The Church relies on your generosity to keep going. Churches receive no state funding and S. Mary’s and S. Edward’s are Grade I listed buildings which makes them very expensive to maintain. They have stood as a witness to Jesus for generations, but without your help, wouldn’t it be a tragedy if they weren’t there for your children’s weddings or your grandchildren’s baptisms?
The Church of England is rich – why do I need to give money to my Parish Church?
If we had a pound for every time I’ve heard that, I wouldn’t need to be writing this page! Certainly, on paper, the Church of England has massive assets… and no money. The assets are virtually all Churches: from beautiful historic medieval buildings to modern churches built in a housing estate – it certainly looks good on paper, but these often historic, significant buildings can’t be sold off and the responsibility for its maintenance falls to the local community, often small in number and in the current COVID-19 lockdown unable to gather in Church for health reasons.
The responsibility of maintaining our 4 churches here on the edge of Dartmoor falls to us, and that includes the cost of the Vicar, so we are expected to pay almost £40,000 a year to the Diocese (between the Parishes of Bickleigh and Shaugh Prior) as well as ongoing maintanence costs to the Churches and the Churchyards: if you wonder why the grass of the Churchyard isn’t cut quite as often as you might like it – we simply can’t afford it.
Since the lockdown, nearly 80% of our collections have disappeared because the plate simply isn’t there any more. So I am asking you, if you are a regular giver, an occasional visitor, a local resident or a friend of our parish from further afield, to please consider helping us by making a regular or a one-off donation online.
Please consider regular giving, especially when you are not able to make Church in person.
For Bickleigh Parish please use this form:
BICKLEIGH_standingorderandgiftaidFORMFor Shaugh Prior Parish please use this form:
SHAUGH_standingorderandgiftaidFORMThank you very much for your support in this difficult time.
