St Joseph's Catholic Church: Finance

Groups: Finance and Property Management

The aims and objectives of the Finance and Property Management Committee are to provide, maintain and enhance the finance and resources necessary to enable the community of St Joseph's to carry out its mission.

The Finance Committee

The Finance Committee (formally known the Stewardship Group) is responsible the finances of the Parish and the upkeep and maintenance of the buildings and grounds. The current members of the Finance Committee are:

Geoffrey Bignell (Chairman)
Joan Connelly (Gift Aid Co-ordinator)
Francis Holford (Treasurer)
Shelagh Harradine (Assistant Treasurer)
Rick Mills
Joe Pais
Stewart Peto

The Finance Committee meets quarterly with the Parish Priest but the members are available to advise on their areas of expertise as required as well as being involved in many other aspects of Parish life.

Geoff Bignell

Geoff Bignell (Chairman)

Finance

Catholic parishes have to be self-supporting. They receive no funding from the Diocese or from any other outside source. St Joseph's, like any other Catholic parish, relies solely on the offerings, donations, fund-raising events and other activities of the community. Our clergy do not receive salaries but rely on Mass stipends and Christmas and Easter offerings for their personal income.

For the latest Financial Report click here (pdf).

Parish Staff

Apart from our clergy, the Parish has a small paid staff who keep things ticking along on a daily, weekly basis. We have a full-time secretary who is the lynch pin of the Parish administration. We also have a Pastoral Assistant one day a week, a part-time Facilities Manager, a Housekeeper and a Youth Worker three days a week. Meet the Parish Staff here.

Volunteers

We could not run a Parish the size of St Joseph's without an army of volunteers who give their time to a variety of tasks that need to be done on a weekly basis.

There is a team which counts up and bags the offerings and collections every Sunday evening;

Another team checks and banks the offerings and other income every week;

There are other volunteers who keep the Parish books and accounts, help in the office, clean the church, mow the lawn and look after the garden, wash the altar linen and repair vestments, run the repository and the Traidcraft shop and help in other ways.

Gift Aid

The tax rebate on Gift Aid is a very important source of income to the Parish. Anyone who pays Income Tax should sign up for Gift Aid so that the Parish can recover 28 per cent of their offerings from the Government at no additional cost to themselves. You can either make out a monthly bank standing order or use the envelopes for weekly offerings. To find out more about Gift Aid or to sign up click on