The service paints many vivid pictures of what happens on the Christian way.
If you are engaged to be married and looking for a church to be married in, then congratulations! A wedding is one of life's great moments, a time of solemn commitment as well as good wishes, feasting and joy.
If someone you know and love has died, a funeral led by a Church of England minister can be held in church, in a churchyard, by a graveside, or at a crematorium. The minister will be there to support you every step of the way.
In November 2022 Living Christ’s Story York Diocese Strategic Plan 2021-2031 was accepted by the Diocesan Synod. It sets out the drivers for change and proposes the development of a strategy for revitalised growth and key milestones for 2026 and 2031 including the achievement of each Ministry Unit meeting the direct costs of ministry and where possible contributing to the shared costs. The programme of work was proposed as projects under two distinct work streams: “Reimagining Mission and Ministry” and “Transforming Finances and Structures”.
The Garrowby Benefice is fully committed to this aim and is preparing a planned structure to reach an interim target in 2026 and reaching the goal of fully meeting the costs of ministry in our benefice. This target is currently £32,000 per annum.
“We aim to do this by reaching new people and growing in discipleship as a whole church, striving to be younger and more diverse, and to move towards becoming a mixed ecology church, sustaining and developing church life in the many different places in which we live our lives: in church and online; at work or in education; in places of leisure as well as in neighbourhoods. We want our churches to be places where the story of Christ is known and lived out, transforming the communities we serve.”*
*Taken from Archbishop Stephen’s Diocesan Synod address on 28th November 2020.
We aim to maintain our buildings, cover our running costs and carry out repairs as necessary from our income. It should be noted that three of our five churches (All Saints, St Andrew’s and St Ediths) have Grade One Listed status, which carries significant financial implications for their PCCs.
In addition we contribute to Diocese by our “Freewill Offering”. Currently this is a little over £21,000. Our aim is to reach our goal of “self-funding” a half time post in achievable steps. To do this we are investigating ways of being courageous in our outlook, exploring …
asking regular givers to give a small additional amount to allow us to fund our new rector by increasing our Freewill Offering;
to ensure all regular givers (who are eligible) are signed up to be able to gift aid their contributions;
the viability of contactless giving at all churches, especially All Saints, Kirby Underdale to make the most of walkers and visitors;
the possibility of launching a “Friends of” for the churches who do not have this source of income;
new ways of fundraising within each Parish and trusting in God’s grace to move us forward in our mission to “Live Christ’s Story” in the communities where we live and work.
Within the Garrowby benefice three of our buildings are Grade 1 listed, St Edith’s, Bishop WIlton; St Andrew’s, Bugthorpe and All Saints, Kirby Underdale. This status allows us to worship in splendid surroundings however the financial reality of being responsible for such buildings can be onerous. (Insurance, maintenance, heating and lighting have increased exponentially over the past 4 years.) Some of our parishes are not meeting their annual overhead costs and have been using reserves to meet the shortfall. We hope to end this cycle. As well as increasing our freewill offer to diocese to meet the cost of placing an incumbent in the benefice we aim to reduce any deficits to zero as quickly as we can by implementing the fund raising campaigns outlined above.
Whilst St Mary’s Full Sutton and St Mary’s Skirpenbeck do not have the same status both need extensive work in maintenance to make them safe and comfortable places to worship.
