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Can I
be blunt? Quite simply, we are not giving enough money to St Mary's.
At the moment, roughly one third of us are giving more than the requirement
per head to the Church: some, a great deal more. It is they who are
supporting St Mary's. About two thirds of us are giving less than the
requirement per head - some, very little. We know there are people who, due
to their circumstances, cannot give very much. But they cannot be two thirds
of us!
Is it because, as I have heard it said, people object to money going to the
central structure of the Diocese? In the past year I have seen some of that
structure at close hand. Let us look at just one area: building works. In
the Surveyor's department, they have ONE surveyor to deal with parsonage
houses in the whole of south-west London. They have ONE surveyor to deal
with church buildings in the whole Diocese - full stop. It is not an
extensive bureaucracy. And you have seen the amount of work that was overdue
to be done on our Vicarage.
Or, consider the work of our Archdeacon, Chris Skilton, who does as much as
one person can do, pastorally on such issues as building provision (again!)
and guiding us, and many other parishes, through their interregna and the
selection process for a new Vicar. People in the Diocese are few, and
hardworking.
Now, let's be frank. Perhaps you think that we should only be providing for
our own Vicar, and not support the clergy of other, less wealthy parishes!
Well, during this interregnum our services have been taken by some of those
clergy. You have seen what sort of people they are, and all through the last
year they have been supporting us. We are part of the Diocese; but being
such, we should give it our support in return.
The appeal in January produced little response. On the other hand, we are
shortly to be reassessed under the "Fairer Shares" scheme, which will no
doubt show very clearly what we should be capable of giving. And when John
Hayward comes, we do not want him to start his ministry with us on an
unhealthy financial footing.
You do not have to make a huge increase by yourself. That is not the way to
do it. We all need to make an increase together. Will you please respond?
Neville Squires
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