Sunday 16th July 2023

Firstly, thank you to everyone who makes St Mary's such a faith-filled and generous church family, giving prayerfully, sacrificially and with willing hearts year after year. We know that God sees this, and it’s been a joy to witness him blessing us immeasurably in our ministry through your generosity - so please hear our heart-felt thanks.

We hadn’t anticipated having a Gift Day this year, knowing that in 2020 many of you committed to a 5-year plan of giving towards the Building to Serve campaign, but a combination of the massive rise that the church has seen in its energy costs and a smaller than predicted increase in this year's income has presented us with widening gap in the 2023 budget. We don’t want to cut back on our core ministries unless we have no other choice, and so the PCC feel that it is right to bring this need before you as a church family in the form of a Gift Day on Sunday 16th July.

Click here for  a copy of our Gift Day leaflet, which gives more detail about both the need and the ways that you might feel moved to respond. Please do read it prayerfully in readiness for the Gift Day itself on Sunday 16th July.

To ensure that we are covering this whole event in prayer, we will be calling a day of Prayer & Fasting on Tuesday 11th July and would love to invite you to join us in that if you are able. One way you may like to do so would be to log in and join our daily Watch of Prayer at 6am or 6pm (Zoom link is on each week's Mary's Matters).

Whether you can join us or not in person, please do pray and invite God to lead you clearly as you consider how you might each be able to respond. On behalf of the PCC, thank you!