What is the Parish Giving Scheme?

The Parish Giving Scheme (PGS) is a direct debit system set up to help parishes in the Diocese of Derby encourage and grow regular donations and is offered to all churches in the diocese free of charge.

Donations can be made on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis by Direct Debit online, on the phone, or using a PGS gift form.

PGS manages the donation process to ensure all donations are delivered quickly and safely to the parish, and will process the gift aid on those donations meaning the parish receives regular gift aid payments each month.

A unique feature of the scheme is the option for the donor to commit in principle to increase their gift annually in line with inflation.

Whilst this is a voluntary decision, it is one that could potentially have a huge impact on the life and future of the church by tackling static giving.

See also: Giving and Generosity

Parish Giving Scheme Key Benefits

The Parish Giving Scheme is a modern and efficient way of managing planned giving to your church. Tried and tested, this scheme will:

• Improve cash flow through the efficient reclaiming of Gift Aid
• Overcome static giving with the option of donations automatically uplifted by inflation each year
• Offer an opportunity for parishes to re-engage people in thinking about their own level of financial generosity
• Reduce the time your Treasurer and Gift Aid Secretairies need to spend on administration

How does the Parish Giving Scheme work?

The Parish Giving Scheme (PGS) enables a planned giver to donate to any parish registered with the scheme. Donations can be made on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. They are collected by Direct Debit on the first day of the month. The donations are then passed on to the specific parish by the tenth of the month. The Gift Aid is then remitted to the parish once the PGS office has received the money from HMRC. The timing of the Gift Aid payment will accordingly vary each month. 

Here is what the process looks like. based on an example gift of £50 a month:

Managing inflation

One of the biggest challenges faced by many of our churches is that of 'static giving'. Churches like every organisation and household, are affected by inflation, eroding the value of your gifts. The Parish Giving Scheme makes it easy for doners to agree, in principle, to increase their donation in line with inflation each year. 

Encourage Giving and Generosity in your parish

As well as the benefits listed above, the introduction of such a scheme offers a clear and excellent opportunity to engage people in thinking about leveles of financial generosity.

We are recommending that a Church commits to a stewardship initiative when they join the Parish Giving Scheme.

Parish Giving Scheme resources

Hard copies of all the materials below - plus the PGS Donor Direct Debit Gift Form, Parish Registration Form and PGS Token are available from:

Steve Johnson
Living Generously Advisor
steve.johnson@derby.anglican.org
07359 067631.

For Donors: 

• A better way to give financially to your local church - the Parish Giving Scheme explained
• Living Generously - Giving regularly to support mission and ministry in the local church
• Frequently asked Questions by donors

For Church Leaders:

• Parish Giving Scheme Implementation Handbook for Local Churches
• 'Our Annual Review' brochure
• Parish Action List
• Stewardship - Annual Review
• Giving in Grace - Why Preaching Matters
• Frequently Asked Questions by PCCs

Other Resources

 The Diocese of Liverpool "Giving in Grace" programme: www.givingingrace.org
An enormous resource for encouraging giving and stewardship. Alongside practical tools for reviewing giving, it includes theological reflections, preaching notes and Bible studies. 

The Church of England's Parish Resources Website: www.parishresources.org.uk
Access to a wealth of practical resources to support the life and work of parishes. 

Encouraging Giving and Stewardship: www.parishresources.org.uk/giving
Preaching and teaching on giving and stewardship; re-imagining the offertory, moving from 'collection' to 'offering', and helping to generate a sense of joyful offering in responce to God's generosity; and parish-based programmes to review giving and encouraging stewardship (including the parish Funding programme, Giving in Grace, a Simple Giving Programme for Smaller Churches, and Giving for Life).

Gift Aid: www.parishresources.org.uk/giftaid/
Factsheets about Gift Aid, the government scheme that allows parishes to relaim the tax paid on donations, including the Small Donations Scheme. 

The Church Legacy website: www.churchlegacy.org.uk
Information about how to encourage individuals to remember the Church in their wills. Parishes receive over 5,000 legacies each year - gifts to finance mission projects, maintain beautiful church buildings and grow faithful communities. These gifts make a real difference to the future work of the Church - as regular giving often concentrates on maintaining the existing mission and ministry.

For further information, please contact:

Steve Johnson, Living Generously Advisor,
steve.johnson@derby.anglican.org 
07359 067631.

Simply put, the review will report on what buildings we have, where they are, what state they are in and are they enabling the mission and ministry needs of the church, in the communities in which they sit.

Why are we having one?

In the words of the Chair of the DAC – ‘for our buildings to be an asset and not a burden we need to understand, manage and fully incorporate our property portfolio (Church buildings, halls, centres, etc.) into our Diocesan mission planning’.  The Diocese is taking its lead from the nation churches Buildings Review Group; follow this link for Scope & Context

How will parishes be involved?

Almost all the buildings across the Diocese are either owned or managed locally with the Parochial Church Council holding the responsibility for their care.  PCCs know their buildings best and understand their significance and their maintenance needs; what facilities they have and the uses to which they are put.  The best outcomes for your Parish and community are very much in your gift.  There will initially be a lot of information and data that the Review Group will need to pull together – some to complete a partial picture we already have and some that will paint a broader picture.

The Review Group is already in conversation with Deaneries looking at how we can minimise the impact and provide as much assistance as possible to enable parish engagement.

What will it produce?

The Strategic Buildings Review aims to deliver several positive outcomes for Parishes, Deaneries and the Diocese.

• A better understanding of what we have and what we need
• Options for sustainable ways forward in every parish
• Updated heritage and ‘church near you’ records
• Identification of ‘significant churches’ to become resource centres for mission
• Refocused tools and other resources to support parishes in making their buildings fit for mission

So, what next?

The data collection phase is the foundation of the review and will happen over the next 6 months.  After that we envisage the following stages, culminating in a report for consideration by Diocesan Synod in Spring 2019

1. The statistics: their accessibility and use
2. Identifying the role and status of churches – categories
3. Developing options and models for change – case studies
4. Developing practical tools and other resources to support maintenance, insurance, faculties, fund raising and clergy training – developing resource
5. Action Planning including Deanery Development Plans

Consultation will enable each stage to progress, but don’t wait to be asked – if you want information or clarification on where the review is up to or would like to make a positive suggestion or other contribution, then you can contact the core group on the following email: DDSBReview@gmail.com

Diocesan Synod ran an initial session in March, the output of which has been written up and has been informing some early discussions about Parish thinking regarding buildings and mission. Click here to download this report

Becky Clarke, Director of Cathedrals & Church Buildings Division, spoke at Synod Click here for her presentation

The national context is set out in the Church Buildings Review, which reported in January 2016.  It was chaired by the Rt Reverend Dr John Inge, Bishop of Worcester and Chair of the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division. It gives the parameters for this diocesan strategic review. The Review states that:

What is understood by ‘open for worship’ has evolved over time depending on local contexts and will need to evolve further for some buildings over the coming years. Legislation needs to facilitate this. 

More generally, the overall legislative framework governing the use and management of church buildings needs to be simpler, less prescriptive and less burdensome for laity and clergy. There needs to be more flexibility to reflect the wide diversity of local situations. 

Dioceses need to integrate thinking about their church buildings with their mission and ministry planning. Regular diocesan strategic reviews, taking account of diocesan and deanery plans, mission action plans and parish audits are important for ensuring that buildings issues are given their proper weight- neither dominating nor being overlooked or regarded as a specialist subject.

Parish churches and chapels of ease - These churches provide a traditional model of ministry and are comfortable doing so, which may include innovative complementary uses as set out in Part 3, with care for the building fabric possibly passed to Trusts where appropriate. Creating chapels-of-ease within larger parishes may remove the need for multiple PCCs.

Festival Churches – References have recently been made in the Church Buildings Review and elsewhere to ‘Festival Churches’. Under Canons B 11 (Of Morning and Evening Prayer in parish churches) and the first part of B 14 (Of Holy Communion in parish churches), each parish church is required to celebrate Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Holy Communion on every Sunday (and on feast days). Canon B 14A (Of services in churches and other places of worship) empowers the Bishop to dispense with this requirement. 

The Bishop, in doing so, must “ensure that no such church ceases altogether to be used for public worship”. Forthcoming changes to Canon B 14A mean that this can be expanded to a large number of churches, allowing them to have more freedom in organising services and other uses for the building as laid out in Part 3 as needed in that parish.  

Mission Churches - These are churches which are identified as having potential for growth and possible expansion beyond their parish, which may need to be supported or learned from. Some of these may be designated as Resource Churches, which have a special role which may go beyond the diocesan boundaries

Major / Greater Churches - Members of the Greater Churches Network and the broader group of Major Churches recently identified by the CBC may require a higher level of attention due to their special functions, significance and potential. The CBC has recommended that all churches in this group should as a minimum compile Conservation Management Plans, with which the CBC can usually help.  See ChurchCare for information on CMPs and the criteria for Major Churches.

If a church is not on the present CBC list, an application can be made to the CBC who will assess it against the criteria. If the church makes the list the CBC offers to visit the church and discuss possible ways forward.

Minsters - Although not clearly defined legally, the status of Minster can be conferred by the Bishop to allow a church building to adopt an extra- or super-parochial role beyond that of a parish church. This can be adapted to circumstances but should always be carefully considered within an overall diocesan mission plan.

New Churches - The population of the diocese is increasing and new homes are planned in existing towns and villages across the diocese. There may be occasions where a new church building should be considered.

The Revd Phil Mann, Planting Curate at Holy Trinity Brompton, Diocese of London, will be licensed as Pioneer Minister of the Derby City Bishop's Mission Order, Diocese of Derby, on Tuesday 1st August in the Bishop's Chapel, Duffield, by the Bishop of Derby. Mr Mann will be based at St Werburgh's Church, Friar Gate, Derby. The primary focus will be on young people, including students and yound professionals.