Planned Giving Appeal

Week 1 Letter

A few months ago at Sunday Masses we handed out a booklet  entitled The Future of St Aloysius Garnethill. Click here to download a copy.

That short document articulates our aspirations for the future based on conversations held regularly in the parish over a period of three years.  Allow me to quote from that document

St Aloysius is a church in the city centre. We seek to be a beacon of light in the heart of Glasgow, a community of faith, of action and of hope where we meet Christ in word and sacrament and come in touch with the source of the Church’s life that we might bring that life to others.

We wish to place mission and evangelisation at the heart of everything we do and so become a centre of missionary activity.

We are aware of so many Young Adults living in the City Centre and the significant number who regularly attend Mass here. We seek to develop a ministry of welcome and outreach, of listening and conversation to young adults.

Many visitors are drawn by the beauty of the building.

We recognise that our location has been very good for Night Fever and Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival

We hear the call of Deaf Catholics and Hard of Hearing people for participation in the life of the Church. We wish to support the Sacramental and pastoral care of deaf persons.

Our city centre location helps for effective outreach to refugees and asylum seekers. Some 50 persons come every weekday morning to learn English at our ESOL school supported by so many wonderful volunteer teachers.

The Church is a very good location for a Warm Winter Hub.

Our parish of St Aloysius in Garnethill  has a long history of being a dynamic spiritual centre in the lives of thousands of people. We aim to offer a friendly welcome to all visitors. New people come to us seeking answers to their many questions, and we offer our Catholic Faith with integrity and generosity.

St Aloysius Church in Garnethill is loved by so many people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. For some, it is their parish church; for others their school chapel; for some a place dedicated to the greater glory of God, a place whose acoustic rings so often with the sound of glorious music; for others a haven of peace in the heart of the city in the midst of a busy working day. For yet others it speaks of memories of Holy Communions, family Baptisms, Confirmations, Weddings and Funerals. We all have our own reasons why we love this very special and beautiful place.

And our beautiful church has never looked better since the installation of new lighting and repainting completed two years ago.  Your help towards looking after this wonderful space gives all who worship here a real sense of a shared commitment to celebrating our faith well.

Moving forward we hope to find further ways to bring our parishioners together This may include programmes that involve many of us in the ministry of “accompaniment” – finding more spaces for worthwhile conversations and to allow God’s Spirit to shape us as Christians and fostering greater unity between us.

And yet we have a very great problem.   Over the years and especially since Covid, it has become increasingly difficult to keep up with the rising costs of running the church and continue to provide the services in the way that we do.

In broad terms, the weekly running costs of the Church are approximately £4000 but the income is approximately £3000. So weekly collections are not sufficient for us to sustain the parish and the church and we will need to increase our income if we are to keep our parish in good financial health. We are therefore asking for your help and for this reason the Parish Finance committee and I have decided that the time has come to run a planned giving campaign.

As a parish, it is important that we evaluate and take care of our income, the ordinary offertory collection.

Because we do not receive funding from the state, the Vatican or the diocese, we are reliant on our offertory collections to cover the running costs of the parish, and to plan confidently for the future.

We are here today thanks to the generosity and dedication of those who went before us. What legacy are we handing on to those who will follow us? How will they look back at this time? It isn’t about the building fabric and running costs – these are simply what make possible the real work, which is building the kingdom of God here in the centre of Glasgow.

This Planned Giving Drive is an invitation to all parishioners to reflect and renew their commitment of their time, talents and treasure to the parish.  Over the coming weeks I encourage all parishioners to prayerfully consider the following questions:

  • How is God calling me to use the blessings and gifts He has entrusted to me?
  • Am I using my gifts of time, talent and my financial blessings responsibly, and how can I use them to support my parish?
  • Does my current contribution reflect the importance of the church and parish in my life?

We know that the Lord loves a cheerful giver, someone who does not make a great show of what they give, but who feels that they are simply “doing the right thing” by supporting their Catholic Community in ways large and small.

You know the feeling you get after giving something to someone? It could be the smallest thing, given to a loved one, a charity or a stranger. You suddenly feel more alive and you want to give more! This is because it is in our spiritual DNA to give, we need to give, even more than others to receive.

The Christian understanding of giving is distinctive: it is giving back to God what he has given us in the first place - which is everything!

If everything comes from God then He is the owner, we are the Stewards. Our time, talents and treasure have been entrusted to us to use in a unique way to serve and grow closer to God. Good stewardship means receiving God’s gifts gratefully, tending to them in a responsible and accountable manner, sharing them in love for others, and returning a meaningful portion to the Lord.

When considering renewing your giving, I encourage you to:

  1. Give thanks: The more we give thanks, the more we realise how much we’ve been given.
  1. Give regularly: It makes a huge difference if you can commit to giving on a regular basis - our giving is not a subscription for the services we attend: the work of the Church goes on whether or not we have been to our parish on a particular Sunday. By giving regularly we continue to journey in our relationship with God and our parish community.
  2. Give generously: Traditionally a tithe was the first fruits of your labour; the contemporary definition is to give 5 & 5. That is 5% of your income to charity and 5 hours a month of your time to your parish community. Of course the amount is your decision, only you know your circumstances and what you feel God is inviting you to give.
  1. The point is to give a considered amount that is meaningful to you and noticeable, not just from your surplus.
  1. Give yourself: spend time praying for the mission and ministry of this parish. Could you get involved in giving your time in new ways? Think about which areas you find it easiest to give, and which you need to work at so that you notice your giving.

Talking about money when times are so hard is extremely difficult and I would like to say loudly and clearly that I do not want anyone to give more than they can afford, particularly if you have been directly affected by the ‘cost of living crisis’ or if you are living on a small pension.

But what this means is that we will need the help of those of you who are still in a reasonably strong financial position, perhaps because you are in a secure job or because your financial commitments have gone down over the last year or so.

Planned Giving Leaflet Week 1 St AloysiusAs you entered Mass today you will have been handed a newsletter entitled ‘Our Call to Stewardship’ – please read this carefully and take it home with you. Please take some time to consider the details of the Planned Giving programme. I hope that you will be able to respond generously according to your ability. Thank you for your prayers and for your support.

Next week we shall hear from a member of our finance committee who will speak in more detail about our parish finances in the context of our parish vision and if you wish to be involved, to tell you how best to do this.

Finally, in two weeks’ time, we will ask everyone to renew their financial and volunteering commitment to our parish.  This pledge will not bind you, but it allows our parish to plan ahead for the future in confidence. 

Thank you for all that you do for this parish and community. May God Bless you all.

Father Gerard Mitchell, S.J
Parish Priest
St Aloysius’ Church
Garnethill

Week 2 Letter

My name is Frank Walker and Father Gerard has asked me to speak to you today about the Planned Giving Drive we launched last weekend.

As some of you may know, I have been a parishioner of this parish for a number of years.

As Father explained last week, we are each called as Stewards to share and invest our God-given gifts of Time, Talents and Treasure. God has given us many blessings. What we do with them is our gift back to Him.

Our parish is one of our blessings from God so we are all responsible for maintaining and handing it on to future generations in excellent condition. With this in mind, I want to quickly go through our parish finances with you and highlight a few points we all need to be aware of as parishioners.

  • Our only source of income is the offertory collections – without your support we could not continue.
  • Just like your own household, our parish has to balance monthly income and expenditure. We have to pay for gas, electricity, council tax, insurance, property costs and repairs, admin, liturgical costs and the overall cost of parish ministry.
  • We should save for the future – to remain truly self-sufficient we should be aiming for an annual savings rate of 20%. This is because if our heating system was to break or the roof needed fixing, upfront repair costs could easily run into tens of thousands.

Meanwhile, as you can see from the document, there are a few areas of concern:

  1. the weekly running costs of the Church are approximately £4000 but the income is approximately £3000. These figures make no allowance for saving any money for unplanned maintenance or capital projects.
  2. Meanwhile operating costs are increasing, especially gas and electricity.
  3. Less than 50% of our donations are Gift Aided. If everyone Gift Aided, the parish would have received up to £23,000 rather than £15,000.

Of course only you know your own circumstances and what you feel called to give so that your giving is prayerful, proportionate and an amount that is meaningful to you. Some may be able to give more, others less, some maybe nothing at all right now.

Finally, I want to share with you how to make your offertory giving in the most effective manner.

Please consider giving by Standing Order. This is easy to do – Please bring your account number and sort code with you next week and we’ll set it up for you.  Giving by standing order provides our parish with reliable income whereas loose cash and envelope giving drop during the holiday months. Regular income from standing order means the parish can plan ahead with confidence.. Giving by standing order also -

  • Helps you budget and record your giving
  • Keeps your giving up to date, even when you cannot be at church
  • Avoids the last minute search for cash on a Sunday.

For those already giving by Standing Order – thank you for your support. Please review the amount you give, taking into consideration inflation and your current circumstances.

Next week we will have a form to make it easy for you to set up a Standing Order for the first time OR change the amount you currently give. If you wish to do this, please have your bank details to hand next week.

There are many misconceptions about Gift aid. But did you know that: 

  • If you pay UK tax on a pension then you CAN Gift Aid.
  • Gift Aid is a wonderful means of boosting your giving at no extra cost of time or money on your part and makes a real difference to the financial wellbeing of our parish!
  • Gift Aid benefits higher rate tax payers as it allows you to reclaim the difference between the basic and higher rate of tax for yourself when you complete your tax return.

If you are a UK tax payer and wish to Gift Aid, then next week on the pledge forms that we shall distribute please ensure that you:

  • Sign the Gift Aid declaration
  • Select to make your offertory donations by envelope or Standing Order. 

Please sign a Gift aid declaration next week even if you are already Gift Aiding in the parish because this is a whole parish renewal to ensure we are completely up to date. 

Volunteering - Please also consider how you can share your time and talents with this parish. As you will notice, there are many jobs and duties pivotal to keeping our parish community alive and thriving.  There will be a chance next week to sign up for volunteering.

To conclude

Please prayerfully consider all the things Fr Gerard and I have shared with you.  During the week ahead Father and the finance committee invite all of us to review and renew our offertory contribution to the parish, bearing in mind our circumstances and the current needs of the parish.

Thank you for listening and for all that you do.

 

Week 3 Letter

Dear Friends,

We have been running a Planned Giving Drive over the last two weeks. The first weekend we reflected on how we are each uniquely called to exercise Stewardship of our God-given gifts of Time, Treasure & Talents, investing and sharing these with those around us in the best way to give glory to God. Our parish is one of the gifts we have received, thanks to the generosity of those who went before us.

Last week fellow parishioners on the finance committee shared with you some of the ways in which our parish needs help to ensure it continues to flourish and is handed on to future generations in even better condition than we received it.

This week we invite you to consider the commitment form.

Thank you everyone for patiently listening over the last three weekends.

Yours sincerely,

Fr Gerard Mitchell, S.J.

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