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Original poster

Church 'gift day'???

18 replies

patosullivan · 21/07/2012 12:46

DH and I started going to our local Anglican church at the beginning of this year. We don't manage every week, for one reason and another.

We haven't been for a month now, because of holidays and various family events. Won't be going tomorrow either, as we're travelling tonight to go to a wedding.

Anyway, I was walking past the church this morning, and the noticeboard has a sign up saying that next Friday and Saturday are 'gift days' and 'your gifts are welcome' Confused
No clarification of any sort given.

I don't know what this means - I was brought up catholic, lapsed for a while, but I've never seen a notice like this before at a catholic church.

Can any Anglicans shed light on what this is all about? Is there some sort of feast day I've forgotten about coming up?

We were planning on attending next Sunday - immediately after these 'gift days' - and I really don't know if I'm meant to be giving the church a 'gift', and if so, what kind of gift they might want!

OP posts:
Nigglenaggle · 21/07/2012 13:27

I dont think you should be made to feel obliged to give anything...... Sounds like a little emotional blackmail to me....

ClaireBunting · 21/07/2012 14:03

I suppose each church does things a little differently, but it is common to have a couple of Sundays focussed on annual giving to the work of the church.

At our church, we do this in February if each year, with the objective of signing up new church partners (ie for people to start a standing order to give money regularly towards the work of the church). It is much easier for a church to run when they have a predictable income stream, and to be able to collect money on a tax efficient basis.

If you feel that you are a member of this particular church, then you should be giving regularly. The amount is up to you. And of you are giving, you should give the church the opportunity to collect money back from the taxman. If you don't want to give monthly, then you can do a one-off gift aid.

At our church, we would not expect our guests to pay for our church ministries, so we do not pass a plate around. We do have a box where people can give as they enter the church, but this never amounts to more than £10 in any given service.

Churches don't run in fresh air. At my church, we need about £1.5 million pounds per year just for our day to day ministries and parish share. Any capital work is on top of this. Apart from collecting tax back, no money comes from government or any of the heritage bodies, who put major demands on churches.

Original poster
patosullivan · 21/07/2012 14:09

I have no problem with contributing towards the runnning of a church that I attend, and we put money in the collection plate that is passed around during each service.

My confusion is to do with the way the notice just says 'gift day' - it's not at all clear whether they're asking for money donations, or whether they want our old stuff to sell at a church sale, or whether they're after food for a harvest festival type thing or whether they want people to make a time committment to helping with flowers / cleaning etc.

'Gift' could mean just about anything Confused

OP posts:
ClaireBunting · 21/07/2012 14:14

I'd imagine that it was more about money, and a longer term commitment.

Bunbaker · 21/07/2012 14:24

Our church does a Gift Day every October. Envelopes are delivered to the houses in the area in the expectation that people will put a monetary donation in them and take them into church or drop them in at the address on the envelope. There is no obligation to donate, but as has been pointed out, churches don't run on fresh air.

MirandaWest · 21/07/2012 14:24

AFAIK gift days are generally aimed at getting people to commit to a longer term money giving

BackforGood · 21/07/2012 14:29

Our Church decided to have a 'Gift Day' after years of the same few people putting hours into planning, preparing for and running Christmas / Summer Fayres, then the same Church folk turning up to spend their money probably on stuff they'd donated and in the end, they decided it would be a lot more economical all round to cut out all the work, and everyone commit to hadning over a tenner (or £100 or whatever you felt you wanted to) on the day. Personally, I don't like the idea, and have never been, but I suspect the person who is there to receive any gifts also tried to persuade people to Gift Aid it while you are there.
I can't imagine it would be for anything other than money though.

HeathRobinson · 21/07/2012 14:31

Look on the church's web site?

Bunbaker · 21/07/2012 14:37

Do most churches have their own website? Ours doesn't.

ClaireBunting · 21/07/2012 14:39

All the churches in my deanery have their own websites, some more developed than others.

Bunbaker · 21/07/2012 14:43

I have just checked. It appears that there is one.

Original poster
patosullivan · 21/07/2012 16:08

It didn't even occur to me to see if the church had a website Blush

Website makes no mention of any gift day though. But it would make most sense if it was for money.

OP posts:
MaryBS · 21/07/2012 18:17

Our previous vicar used to have gift days, and it was for monetary donations. No pressure to give, and I think people who didn't attend church regularly saw it as an opportunity to make a one-off gift to help support the church.

Like you, I'd never come across it before, and I never felt obliged to give since we give regularly anyway.

ClaireBunting · 21/07/2012 19:29

We have had days to showcase our various ministries and invite people to get involved.

I think there is a statistic that says something like church work is done by the same 20%, and that can lead to burnout. It can make groups seem cliquey and not open to fresh blood.

I know that we are aware of this in our church, but various initiatives to change the natural order only have limited effect. Still we try.

The Christian faith is about relationships and we need to give everyone the opportunity to share time and talents.

I am pretty sure, however, that talking about a gift day is about money. If it was about time and talents, it would be described differently, eg developing gifts. Donations for a jumble sale would be asked for directly. Saying that, I can't see how this fits into a Friday and Saturday - but every church is different and they need to do what works for their community.

I think the OP's situation zooms in on the problem of church financing. The vicar/treasurer/PCC are dreadful at asking for money, so they dress it up in nice language, which many people fail to notice. It's a bit like Fawlty Towers and "don't mention the war".

No church should be reticent to or ashamed at asking for money. It is very biblical on many levels. There is a wealth :) of biblical teaching to accompany gift/stewardship/partnership days.

If anyone is interested in getting involved in regular church giving but not quite certain about taking the plunge - first, they should pray about the situation. Next, look at finance documents from the APCM to see the scale of the task. My church is in a medium sized town with an electoral roll of about 500, normal Sunday attendance about 600, 420 "giving units" and a cash flow of around £1.5 million. This means we need each family in the scheme to give around £3500 per year on average, or around £300 a month. Clearly some people give a lot more than average, and others give a lot less, and there are also occasional givers. The idea of putting a few coppers in the plate falls very short of what is required to run the church.

Sorry, this strays away from the opening post. :)

Italiangreyhound · 24/07/2012 01:40

patosullivan I would imagine it is about giving money. In my experience the idea of a 'gift day' is either a general annual or how ever often type thing to remind people to give money to the church or possibly to collect for something special. This might be for a renovation in the church (if the building is old) or some sort of special new ministry. It is a way of letter people know (I think) that there is a need for money and of asking people to consider giving it, but of course as the name suggest, if you choose to give it is a gift, it is not an obligation. The suggestion I think is that it is money people might not regularly give to church (some with tithe a set amount of their income etc, some will not). To me, a Christian of many years mostly in the Anglican church, that is what it suggests.

The church website would almost certainly contain details, but if it does not, or there is no website the the vicar should know.

WillowFae · 26/07/2012 23:14

When we have gift days it is always made clear exactly what it is for. Recently we have had them to raise funds for the building work we are having done and to buy more chairs for the main hall. We have also done them for charities and disaster relief. No one is obliged to give.

blueglue · 26/07/2012 23:25

Our local church has an annual gift day. They want cash donations for general church funds. If you want to give, just contact the vicar and ask for an envelope (or however they do it) in advance of the gift day explaining that you will be at a wedding on the actual day. If you don't want to give, you don't have to.

ClaireRacing · 27/07/2012 07:28

My church treasurer would shudder at the thought of cash giving. All that unclaimed tax!

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