In 2022, the benefice of Church Lench w Rous Lench & Abbots Morton & Harvington managed to pay their Ministry Share in full, helped with a grant from the Ministry Support Fund.
Treasurer of St James, Harvington, John Liggitt explains why they felt it was important pay as much as they could and how they are working to increase their income for future years.
“The introduction of the Ministry Share scheme has been OK in our benefice. We understand that if we aren’t able to pay, we won’t be able to have a vicar and as an ALM, I’ve also personally appreciated the training that is available to us. The Ministry Support grant did make a significant difference, giving us time to increase our giving over the next few years to meet our costs.”
John at St James’ Church submitted the grant application on behalf of the four churches in their benefice, asking each church whether they could pay a proportion of the total Ministry Share based loosely on the size of each village.
“Harvington Church covers about half of the Ministry Share for the benefice with the rest split between the other smaller churches,” said John. Any grant we receive is not necessarily allocated in the same way but depends on what each church feels able to contribute. In 2023 our smallest church thinks that it will be able to pay its share without receiving any grant, which is great news!”
All four churches have been looking at ways to increase their income, running stewardship campaigns and working to offer a wider range of worship with might increase the numbers coming into the churches.
John continued: “We are restarting our Messy Church which hasn’t run since Covid and are planning other events to increase our profile in the community. Joining the Parish Giving Scheme (PGS) has also been beneficial. The majority of our income now comes in that way and all the gift aid is claimed automatically. We hope that we will soon receive over £2,000 of income through PGS each month. It’s important to us to try to pay our Ministry Share in full. We know that we are very lucky to have our rector covering just the four churches and we are already starting to budget ahead of his retirement in a few years’ time.”
