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.

In the CofE, the baptism fee is £13, but this is usually waived for church family.

FTR, the overall package for a CofE vicar/rector should be broadly in line with an average primary school headteacher (40 - 50k?). This is made up of stipend, housing and pension. The actual stipend is around £24k, but clearly housing allowances are very generous, depending on the area. From their stipend, most clergy will try to invest in property and rent it out, so that they have somewhere to go when they retire.

My Googling gives a C of E vicar receiving £16000 stipend, plus housing presumably? That's below the average and twice the minimum wage. A catholic priest in 2013 was £25000 plus rectory housing and extra stipends for travel, food and health care.

I don't think you have to pay for communion Chase.. I think but maybe you do

CofE stipend is £24k.

Full according to the BBC, Catholic priests in a wealthy parish earn up to £10,000 a year however many earn considerably less. As for "all the communion wine they can drink", what is your evidence for that or are you justaking stuff up as you go along?

Sorry that should be just making stuff up.

I think you're right NonDom my source, news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1022833.stm is actually from 2000!

Catholic priests in the UK really don't get £25k plus housing, health, travel and food.

They have their small monthly stipend and accommodation which comes with the job. They also benefit from two parish cash collections each year at Easter and Christmas. Travel is paid at cost or the HMRC mileage rate. Food is covered by the parish funds. Retired and sick priests are cared for by the diocese.

In exchange, a good priest is on call 24 hours a day, every day of the week and barely stops working. It's a vocation not a money spinner.

Few catholic priests charge money for a baptism, but most would be grateful for a gift to either parish funds or to themselves if it were offered.

The Church of England does not charge for baptisms.

And stipends vary according to diocese (some are seriously a lot poorer than others), but is approx £22,000; and the retirement age is 68 now.

But how can you put a price on casting the devil out of your child?

Our (Catholic) priest/parish emphasises strongly that there is no charge for any of the sacraments (ie baptism, marriage etc), but donations are always appreciated- I think we made a £50 donation for baptism. The money goes to parish funds I believe (but we're always in the red at the end of every year...)

Do they pay tax on these brown envelope gifts?

If the donation is for the work of the church then the money goes straight into the safe or church bank account to pay for the heating, lighting, cost of salaries for organists, mend the roof etc.

I really don't like it when someone presses a note into my hand 'for the work of the church' as I'm scared I'll forget so now I carry gift aid envelopes with me pop the money in there so it can go straight in the safe.

Charities tend to be exempt from VAT on income.

Not VAT, d'oh!

Why don't Churches pay VAT?

What about the priest, is this not personal income, should he not be paying Income Tax on his brown envelope income? If not keep the money and donate to a more worthy cause.