Last Sunday (17 May) I gave a summary of our financial situation to give the context for Malcolm talking on “Giving in Lockdown” from Phil 4 v 10 – 20. If you missed the service last weekend, please have a watch.
Our regular giving has decreased by 5% or £3,500 per month over the last 12 months. Added to this, our one-off gifts during the last 6 months have been less than expected, especially during March when we started to see the effects of lockdown flow through into the income of the church.
The results of falling regular and one-off giving have meant that during the first 6 months of the year, our income was £40,000 or 7.5% less than we budgeted. With lockdown being extended and many now facing increasing financial pressure, we are facing a potential deficit this year of £200,000.
In some ways, an even more difficult challenge is how we bring our budget back into balance next year. Without our regular income increasing, then we are likely to face cuts in both UK & World Mission and our ministries in Balerno and Livingston. Vestry are continuing to meet and are already looking at a range of possible scenarios.
Our response as a leadership team
Vestry and the staff team have responded in the following ways:
Increased our Care & Share fund to help members of our own congregation who are facing financial crisis. Please contact your house group leaders or a member of the pastoral team if you’re in this situation.
For the first time we’ve not implemented our annual staff inflationary pay increase in April, and we have 4 members of staff on furlough.
The Vestry and staff team are seeking to reduce expenditure by cancelling, postponing or reducing activities whilst seeking to protect our core ministries. The only exceptions to this are our main mission partners, who we contacted 2 weeks ago to reassure them of our ongoing financial support, at its current level, until September.
Our response as a congregation
Whatever our own financial circumstances we can all pray, thanking God for His generosity and faithfulness to us as individuals and as a congregation, and asking God for His continued financial provision as we seek to do all that He’s calling us to do as a church. And let’s ask God what response He would like each of us to make to this financial challenge.
If you’re able to give a one-off gift to help us meet the current year deficit, that would be amazing.
If you’re able to start or increase your regular giving, that would also be amazing and especially helpful as we start to plan for next year.
All the details on how to give, and downloadable gift aid declarations, are on the church website here or please e-mail us at accounts@stmungos.org with any questions.
Thank you!
You’re an amazing congregation and all the ministries we enjoy, and all that our UK and World Mission partners are doing across Scotland and the World are due to your faithful and generous support in so many ways, including your financial support, over many, many years. Thank you.
Katherine Burnett, Finance Director