Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” Matthew ch 13 v31-2
Could you help All Saints grow like the mustard tree ?
We have a challenging vision at All Saints for:
- Spiritual welfare and growth for all our members
- Social and environmental justice on a local, national and international level,
- Inclusion: welcoming everyone regardless of social status, age, race, gender, sexuality, ability
- Youth and children who should feel valued, safe, able to speak out and influence our direction.
- Celebrating God’s gifts in community, arts and culture in diverse events
Last year our income (the multi coloured bar on the chart below) was £193,000. Core expenditure (the red bar in the chart) was £192,000. We balanced the books thanks to the generosity of people who gave to the Mend the Gap campaign (the bright blue bit). But we cannot do that every year. We need our income to come in much more steadily through the year.
Our expenditure this year will be higher: we have to heat the church for the full year and other expenditures will all be up a little at least by inflation. .
Regular giving (the purple bar) , including the gift aid that comes with it is three quarters of our total income. It is absolutely fundamental to what we can plan to do as a church.
In 2023 expenditure was lower partly because the church was not open all year but also because, for half the year, we only had one full time paid clergy person. This year our expenditure commitment for clergy*, worship resources and organist and our administrator and office activities is going to be about £10,000 higher than our income forecast. Next year the shortfall will grow to at least £25,000 just to meet the cost of an extra clergy post unless we grow our income. –.
*The one paid member of our clergy is Revd Hannah; Colin is not paid; Becky is in training and central Diocesan funds pay for that. When we employ another priest we will pay for that post ourselves.
