Giving during Christmas 2020

Giving during Coronavirus Pandemic

Each Christmas we support four charities with the proceeds of the collections from the various Christmas services at St Mary’s. Last year we were able to distribute £1,135 between the Children’s Society; East Anglia Children’s Hospice (EACH); Jimmy’s Night Shelter in Cambridge (supporting homeless people), and Cruse Bereavement Care. As we will only be able to hold at best two services over Christmas, with very limited numbers, we are once again asking for your support, by attaching Gift Envelopes to the Magazine. There are some spare envelopes in church, or you can of course pay without using one of the special envelopes as long as you clearly mark your donation ‘Christmas Charities’. Please make your donations by either cash, or cheque payable to St Mary the Virgin Godmanchester PCC, and send it to Robert Francis at 20 Post Street or Colin Thirlwall at 49 London Road. We hope that in this way we will be able to continue to support these very worthwhile charities.

PARISH FINANCE

As our church has been closed we are clearly not getting any plate collections, fees or donations in the wall box or votive candle holder.  Although our outgoings have reduced we still have to pay our standing orders of around £8,000 per month including our parish share of £6,647.  We have reserves that will keep us going in the short term so there is no immediate panic.  Although many of our congregation donate by bank transfer (BACS), Standing Orders or the Parish Giving Scheme, for which we are extremely grateful, I know that some people are concerned that they are not able to support the work of the church under the current restrictions.  May I offer the following suggestions:

Free-Will Envelopes – please keep your (filled) envelopes until things return to normal as I am trying to avoid handling cash and hence visits to the post office to pay it in.

Bank transfers – if you wish to donate by BACS transfer, even temporarily,  please let me know and I will email the church bank details to you.  You can then a give one-off donation without any long-term commitment.  Please include your name as the reference.

Cheques – you can send cheques payable St Mary the Virgin Godmanchester PCC  to 49 London Rd, Godmanchester, PE29 2HZ as I have a applied to our bank for postal deposit envelopes.  Please let me know if the donation is for anything specific.

Parish Giving Scheme – this is the preferred method for regular donations as we get a single monthly payment for all of the income followed by a single payment of Gift Aid.  However,  the Parish Giving staff are currently operating from home so they cannot process any new applications.

If you already have a Parish Giving pack with an addressed envelope please note the new address below and wait until things return to normal before sending in the form.

Parish Giving Scheme (PGS) Team will be operating from a new location.