Dear friend,
These are trying days in the life of our nation. At the beginning of the year, while we might have known of the outbreak of a new illness through the news, we probably pushed it to the back of our minds. Few could have imagined what impact it would have for as we all know, it has changed so many aspects of our life. St. Mary’s, as you know, has not been unaffected and last Sunday morning via the internet I led a service from a church now closed to the public for worship. Next Sunday, I may be broadcasting from the Vicarage! Yet the life of the Church here and around the diocese goes on. We have to find new ways to minister and manage our parish.
One aspect of this management is the impact on our cash flow at this time. As one of our regular givers, I appreciate how much you do to support the Church through our envelope scheme. However, opportunities for giving in this way are now minimal. Therefore I ask if you might consider changing the way you give, at least for the time this pandemic is with us.
Just like every organisation, the Church is being stretched, and without your valuable contributions both the diocese and our Church will struggle. Please can I urge you instead of placing cash in your envelopes each week, you set up a Standing Order with your bank, promising to pay St Mary’s Church, Whitkirk a fixed amount each week or month?
You can change how you donate in several ways.
- If you have access to either online or telephone banking, set up a regular monthly standing order either online or over the phone using the bank details below; or
- Please complete the attached standing order form and send it to your bank; or
- If you bank online or by telephone transfer a fixed amount each month (weekly) direct into the Church account which is :
Yorkshire Bank PLC, 10 Austhorpe Road, Leeds LS15 8DL
Account Name: St Mary’s Church, Whitkirk
Sort code: 05-00-50
Account number: 11893281
Please reference any gift you make by using your surname followed by PG (eg SMITH PG) – this will appear on our bank statement as a means of identifying who the payment is from
I do hope you will be able to change to donating in this way. I give via Standing Order, and thankfully many of our congregation do too. I hope you might join us. However, I understand that for some, this may be difficult for various reasons. As an alternative, if you have access to the internet, you can visit whitkirkchurch.org.uk/donate/switch for details of ways to donate using Direct Debit or credit or debit card, or instead of giving cash you could post us a cheque each month for the amount that you would normally give to the Church.
Cheques should be made payable to St Mary’s Church Whitkirk and sent to our Treasurer:
Mrs Lesley Hughes, 19 The Wickets, Colton, Leeds LS15 9HZ
Please do not hesitate to contact me or Shelagh, our Gift Aid Officer, if you have any queries.
Remember, if you can go online, do join us in worship each week when the 10.00 am Sunday Morning Service will be streamed live at whitkirkchurch.org.uk/live. If you can’t make the live stream, the service is available to view afterwards.
Thank you for your support, and I hope you consider making this change to support the work of the Church during this difficult time.
With every blessing,
— Matthew Peat, Vicar