When did you last review your giving? Regular donations are important to our churches. The Church of England offers a Christian presence in every community. Together we seek to make this Christian presence the heart of all our cities, towns, and villages; by our wonderful buildings; by worshipping together; by serving our communities and by sharing our faith and values. This valuable contribution to our community has a cost, of which 75% is met by personal donations. For our churches to survive and grow, we rely on regular donations so that we can plan confidently for the future. The PGS is a national scheme which the Diocese pays for - so there are no additional running costs to our churches. The main beneficiary of this scheme will be our churches. Through your generous commitment, we can be assured of a regular, tax-efficient source of income which has the capacity to increase with the cost of living yet involves virtually no administration (a real bonus for our Treasurers). Gift Aid is automatically collected and paid straight back to our church, each month (another huge bonus for our Treasurers). The Scheme is easy to sign up for. If you presently give to St John’s or St Anne's by standing order, it's simply a case of cancelling that and starting a new direct debit through this scheme. You are given an option to automatically increase your donation by inflation every year. Your direct debit is taken on the 1st of the month. You indicate if you wish to Gift Aid your donation & the scheme does the rest. St John’s or St Anne’s receives all donations in one aggregate amount soon after the 1st of the month and receives one Gift Aid recovery payment each month via the scheme. This benefits our churches, giving a regular, sustained income including regular Gift Aid. It greatly eases the admin for our Treasurers. Please join the scheme if you can. You can sign up for the scheme by one of 3 methods---online banking is not essential. 1) By phone 2) Online 3) Completing and posting a form. John and Barbara Shaw (St John’s) and Amanda Tattersall (St Anne’s), our Treasurers have these. Please consider this opportunity to help our churches and be part of this scheme. Please get in touch with your church’s Treasurer for more information and how to join this wonderful scheme johnshawhurstwood@sky.com or telephone 07917714653 amandajtattersall@gmail.com or telephone 07786 068194
Leading Intercessions in our Sunday services • Leading prayers for small groups • Bible Readings in our Sunday services. • Hosting and /or helping to lead a small Bible study group. • Being part of a team of sides people to welcome people to our church• Leading worship in church If you sense God is calling / prompting you to serve in any of these ways, please chat to me, Reverend Lesley. For those who wish to lead intercessions or prayers, lead study groups, I will be hosting a short training session on July 3rd, to support you in this amazing work.
As many of you know I'm turning 50 in July and have decided to mark it by completing a 500m cycle ride over seven days from my parents home in Kent to ours in Higham. I lost my Mum to Alzheimer's earlier this year and have decided to use this event to try and raise some money for the Alzheimer's Research Charity who are funding research into better ways of treating this debilitating disease. If anyone would like to sponsor me I have set up a just giving page the details of which are below. Many thanks Simonhttps://www.justgiving.com/page/simon-gilbert-1686518154397
