Much has happened at church, in our country and further afield since I presented my Treasurer's report to the APCM in May. A question some members have been interested in, or concerned about, to stop and ask me, perhaps as consideration is given to household finances is; what is the impact on our church family finances? I'll be providing an answer in two weeks time on Stewardship Sunday, as we look to our finances for 2023.
We should celebrate:
We have welcomed 9 new / replacement staff to our ministry and operations team since January; all integral to supporting and growing our activities. This means that all staff posts currently approved by PCC are filled. We need to budget accordingly in 2023.
The scaffolding has come and gone around church, signifying that the major work and spend to make our beautiful building watertight is virtually complete. It does mean we need to replenish our Estates Fund for the next phase of internal work.
PCC has approved increases in our charitable (missional) giving, allowing us to provide more funding to support church families across the Diocese and to our mission partners. We would like to increase this further in 2023.
All of this is only possible due to the generosity of the church family. Our giving provides around 90% of church funding. Each and every contribution is valued. Let us give thanks to God for His generosity as we continue to journey together.
Julia Newton.