Stewardship - Brian Bartlett

Our promised Stewardship giving under the St John’s envelope and standing order schemes for 2009 is £64,617. The amount pledged last year was £60,812 and so our giving is set to increase by £3,805. The breakdown of our giving for 2009 is as follows:

• Weekly givers  £12,073 [ up £1,169 on 2008]

• Monthly givers £51,505 [up £2,621 on 2008]

• Annual givers   £  1,038 [up £15 on 2008]

Common Fund payments [costs associated with employing Rob plus our share of Diocesan expenses] have risen sharply in recent years and indeed our payment for 2009 is set to rise by £5,354. The additional £3,805 that we have pledged under the Stewardship scheme for this year will therefore not be sufficient to cover this increase. This is very worrying bearing in mind that in 2008 the costs of running St John’s was £8,853 greater than our income and we had to use some of our limited cash reserves to cover the loss.  I am often asked what will happen if we can no longer pay our way. The answer is that we would almost certainly lose our vicar and have to share one with other parishes in the area. This is now happening with alarming regularity across the whole country. In recent years, St John’s has benefited from a number of bequests and this money has helped us considerably in terms of balancing our books. If your income is such that you are unable to give more than you are at present, but you have capital assets eg a property, then perhaps you may wish to consider leaving some funds to St John’s in your Will. The costs of running a church are probably considerably higher than many people appreciate and we are self funding. Please do therefore read our Treasurers report below. Finally, thank you all very much for your continued financial support and a warm welcome to those that have just joined our scheme.

Treasurers - Carol Toombs & Sharon Ide

Another year on and a busy and informative year for Sharon and myself after taking on the role as Treasurers. We have both been on a steep learning curve not realising the amount of work involved with the job. Anne certainly did a wonderful job as treasurer for ten years. We have received a donation of £1000 from Elizabeth MB to go towards the re-ordering which was really appreciated and also Caroline Reed who collected £500 from HSBC Bank for a charity scheme they were running. Last year was a difficult year for St John’s with increased utility bills and common-fund commitment. Sadly this has left us spending more money than we earned. This year I am sure will be even tougher on our finances, we also have a higher Common Fund Commitment so we must try and make every effort to tighten our belts. I am sure things will work out if we all pull together. I would add that our predicted income this year has risen thanks to the generosity of St Johns congregation. I would like to thank the Finance Team, Brian Bartlett, Gervase Craven, David Durston, Bob Lang and of course Rob, for supporting Sharon and myself, and also the additional help Anne is still giving us in finalising the accounts ready to go to Alan Rix, who examines our accounts every year.