I have been asked to write a brief piece to raise wider awareness of an issue which is of great importance to our life as part of the wider church. The issue very simply is this: should we be giving to missions as a parish and, if so, how should we pay for that giving?

A little history for those who are not familiar with it may be a helpful introduction. When I came to St Mary's 20 years ago, we gave 10 per cent of our gross income to missions. More recently that figure was cut to 7.5 per cent and then a couple of years ago cut completely. This was because our finances were such that the PCC believed we could not afford to tithe and meet our obligatory payments of which the largest by far is our 'Quota' to the diocese to fund clergy stipends and pensions (not just our clergy but clergy in general). Hence we are now in the position that if we give to missions the money must be raised by specific actions with the money earmarked for that precise purpose.

 Returning to the original pair of questions, the first is to ask "do we want to give to missions?" Do we feel comfortable to live our comfortable lives while others less fortunate than us live lives which are anything but comfortable. This could be deprived children (orphans or subjects of abuse perhaps) here in Britain, who might be helped by bodies like the Church of England Children's Society, or those suffering from drought or just general poverty in Africa, Asia or South America the continents with many of the world's "deprivation hotspots". The latter might be helped by overseas missions.

 lf we, as a group, feel that we can happily look the other way then the need to seek funds is redundant. However, 1 personally don't find that an easy way out. I agree that there are too many little charities on the go and we can't help fund everyone's pet theme but the big deprivation issues cannot be ignored, can they?

If not. then where is the money to come from? At its simplest we have two choices: either all or many of us pledge £20 (or whatever) a year to a new St Mary's Mission fund, or a lot more people have to muck in and help with range of fund raising events be it Christmas Fairs (and yes someone has answered the call on that front), dances, cultural events or whatever. Just to illustrate the point, 200 people giving £20 each per annum (just one blue note from your wallet!) would raise £4000 every year.

 Is looking away an option? As the Nike advert says, “I’ll do it. if you'll do it": please don't make mc feel alone.

 John Foster
St Mary"s Finance and Admin Committee

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