There are notices in Holy Trinity reminding us that it costs roughly £350/day to run the Church. That’s £128,000 per year and it sounds like a lot, so it’s a fair question to ask ‘Why so much?’. As part of the Church of England, Holy Trinity with St. Catherine’s is there to minister to the whole community, not just the regular worshippers, and that ministry costs in terms of time, training and resources. The building costs a large amount, as you can well imagine, with costs relating to regular maintenance, heating and insurance. The Church benefits a lot from voluntary effort in all sorts of ways and the treasurer keeps a tight control of costs, but essential things have to be paid for to preserve this wonderful building for generations to come.
So where does this money come from? Well, Holy Trinity is blessed in having several different sources of income, but like the vast majority of churches our main income has to come from voluntary giving and donations, mainly from regular members of our congregation and also from donations by visitors. If you would like to donate, either on a regular basis or as a one-off gift, the Church will be extremely grateful.
To set up a regular donation to the Church, the best and easiest way to do that is through the Parish Giving Scheme (PGS), just click on this link for that: https://www.parishgiving.org.
If you are visiting the Church you can contribute by cash or cheques made payable to Long Melford PCC and leave your contribution in the wooden box by the main door. Alternatively, you can make regular or 1-off payments from your bank account by BACS to the Church’s account: Long Melford PCC, sort code 60 21 03, account number 01206125. If your payment reference identifies who you are and you have signed a gift-aid declaration, the Church will then claim the Gift Aid.
Thank you for reading this, and be assured that Holy Trinity with St. Catherine’s will be very grateful for any donation, whether one-off or regular, that you make.