How much did you pay the priest for a christening ?

[happypotamus]

DC's christening is on Saturday. The priest said to bring some money in an envelope for him. How much is appropriate? This is DC2, but I can't remember at all what we did last time.

[mrsmeerkat]

50 Euro but he didn't ask for anything

[wigglesrock]

I put £30 in an envelope.

[wigglesrock]

Sorry posted too soon, we weren't asked either.

[Shuvsi]

We gave £60 in an envelope for our third. It wasn't a requirement and in fact our priest tried to give it back to us, perhaps because we donate weekly and have done for years.

[Vivacia]

The priest said to bring some money in an envelope for him.

Make it a brown envelope.

[fulltothebrim]

That's outrageous!!

The average salary of a priest is £25K a year. Plus they get free housing ans as much alter wine as they can drink. No wife or kids to support obvioulsy- why would you want to pay him on top?

[fulltothebrim]

Make it a brown envelope.

[chickenschicken]

We gave either £50. He got his lunch too.

[Vivacia]

I think that a collection is traditional and expected. I think it's fair if you're not really part of the congregation and are just 'using' the church to have a picturesque wedding or christening. I think it's very cheeky for the vicar to tell you to "put some money in an envelope". Very cash-for-questions. Perhaps he feels the need to if so many people don't know they should, given that they don't attend church usually? I really can't figure out why he'd think it ok.

[thegreenheartofmanyroundabouts]

I'm C of E and we don't charge for a Baptism. We do ask for donations in the service for the upkeep of the church as it is maintained by donation and not by the state.

[mrsmeerkat]

Brown envelope .. ha ha

We have (local catholic church) weekly envelopes that we put a small amount in and monthly envelopes that 20 is expected and tonnes of other envelopes

A letter stating what is expected is sent every January also with your statement

In some churches here it states no coins or no Brown coins. In others envelopes are no t per family by person

[fulltothebrim]

Why should the state pay for the upkeep of the church?

Perhaps the Cof E could use some of its £5.2 billion pounds to pay for leaking church roofs rather than investing in oil companies, hedge funds,pharmaceutical companies, HSBC, Glaxo-Smith Kleine, mining company Rio Tinto who has a dismal record of human rights abuses and various other profitable mining companies who are destroying landscapes, poisoning the earth and waters.

[niminypiminy]

I don't know where fulltothebrim got the idea that RC priests earn £25,000 a year. The average is probably nearer one tenth of that, as this article states. Priests depend on donations from their congregations for their stipend (not salary). And though they get accomodation, they lose that when they retire.

[MaryhadalittleDamn]

£50 For our most recent baptism

[missnevermind]

It never occurred to me to pay the priest
He never asked and I didn't offer.

Did give him a litre of Wiskey though

[singinghippo]

fulltothebrim - round here the (Catholic) priest's salary went up last year to £3680 per year - (I haven't missed a zero off there) - they also get the offerings at the collection on Easter Day and Christmas Day - but not the rest of the year...
It is polite to offer them something for their time.

[fulltothebrim]

www.payscale.com/research/UK/Industry=Church/Salary

[singinghippo]

That will be CofE etc - they have families to care for

[niminypiminy]

Ok, fulltothebrim, keep the bile and misinformation.

Most funds for church upkeep comes from church congregations. But the church roof grant is an acknowledgement that the Church of England is responsible for something like 90% of all existing medieval architecture in this country, and that is a public good -- unless, of course, you think that history is bunk and that our architectural heritage should be pulled down or turned into luxury flats for the wealthy. But the church roof grants are small potatoes compared to the money raised by congregations.

Much of the £5.2bn you refer to consists of assets that the CofE cannot dispose of -- such as world heritage site cathedrals. All those medieval churches count as assets, but the church can't actually sell them off because, in fact, they belong to congregations and parishes. And if the CofE were to decide to get rid of its assets, who would want to buy them? They may be 'worth' billions but it is an accounting figure only and could never be realised.

And while the CofE does invest mostly because it has a legal and ethical responsibility to provide for the pensions of those people who have given their working lives to the church it has a better record on ethical investing than most pension funds.

[Starlightbright1]

I put £30 in the collection envelope for my DS..C of E and part of the service.

[niminypiminy]

Yet again, on clergy salaries, that's misinformation.

a) clergy don't have salaries - they have stipends. They are not employees.

b) I don't know where the site you linked to gets its information from - there are no links or references to verify the figures. The Church of England clergy stipend is around 22,000. That's well below the average uk salary (26,000). Of course, clergy also have tied accommodation -- but that disappears when they retire, when they are effectively made homeless.

[fulltothebrim]

The church of England has £1.7 billion pounds of assets in property,
THe other 4 billion are tied up in bonds and securities.

It's not bile, and it is misleading to suggest that the Church of England is strapped for cash.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23467750

[ChaiseLounger]

You are supposed to pay the priest?
Oh dear. I didn't, for ds1's holy communion.

[daisydotandgertie]

Gosh. The stipend of a Catholic priest is nowhere near 25K a year! Our diocese gives a monthly stipend of £160. That's not much money in anyone's book.

[niminypiminy]

That's interesting. But it is still true that the Church Comissioners can't simply realize the church's assets because they must be used to keep the church running. Things that get centrally funded are cathedrals and their staff, bishops, training of new clergy -- at a local level, which is most of the CofE, churches and their congregations have to fund themselves, and there is no spare money sloshing around to do it for them.