Giving to St Luke’s:
At the moment, in this time of crisis, St Luke’s Church has lost the majority of its income. We, St Luke’s Standing Committee, would like to thanks those who have given generously in order to ensure we can serve our community with the love of God, spiritually and practically, as well as ensuring the more mundane needs of paying our bills, employing our staff and maintaining our premises for future use. At the moment, in this time of crisis, St Luke’s Church has lost the majority of its income, so your giving is gratefully received.
There are a number of ways you can give to St Luke’s listed below:
REGULAR GIVING – There are two ways of giving regularly to the church, by being part of the Parish Giving scheme or by setting up a Standing Order with your bank. You can find out more details by contacting our treasurer by email treasurer@stlukecrosby.org.uk
CARD DONATIONS VIA THE PHONE – We can take card payments over the phone if you prefer by phoning the office 931 3119 (leave your name & phone number on the answer machine) and Gaynor will ring you back or Paul on the church mobile 07855 727 196
TEXT GIVING – We have managed to set up another way of giving to church funds and/or to the Easter Offering via your phone. You just need to text stluke give 5 to 07380 307800 and it will send back a link to a secure giving webpage where you will confirm you wish to donate £5 (stluke give 10 would donate £10 etc)
ONLINE GIVING – You will be directed to a secure ChurchSuite website. Once you enter your details you will be sent a verification code email. Once you input the code the transaction will be completed.
In this time we have lost all our hall and church bookings and are unable to bank loose plate or envelope giving, and this will put our income down to a dangerous level. I would ask every one of us, then, to think about both the what and the how of our own giving in this time.
You may, like me, have found that there are normal costs that are currently not going out as you stay at home, and this may mean you can give an unusual donation, or you may be able to bring forward a donation you would normally give later in the year. Please pray about the church and it’s mission as well as your own needs in this season.
We have tried to minimise our costs, and so have furloughed Renee and will claim back 80% of her salary over the time closed, but our other staff are continuing to work and are an important part of the mission capacity of St Luke’s. Paul is doing an amazing job on the Communications, working with Amanda, to ensure that a blog is set-up on the website, services are streamed on a Sunday morning, newsletters and DVD/CDs are posted out to people without internet access, Facebook is up-to-date and monitored. He has also ensured that the buildings are closed down safely and costing us a minimum. Dan is continuing to ensure the Health & Safety of the churchyard for the visitors we continue to get and, although not working his full hours, is here for a while at least every other day. Gaynor continues to field answerphone messages, emails to the office, and answer the queries we get, as well as arranging funerals, which we are expecting more of in the coming weeks and months. Gaynor has been quite unwell over the last 2 week but is now back at work, thankfully.
We don’t want the church to have to lose staff as they are all working to capacity to continue to serve us and this community. So our thanks for any who can give extra or earlier at the moment. If you feel you can, then electronic giving is preferable as that will mean Amanda doesn’t need to go out to the bank and contravene safety rules, putting her at greater risk of infection. Please give via the ‘DONATE’ button at the top right menu bar on the website or via the Text-giving option detailed at the top of this page. If a cheque is really all that’s possible then please post that through the Vicarage door, as no staff, barr Amanda, are on site with the capacity to pick up post or go to the bank – any envelopes will be safer at the vicarage. And if you can’t give at this moment in time, then please do still pray for our resources as the church God has placed here with care for the community of Crosby.
With thanks, St Luke’s Standing Committee – Amanda Bruce, John Turner, Colin Stephens, Agnes Law, Caroline Ramsey, Rosemary Turner.