Helping Others

At St John's Annual General Meeting we have to give an account of how we've spent our money and in particular we want to show what we've done with our Charitable Giving. The PCC has decided to allocate 10% of the Sunday collection (that's what's put on the plate or given through Standing Orders) to outward giving - supporting local, national and international organisations who are doing work we can't otherwise be involved with, or front-line mission work, or things to further the Kingdom of God. We try to keep the recipients down to three each year to make a worth while donation to each, and we change the list each year.

Currently our 10% is split as follows:
  • 4% to the Chichester Diocesan Family Worker on Hollington
  • 4% to the Hastings Christian Schools Worker Project
  • 2% to the St John's Tuesday Group
 
But we have as a church supported various other charitable causes over the year in a way which although perhaps less tangible is just as important. For example: (click on the underlined names to see their websites)
 
Local
 

  • Seaview Project (working with homeless and badly housed vulnerable people in Hastings). As well as a huge Harvest Festival collection, we collect items regularly in a box at the back of church and Fr. Andrew takes a box load of produce down to the project about once every 6 weeks.

  • St Michael's Hospice (palliative care for the terminally ill) use our building for concerts and fund raisers.

  • Tuesday Group (time, talents and money given, use of hall)

  • Hastings & Rother Home Start (helping struggling families in a variety of ways) receive the collection from the best attended service of the year - the Living Crib on Christmas Eve.

National/International

  • Operation Christmas Child ("shoe boxes of love")... Amazingly each year our total goes up, but in 2005 we collected a staggering 110 shoe boxes (which cause Fr. Andrew to eat his hat - see the Blog...)

  • Church Army (retiring collection on two successive Sundays)

  • Christian Aid (International Christian organisation working especially amongst the poor and dispossessed in the Developing World). Each Christian Aid Week we try to do something - door to door collections, retiring collections... this year we're banning the sending of Christmas cards between congregation members in order to see if we can buy a cow...

  • Mission to Seafarers (working internationally with seafarers in hazardous and poverty stricken circumstances). This is of particular concern to us as a coastal town, and our rep Peter Shaw rides thousands of sponsored bicycle miles each year to keep our awareness and donations up.

  • Knitting for Kisiizi each year the St John's knitters produce dozens and dozens of baby vests and tops for the Kisiizi Hospital in Uganda.

  • Caring & Sharing (small scale "direct link" charitable projects funded in the poorest areas of the world) started by a previous Bishop of Lewes many individuals embrace the slogan "Living more simply, that others may simply live..." and make regular donations to projects in the Developing World.

...these are some of our planned giving activities, we also try and react to international emergencies (such as the Asian Tsunami) as and when they crop up...

BUT - and this is a big but - we don't just give money, we try to give time, concern and prayer. St John's has a prayer rota for each day of the month and the various charitable projects, people on the electoral role, streets in the parish and other churches and faith groups in Hastings are all prayed for regularly during the course of a month in church services, housegroups and people's personal prayers.

Our outward giving is part of or response of thanks to a God of love. Many many years ago the metaphysical poet George Herbert (1593-1633) wrote: "Thou hast given so much to me; give one thing more - a grateful heart".

If you give regularly to mission via St Johns Church, please take the trouble to download, fill out and return the following form:
 
Adobe PDF logo Gift Aid Declaration Form - (162 KB)

For more information and details of how to support our missionaries, contact our church office. To do so now, go to the Contact Us page.

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