PCC News

The Upper Tas Valley All Saints parish (UTVAS) is a multi-church parish with seven churches and four Church of England primary schools. Along with Fundenhall PCC we make up the Upper Tas Valley Benefice in the south of the county. As we are formed the five original PCCs we take responsibility for a fifth to a sixth of the Benefice Parish Share.

Ever since 2003 we have traditionally only held one or sometimes two services across the Benefice on a Sunday taking it in turn to use all the churches on a rota basis. With an electoral roll of just under 50 people we still got a regular attendance of 18-24 people on a Sunday before lockdown and most people were willing to travel to whichever church was holding the service. We are a strong, united church community and work together for all the churches in our parish.

In 2003 we set up a system of monthly giving by standing order (STO) and where possible Gift Aided, which over the years has grown. We have a retiring collection at each service and some people contribute to that as well as the STO, and up until April 2020 the church members giving was very generous.

Lockdown could have been a disaster financially, but I contacted all the members on the electoral roll and other regular worshippers and invited those with STO to consider increasing them, at least until we are able to resume church services. I invited those who do not have a STO to consider taking one out or alternatively putting away the normal collection each week and then letting me have the cash periodically.

Did this work? Yes, it did! 2020 regular income from the giving by our church community was maintained to the same level as 2019.

Now all we look forward to is the day when we can be together as a worshipping, caring community face to face and not through a Zoom link to an electronic device.