01 Oct VICARS’ BLOG – October 2020 – God’s abundant generosity and ours?
Posted at 10:00h
in Vicars' Blog
Dear Friends,
It is harvest time. A season of thankfulness to our loving, generous and abundant God who provides us with daily bread and all our needs every day. Maybe, this year we are especially grateful for some of those necessities we normally take for granted like toilet paper and food in our shops. I still remember going to Sainsbury’s on a Friday evening early in lockdown and all the fruit and vegetable section was empty. I have been incredibly grateful for our local greengrocer on Ambleside avenue. God is the creator of the earth, sustainer of all life and will bring everything to fulfilment in the fullness of time. I am grateful for everything he gives me, all the simple pleasures and so much more.
In the Vicar Report for the APCM on 5th October, printed in this Newsletter, we share three things God is calling our church to at this time: deepening our faith by encouraging one another; pulling together as a church with deeper friendships, seeing one another’s faces glowing as if we were standing round a fire together – facing the future together, and continuing to serve our community with God’s love.
Giving Project 2020
For centuries, God’s work has been enabled by the giving of God’s people. And it is the same today across the world and in Walton-on-Thames. As we bring our offering to God in our church services, we say some words from 1 Chronicles 29:11 which remind us that everything we have comes from God:
“Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.”
We are merely stewards of what He has blessed us with: time and giftings; education and money. We give in response to who God is and what he has done for us in Jesus: fulness of life and purpose in life now and hope for eternity. In the Vicar Report for the APCM, you will see the distressing current state of our Church finances. As a Parish, we have operated at a deficit for many years, but the reserves have now gone and so together, we have to do something urgently. On all of our behalf, the PCC is embarking on two measures:
(i) Reduce costs – costs have been cut wherever possible and, very sadly, the Parish has had to make the Children and Youth minister role redundant.
(ii) Increase income – our task, now is to increase income on a regular sustainable basis. This is called our Giving Project. Please do engage with this, linked in with some helpful resources and sermons from the Diocese of Guildford called ‘Transforming Generosity’. Daily Podcasts from people across the Diocese and weekly sermons from the Bishops and senior leadership of the Diocese will be available, with links provided on the Parish website. Please do listen in to these.
Some of us, for a long time, have given regularly and generously. Thank you to each one of you. God knows who you are! (The Vicars don’t!) We ask ourselves and each of you, to please consider your giving. If you are able to start giving on a regular basis through the Parish Giving Scheme or by Standing Order, that would be excellent. If you are able to increase your giving, even by a small amount, that would be wonderful. Please remember, we honour God and give to God as we give to the Church. Please ask Him how much you should be giving from your monthly income. For further information, please see the website or speak to someone on PCC.