Our God is very generous and he calls us to be generous too. We can express our love to Him and to others by continuing to give our time and our money even when life seems tough. See below for more information on one-off donations.
Stewardship 2023
View or print of this year's Stewardship leaflet
No one likes talking about money but, as 2 Corinthians says ‘Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality.’ This makes sense as we need money to provide for our community.
Our costs include paying for our building, our churchyard, our contribution towards our vicar (we currently only pay about ¼ of Sally’s costs, Bristol Diocese pays the rest), heating, lighting and more.
We estimate it will cost £27,109 to keep going in 2023. That’s £521.33 a week or £74.47 a day – 2.5 times our current regular weekly giving.
Across the CofE, the average given by a regular giving household per week is £14.80 (£19.33 for Bristol diocese). Ours is £7.21.
We aren’t giving enough to keep going – we need your help.
Not everyone can afford the same – the church is for everyone. We go through seasons in life when we are able to give or need to receive and we are grateful for all donations. One way to cover our costs would be:
| Households giving | Per week |
| 10 | £5 |
| 10 | £10 |
| 10 | £15 |
| 5 | £20 |
| 3 | £25 |
| 1 | £50 |
Take time to think
It’s easy to get into the habit of paying the same amount each week or month. Take a little time to think about your contribution.
This year we are asking you to fill in a stewardship form, pledging how much you will pay each month or week from 1st April and return in to our treasurer by 19 March. You can get the form from church, or print off this year's Stewardship leaflet.
Alternatively, drop our treasurer an email with your name, address, email (if applicable) and details of how much you will pay weekly or mothly and whether you would like to use the Parish Giving scheme (direct debit), a Standing Order, or Weekly giving envelopes. If you are paying tax, please also indicate that you would like to use Gift Aid to increase your donation by 25% at no extra cost. You can also find out more about giving via Direct Debit here: Parish Giving Scheme. You can set this up over the phone, please follow the details here.
How many days of St Andrew’s life can you support in 2023?
£5/week = 3.5 days
£40/month = 6.5 days
£20/week = 14 days
Days when we can:
• Welcome people into a warm, well-maintained historic building
• Welcome people into a tidy, tranquil churchyard
• Worship our loving God together
• Build community by chatting and sharing cake
• Pray for one another and our local community
• Engage with people who join our services online
• Celebrate Easter, Christmas and other important events
• Provide baptisms, weddings and funerals for anyone in our parish
• Share the Good News of Jesus with local schools
• Contribute to work of charities locally and around the world
• Join with Christians from across Swindon and Bristol to show God’s love to our community
It's about more than money
We are a welcoming and hospitable community, sharing our riches of tradition, tranquility and stability, in the church building, in the churchyard and beyond.
We need your help to provide that welcome.
Talk to Sally or any of our PCC members to find out more.
We are very grateful for all your continuing support and donations. Exploring God's generosity handout
One off donations
To give using a credit or debit card Click here and follow instructions
To make an online bank transfer directly to St Andrew's bank account:
Account Name PCC Blunsdon St Andrew
Sort code 30-98-41
Account number 14634662
Please include your donor number if you have one, or surname, for Giftaid. If you have never completed a Giftaid declaration and are a UK taxpayer, please email our treasurer to ask for a form.