stewardship

Stewardship Campaign

Last Sunday we launched a parish-wide campaign to get lots of people more involved in the work of the church in Leesfield Parish.

Firstly we want to thank everyone for all the time, energy, skills and financial support which you already give. There is so much happening in our parish, and you can find out more by browsing the pages of this website. 

The PCC has held open meetings with the Diocesan Stewardship Officer, looking at where we are now and what we want to do in the future. Lots of good ideas have been suggested at these meetings for growing our churches and reaching out to others in the parish, and from these ideas we've come up with our vision.

This is quite challenging, and we will need your help to make it happen. Many of the people we rely upon to keep our churches thriving are getting older, and although they may have the time, some of them don't have quite as much energy as they used to. Also, in this changing world, some new skills and talents are required to help us to move forward.

We've made a list of things which we need help with - some of them have been happening in our churches for years, and some are newer initiatives to help us to engage with the wider community. Please do have a look at the list and consider how you might like to be involved - you may even have some ideas of your own that we haven't thought of.

There are so many demands on your time these days, and we appreciate that everybody's really busy balancing work and family life, so we've included some activities which you may be able to do from home. What would be a huge task for one person could be broken down into smaller components, and if more people are involved each of them would not need to commit a great amount of time.

Children and young people are also encouraged to play their part in parish life. Several of the activities listed above are suitable for (and could be of interest to) young people and families, such as "Eco-Church", gardening, music, reading the lessons and bellringing. Our young people probably have their own ideas as well - and we would love to hear them!

And finally, we have to think about how we finance the work we want to do. A summary of the main items of income and expenditure for 2018 is pictured to the left, showing that we spent £1,000 more than we received last year.

That's just to do what we're already doing, and it's clear from the open meetings that you all think we should be doing more to engage with the wider community.

Our spending on repairs and maintenance to both of our church buildings last year was only a fraction of what is needed to preserve and improve them, and to ensure that they are in good shape to welcome future generations. Making our church buildings accessible to everyone is high on our list of priorities, and because of the layout of our historic buildings this is likely to be quite costly.

We rely on the giving of members of our congregations to provide everything we need for our services and outreach in this parish. Everyone is invited to pray and reflect upon how we respond to what God has generously given to us. 

Information packs have been handed out in our churches last Sunday, and will be available throughout Lent. Please do pick up your pack, read it, and complete and return the response forms as soon as possible, but by Easter Sunday, 21st April at the latest. If there's anything more you need to know you can email us at leesfieldparish@gmail.com