Outward Giving

St Margaret’s Vision Statement - “An outward-looking, vibrant and loving Christian family, where everyone lives out their faith in their daily life.”

One of the key priorities in our second Mission Action Plan was to “Develop a strategic and structured approach to outward giving to mission and charities by establishing a working group accountable to the PCC.”  This led to the founding of our Outward Giving Group and St Margaret’s ‘Mission Fund’. The Mission Fund and associated restricted funds enable St Margaret’s to pass any Gift Aided element on to our nominated charities from donors who are tax-payers.

The target of St Margaret’s Parochial Church Council for our Outward Giving via the Mission Fund is 5% of our Church Giving income. Our hope is that the majority of these funds will be raised through existing and on-going fundraising activities and appeals throughout the year.

In addition to these charities, the Outward Giving Group also supports and helps to promote other direct appeals and collections during the year including: the Link Diocese of Sudan and chosen Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) appeals.

The Mission Fund is overseen by the Outward Giving Group which meets three times a year, provides recommendations to the PCC and organises displays and speakers for the chosen charities.  Its members are:

Fr Alex
Catherine Beaumont
Jane Clarke
Michelle Still
Alison Stretton
Linda Whittaker

Mission Fund Distribution 2021

In 2021, the Mission Fund raised/disbursed approximately £4,969 as follows:

Payments in 2020 = £2,436

NB This figure differs slightly from the accounts as we report on the funds raised during the course of the year, some of which are dispersed in the following January.

There was a surplus of £793 which has been retained for distribution in 2022.

It should be noted that our charitable activities, especially appeals, were again hit by Covid.   However, we would like to say thank you for the generosity of the members of the congregation and visitors who were still able to support our Outward Giving.

Image http://www.ocrh.org.uk/ Since 2004 Otley Christian Resources Hub (OCRH) has been supporting Anglican Churches around the Otley area with their ministry to children and young people.  Over the past four years their service has grown and they are now also working with other Christian denominations in the surrounding area.  Their vision is to be a source of encouragement, inspiration and creativity to churches in their ministry to children and young people. The main areas of work are in loaning resources, working with parishes to provide 'Open the Book' in schools, as well as offering support and training for all those involved in children's ministry including Sunday schools and crèches, all-age worship, Messy Church and after school groups. The ‘Open the Book’ project provides resources for the telling and acting out of Bible stories in primary school assemblies.  This autumn, St Margaret’s ‘Open the Book’ team hope to resume their regular visits to Ashlands Primary School in Ilkley. Image

Image

https://www.jjctuganda.org/

JJ Community Transformation began with the foundation of a small primary school in 2007 in south west Uganda.  The project’s aim is to work with the local community to provide free, quality education to children in this poor, rural area through Christian love and values. It now comprises both primary and secondary schools and in 2018 acquired a further education college JJ Excel College providing technical, business and vocational courses

Current priorities include:

• Completion of work on the boys' dormitory, a classroom block and the admin block
• Purchase of more solar lighting and a water tank
• A larger development project of a further Secondary classroom block to include science labs and a girls' dormitory at the College

Image

Image

https://www.handinhand.org.uk/

Hand in Hand is a UK Christian development agency working in equal partnership with projects in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ecuador.  It collects and passes on 100% of donations to JJ Community Transformation.

The latest news sheet from JJ Community Transformation is below.

Image