Finance Officer

The Parish Finance Officer is available to advise parishes on accounts, giving, loans for projects, and TRIO (‘The Responsibility Is Ours’) stewardship package.

Terry Gray tgray@chelmsford.anglican.org 01245 294430

Parish Development Officers

Parish development officers are available to help parishes in the Barking, Bradwell and Colchester episcopal areas train lay people and run outreach and stewardship programmes.

Barking

Robin Stevens rms@ukgateway.net 01245 268042

Bradwell

Revd Martin Wood mwood@chelmsford.anglican.org 01268 552219

click here for Martin's downloads and links to useful websites concerned with Stewardship, Christian Giving and major capital projects 

 

The Chelmsford Diocesan Board of Finance (‘Diocese of Chelmsford’) is a registered charity – number 249505

Donations

The pace of change in society has quickened dramatically in the last decade. In an era of escalating costs and reduced government funding the Church of England competes with the enormous demands that the modern world places on people’s time and money.

Our churches are pressing ahead with major programmes of modernisation, while holding on firmly to our historic vocation to serve the people of Essex and East London.  Upholding the standards of the past in a modern context costs large sums of money.   In the financial year 2004, Government funding represented just 9% of our annual receipts. Year after year we strive to match or expenditure to our income. At the same time, we must ensure that we have enough trained ministers and we properly resource their work.

Christians regard the effective use of time, skills, income and assets (called ‘stewardship’) as a vital part of being a disciple of Jesus, and the Church owes an immense amount to the generosity of our people in times past and present. Now we are at a crucial stage when we must not only sustain our inheritance but also enhance it.

We hope that whether you are a churchgoer or a friend, you will be interested in supporting our work. Please support us by downloading and returning a donation form.