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Money, money, money ...The
basic expenses at St Augustine’s involve maintaining, repairing, heating
and lighting the church complex, including the church itself, the
meeting rooms and the priests’ house, keeping the clergy ‘fed and
watered’ and paying the wages of the parish staff (the secretaries,
cleaners, welfare workers, Soup Bowl manager, etc.). St Augustine’s
parish is a very active community, and many of those activities have to
be supported and subsidised by the parish. We are far from being a poor
parish. The parish used to own various properties around Tunbridge Wells
which provided low-rent accommodation, and the revenue from these
enabled us to fund various outreach activities in the town. Parish Gift Aid SchemeMany parishioners ‘covenant’ all their regular offerings to the church. Without any extra expense to the contributor, the parish reclaims any tax paid on the money given. The new Gift Aid scheme is much more straightforward than the old 'covenants'. There is no fixed amount each week: how much or how little you give is up to you. This makes a big difference to our parish income. You must be a tax-payer. Please contact our parish Gift Aid organiser, Mike Tyrer, if you are willing to part in this scheme. He will send you an information pack, and answer any of your questions. Weekly OutreachThere is an established tradition at St Augustine’s of a collection every Sunday on the way out of church for a different ‘outreach’ or charitable cause. This will be anything from supporting the work of our parish S.V.P. group to helping to build a new chapel-hall in our twin parish in Cambodia, from helping towards the upkeep of our cathedral in Southwark to giving vital support to our local Victim Support group. Friday Fast for CAFOD / CambodiaEvery Sunday, besides their Sunday offertory and Outreach contribution, many parishioners also bring along their weekly savings from their Friday act of fasting and self-denial. We are still expected to carry out some form of self-denial every Friday, to mark the saving death of Our Lord. What better way than to go without part of a meal, and give the money saved to the poor. There are both CAFOD and MITAPEEAP envelopes in the church porch which can then be put into the Sunday collection, or you can simply put the money in the Cambodia box in the porch. Most of it is counted by our special Counting Teams on Sunday afternoon: if you would like to help in one of these, please see one of the priests.
_______________________________________________________________ COPYRIGHT Every effort has been made to check the copyright of all materials on this web site, including the clip art. We hope that no rights have been infringed. Pardon is sought and apology made if the contrary be the case. We will correct the infringement immediately when informed. CLIP ART
Colour clip art is from Religious Clip Art (Omnibus edition) published in 1998 by McCrimmon Publishing Co. Ltd, Great Wakering, Essex
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However, changes in Charity Commission regulations meant that we had to
dispose of these. Our Finance Committee tries to ensure that the
proceeds of the sales provide sufficient investment income to continue
this work. But we still depend mainly on the extraordinary generosity of
our parishioners in the weekly offertory. If we wish the parish to
develop further, then funding will have to come from this continuing
sacrificial giving.