Please use this regular giving form to set up a standing order for your donations to Holy Cross. Fill in the form as per the instructions and return to any of the priests at Holy Cross. By making your donation this way, the church will get the maximum value from your generosity. Please click on the link below for the leaflet giving further information on this topic.
How much should I give…?
Holy Cross Priory Church, a city centre parish, is a welcoming and vibrant church opening its doors to a wide diversity of people from across the City. The Friars provide a good timetable of regular masses, novenas, rosaries, benediction, confessions, weddings, baptisms and funerals and also support other groups, such as, Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA), for the people who attend the Church.
To support itself the parish relies principally on the money generated from the Sunday collections and regular giving.
Regular Giving
Regular giving is the most effective way to give to your church. You simply commit to give a regular amount each week or month direct from your bank account. This can be easily set up, changed and cancelled. By doing this we know that we can rely on a regular and consistent income making our budget planning more straight forward. Standing Order forms can be collected from the tables at either of the side doors.
What should I give?
Although the Catholic Church is reluctant to lay down hard and fast rules about giving, all of us can do with some advice in this area. One recommendation, for people who work, would be to give one hour’s wage per week, after tax. The national living wage is currently £8.21 per hour for those aged 25 and over, £7.70 for those aged 21–24, £6.15 for ages 18-20. Students and those who don’t work might like to compare what they give to something like the price of a pint of beer (currently about £3) or similar. Each person needs to decide for themselves what they can afford to give.
“On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.”
1 Corinthians 16:2 (NIV)
Note that the offering was set aside on the first day of the week. The clear biblical challenge is that we give of our “first fruits” rather than our “leftovers.” The implication then is that each of us should budget to give to the church as a first priority along with our food, utilities and rent, in accordance with our income, rather than as an afterthought.
Gift Aid
If you are a UK tax payer, we can increase any donation of yours by 20p for every £1 donated by reclaiming the tax you have already paid on it from the government under the Gift Aid scheme. This is a very important part of our income so, if you are a UK tax payer please complete a Gift Aid form, available from any of the Friars.
Costs
It costs about £13,000 per month to run Holy Cross Church. That works out at around £5.00 per person per week for the numbers we have attending. We are very grateful to you all for what you give to us but we do need people to seriously consider increasing their regular weekly contribution to the church, if we are to avoid getting into debt in the long term.
As a Community, we need to:
- Increase donations
- Increase regular giving by Standing Order
- Increase giving by Gift Aid
with thanks, Parish Finance Committee