Church Funding Quandry
We’ve been put in a bit of a quandry in relation to our church just recently. We’ve been attending Trinity for over 10 years now and found the church to be very warm and welcoming. Louise and I were both brought up in the Methodist tradition and are comfortable with its social theology and doctrines, though it can sometimes be a bit astride the fence.
Sadly a couple of years ago a friend of ours died. She was one of the members that made us feel very welcome when we first arrived. She had moved away to train as a missionary teacher and went off to work in Jamaica for a few years before returning to the UK where she died a few years later.
Our friend had bequethed a substantial sum of money to Trinity without any covenants to its use. Some of this money was going to be used in building a disabled toilet on the church premises which would have been quite a fitting use for the money. However, at a recent church council meeting I discovered that the finance and property committee had decided that they would simply use our friend’s legacy to prop up the church bank account to maintain current interest rate payments. The disabled toilet being funded from a gift day taking place next week.
I’m all for gift days raising money for this kind of project, but I think that the use of our friend’s legacy to simply maintain bank interest payments is both inappropriate and disrespectful. We both feel that in this regard our church (or at least those members in the positions that matter) is lacking real vision. To put it bluntly the church should be relying on its living members to maintain its financial viability and be using bequests of its faithful servants in a more respectful and forward-thinking way. Our friend was very pro missionary work and this was reflected in her life, surely we should use her bequest to support projects like The Watford Town Centre Chaplaincy, or to provide books for schools in poorer countries.
The result of the church’s decision has left us considering whether we should seek an alternative congregation with whom to worship. A congregation with more vision about its role in our community and our world. What I think we will do though is bring the issue up at our forthcoming Annual Church Review (which happens to coincide with the Gift Day) and vote appropriately at the Annual Church Meeting.