Positive news from Send a Cow

2021-01-20T13:49:59+00:00

Thank you for sticking with us and more importantly, families like Merima’s, throughout this challenging time. You are well and truly part of our global family, we couldn’t do it without you.

Emily Mullen

Supporter Relations – Send a Cow

Today is Blue Monday, supposedly the gloomiest day of the year. A day where we face a combination of post-Christmas blues, cold dark nights and awaiting the first payday of the new year. And as the World continues to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s no surprise we are all feeling a little blue. Send a Cow is one of Christ Church’s nominated charities. We were delighted to recieve this update from them with some positive news.

Meet Merima, pictured left. Merima lives in Kutaber District, Ethiopia with her husband and children. Along with 600 other women, Merima is part of the Developing Business Women Project, which supports family farmers like her to establish successful and sustainable agri-businesses.

Merima says

"Send a Cow has supported me with awareness and skills. I have received training on kitchen gardening, savings and credit and reproductive health. Of all the skills I have learned, I am really amazed by the bag garden. I have learned that we can produce food even if we don't have any land." - Merima
Positive news from Send a Cow2021-01-20T13:49:59+00:00

Annual Parochial Church Meeting 25th October

2020-10-31T17:39:19+00:00

Christ church in the mist

It has been a strange year this year. Our A.P.C.M. (Annual Parochial Church Meeting) was deferred due to the restrictions and so we were unable to close off our usual formal review of the past year and plans for the coming year. We are now able to hold our A.P.C.M. which will be held in the Church immediately following this Sunday’s (25th October) service. Social distancing measures will be enforced.

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Annual Parochial Church Meeting 25th October2020-10-31T17:39:19+00:00

Ways to continue your financial support for Christ Church

2020-11-10T12:08:44+00:00

During the coronavirus emergency, our church, like many organisations today, is suffering severely from a lack of funds.

Our finance team is working hard to implement cost savings whilst still allowing us to maintain a clear and effective presence in the community. We are especially grateful to our many regular givers, either as members of the Parish Giving Scheme or as donors via regular standing order for their continued support.

Like everyone, we are exploring new ways to connect with our congregation and friends. These include a new Pastoral contact scheme called Keep in Touch (K.i.T.). This will be administered by volunteers from our Community and is aimed at ensuring that everyone is regularly contacted and, if required, practical help or reassurance can be provided. We are recording our Sunday services and these can be found on our website. You can find out more about both these on www.christchurchswindon.co.uk.

Inevitably though, income from plate collections, the community centre, church events, weddings and funerals has dried up, leaving us in an increasingly difficult financial position. Fortunately, we do have some contingency reserves and our cost savings and government cost mitigation schemes will help. Unfortunately, this will not last for very long.

How can you help?

By Regular Planned Giving

Regular giving enables us to plan our work and helps reduce administration time and effort as well as improving our cashflow.

  1. Our preferred option to give to Christ Church – If you have not yet joined our Parish Giving scheme, this is an efficient way to regularly support our church and its community. Contact our gift aid secretary- Stephen@christchurchswindon.co.uk or ring 07885 217077 for more information.
  2. You can also donate safely via our Just giving site: https://www.justgiving.com/christchurchswindon/donate or click the button below
Donate via Just Giving
By direct transfer or regular standing order to Christ Church

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Ways to continue your financial support for Christ Church2020-11-10T12:08:44+00:00

A message from our Treasurer

2020-09-19T15:20:11+01:00

It is the time of year when we start to plan for 2021, including preparing our budget for Christ Church. In normal times, we would review the current year to date, and develop a stewardship campaign to support next year’s budget based on our future needs.

This year, of course, is a little different.

Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who has continued to give generously according to their ability throughout this year, both through regular giving and through the very welcome one-off donation that we have received to support our mission.

As you know, when the lockdown hit us in the spring, we had to carefully consider how this would affect our budgeting, especially given the reduced income from many of our usual sources. In mitigation we have made use of the government’s furlough scheme and reluctantly reduced the value of the Parish Share paid to Bristol Diocese. In this current financial year to the end of December however we are probably looking at taking about £35,000 from our reserves which is manageable for a year, but it is clearly not sustainable in the long term.

As we enter into the budget preparation for 2021, and with a likely continuing reduced income from many of our sources, we will be relying more heavily than ever on the generosity of our parishioners to meet our budget and deliver our mission, including running and staffing the PCC and the community centre.

Our message for the 2020 stewardship campaign is therefore simple: We always welcome legacies and donations at any time but increases in longer term regular giving in 2021 will help us to sustain our mission and that of the diocese into the future. Find out ways to give your financial support to the work of Christ Church

Andrew Yeoward – Treasurer

Stephen Grosvenor – Gift Aid Secretary

A message from our Treasurer2020-09-19T15:20:11+01:00

Our Stewardship Campaign – 2019. Thank YOU.

2019-11-28T17:09:26+00:00

Our vision is to be Christ’s Church in the community.

Our recent investment, both in the Church and Community Centre, reflect our desire to develop our services to local people and become a valued meeting place, both for worship and a wide variety of community activities.

This investment has been made possible by many legacies and gifts from faithful friends and supporters over the years and has given us a great opportunity to build our mission from a solid base of buildings and facilities.

Whilst we are asset rich, as explained in our recent stewardship information, we still need to maintain and increase our income each year to fund the day to day mission and services we provide to our local community. As a result, we are asking our congregation and friends to consider signing up for the Parish Giving Scheme (P.G.S.) as a more effective way to make regular gifts to the church. Thank you to those of you who have already joined the scheme or give by other regular means.

The P.G.S. has several big advantages for Christ Church and its supporters:

With this is in mind, we ask all of our supporters to review their own personal circumstances and level of giving to the church and if possible consider increasing their gifts or better still, if they are not already members, to commit to regular donations via the Parish Giving Scheme. If you are currently giving via a direct debit or standing order then please consider converting to giving via this method. Contact Stephen Grosvenor our Gift Aid Secretary (07885 217077 giftaid@christchurchswindon.co.uk)to find out how.

If you are not able to commit to regular giving using the Parish Giving Scheme, then whatever you can give is still greatly valued and appreciated. If you are a tax payer, the Gift Aid Scheme increases the value of your gift by 20% if you make your donations via a Gift Aid Envelope. These can be found at the back of the church or by contacting the Parish Office.

Much of our recent renewal work at Christ Church has been made possible by generous legacies left to us by departed friends. Please consider leaving a legacy in favour of the church to help to secure its future for the next 100 years.

Our Stewardship Campaign – 2019. Thank YOU.2019-11-28T17:09:26+00:00

Find about our Parish Giving Scheme

2019-04-07T14:24:41+01:00

Recently we heard about our new recommended giving policy from Brian Harris, Chair of our Finance Committee. Having trialled membership of the Parish Giving Scheme (P.G.S) with members of our staff team and PCC taking the lead, we are now ready to roll it out to the wider congregation.

The PGS is sponsored by the Diocese and is free to use. It allows us to dramatically reduce the administrative effort required to collect Gift Aid on the regular gifts from our friends and congregation as well as greatly improve our cashflow.

Watch a video that explains how it works here

If you currently support the church with regular giving or wish to start and have not yet heard about the scheme, please do take a moment to listen again to Brian’s presentation given at each of our recent Sunday services. It explains very clearly what is involved and why we want to introduce PGS. You can also read about it on the link below.

Remember this is not a request for you to increase your giving (although that is always welcome)but rather to change the way that you do give.

If you would like to see the letter that I wrote explaining the scheme and why we propose to adopt it read it here PGS letter

If you would like to recieve a PGS application form to support the work of Christ Church then email us here parishoffice@christchurchswindon.co.uk with your contact details or ring 01793 522832 or contact our Gift Aid Secretary Stephen Grosvenor (in confidence) at s.grosvenor@gmail.com

Thank you for your support

Simon

Find about our Parish Giving Scheme2019-04-07T14:24:41+01:00

A message from your Gift Aid Secretary

2018-10-26T16:16:02+01:00

It is now a couple of months since Brian Harris, chair of our Finance Committee, outlined our proposal to join the Parish Giving Scheme. There are a number of excellent reasons why we are encouraging all existing regular givers to sign up to the P.G.S. not the least of which is that it saves a significant amount of time and administration for myself as your Gift Aid secretary. If you missed Brian’s talk you can hear it again here https://www.christchurchswindon.co.uk/blog/2018/05/hear-about-our-new-parish-giving-scheme/ It lays out very clearly the benefits of the scheme and rather embarrasses me but all in a good cause!

A number of questions have arisen over the past few days which I hope can clarify some points for everyone.

 

Q. When I sign up to the PGS what happens if I want to make occasional donations – particularly to our Mission Giving days?

A. You still remain registered for Gift Aid in favour of Christ Church so your local donations will still be valued and counted as normal.

Q. Once I have completed the application form, what do I do with it?

A. First ensure that, if you are eligible for Gift Aid, (that is you pay UK tax equal or more than the amount of Gift aid claimed on your donations) you have ticked the allow GIFT AID  tick box on the form. Then return it in the stamped addressed envelope provided (you can get one from the parish office if you don’t have one) directly to PGS. The address is also on the form.

Q. What happens next?

A. Once you have had a reply from PGS acknowledging your giving and telling you the first date that your new Direct debit will be taken. Then you should contact your bank to cancel your existing Standing order/Direct debit.

Q. Where can I get a PGS application form from so that I can start to regularly support the work of the church?

A. There are application packs at the back of the church or you can get them from Helen in the parish office or by contacting Stephen on the details below.

Q. I don’t really understand what I have to do. Can you help me?

A. I will be delighted to talk you through the form, the process and help you understand what it all means. You can telephone me (01793 341034 or email me s.grosvenor@gmail.com) and I can help.

There is no deadline to joining the PGS but many of its benefits derive from as many givers as possible taking it up so please do consider joining the many members of the church community who have already done so.

Thank you

Stephen Grosvenor

Gift Aid Secretary – Christ Church with St Mary’s Swindon

A message from your Gift Aid Secretary2018-10-26T16:16:02+01:00

2017 Stewardship Campaign

2017-11-22T20:26:43+00:00

On Sunday 10th September we started our annual stewardship campaign. The aim of this is to, firstly, thank everyone for their financial support, encouragement and practical help throughout the year which allows us to maintain a strong Christian presence in Old Town and beyond.

Secondly it is to let everyone know how this work is funded and how we spend our resources.

Thirdly to ask our friends to prayerfully review their annual giving to the church – this will help us to prepare our budget for the coming year.

Stewardship packs have been addressed to all those who are registered on the church electoral roll but of course anyone who values or wishes to support the work of the church is welcome to contribute.

Where possible, we encourage regular giving by standing order through your bank – this allows us to manage our finances more efficiently and predictably as well as greatly reducing administration.  The Stewardship pack includes a standing order form which can be completed and returned to your bank. This can also be used to increase an existing standing order ( please note the section on the form which is used to cancel an existing standing order). You can also download a standing order form here. However you choose to support our work you can find out more on our website here or from our Gift Aid Secretary Stephen Grosvenor ( s.grosvenor@gmail.com or 01793 341034).

View a video of the powerpoint presentation shown in all services on 10th September which explains the basis of our stewardship campaign.

You can download a Stewardship Pack here.

A shorter summary of the slides was included in the Stewardship pack  – Stewardship – Summary of presentation

2017 Stewardship Campaign2017-11-22T20:26:43+00:00

Annual Report & Accounts Published

2013-08-08T13:30:54+01:00

Our Annual Parochial Church meeting was held on Sunday 28th April. Our annual report and accounts can be seen below and paper copies will be available next weekend.  Daniel Pitt was elected as church warden.

Christchurch

This year’s highlights:

  • Our average Sunday attendance was 200
  • We christened 46 babies
  • Married 22 couples
  • Shared 11 confirmations with our Partnership friends
  • Conducted 70 funerals

Read the Annual Report for 2012

View the accounts for 2012

Annual Report & Accounts Published2013-08-08T13:30:54+01:00

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