The Parish Giving Scheme is a nationwide tool to support church giving, manage regular donations and reduce parish administration.

The scheme allows people to make regular, planned donations to their local church by Direct Debit.

It is operated as a partnership between Church of England dioceses to ensure that it can remain delivered locally but administered as cost effectively as possible. It has been in operation since 2008 and is already making a huge impact. The Bristol Diocese became the 18^th diocese to join the scheme, and is offering the benefits to all parishes free of charge.

In summary, the PGS enables you to:

• Donate monthly, quarterly or annually by Direct Debit
• To sign up to inflation linked giving annually (optional)
• To enhance your gift to the parish by having Gift Aid at 25% added to your giving (if eligible)
• To give anonymously if you prefer
• To do so securely

 See this short video on PGS.

How can ST MARY'S benefit?

The benefits of this scheme for St Mary's include:

• an improved cash flow and a reduced administrative burden as Gift Aid is claimed automatically and paid into the church account each month,
• ‘inflation-proofed’ giving, as donors have the option to increase their gift annually in line with inflation thus retaining the ‘real’ value of their donation, and
• encouraging donors to review their giving annually - it's easy to forget how much the value of our original commitment to regular giving may have fallen over the years!

100% of donations come directly back to our parish from the PGS each month.

How can I Join?

There are now three ways you can join the PGS for St Mary's Church.

• ONLINE - Go Online to sign up for a PGS account and enter the information required - a very straightforward process taking only a few minutes
• TELEPHONE - Use the telephone service to sign up to the scheme more easily. The dedicated telephone number is 0333 002 1271 (Lines open Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm). You will need your bank account details and the following parish information:

Church/parish name:  St Mary's Purton

PGS parish code:     050605169

• PAPER - Contact our Treasurer Berta Legg for a gift form. Fill in the information required and return it to the PGS address given.

More information available at www.parishgiving.org.uk/donors/

Stewardship is about how we respond to God’s generosity in the way we use our time, our talents, our gifts and our money. Being good stewards, and encouraging others to be good stewards, helps our church family to grow and fulfil our mission at St Mary’s.

 The stewardship team aims to review the church needs each year and plan an annual Stewardship Invitation. The Invitation is a focussed period when we are all encouraged and guided to look at our gifts and how we can best use them.

 How you can help

The stewardship team needs volunteers with an interest in helping people to develop their gifts and talents and to understand more fully how, as Christians, we are responsible and accountable for how we use our gifts. Good communication and a creative approach to engaging people are great skills to have!

 And, of course, we can all be involved by the way we prayerfully review our own response to God’s generosity on a regular basis and encourage each other. 

It costs about £70,000 a year to run St Mary’s and we need a sufficient regular income to meet these costs.  If you are not a regular giver, why not become one and join our Parish Giving Scheme(PGS). Without a doubt, this is the best way to support our parish by regular giving - we do encourage those who currently use standing orders or envelopes to consider joining this scheme.