April 2020 Magazine

Good Housekeeping in a Crisis
Ronald Ireland
Interim Treasurer
“Crisis? What crisis?
These words are said to have been spoken by a former Prime Minister on
his return to Britain from a foreign trip, during a period of public service
strikes in the late 1970s.
Today we know what a crisis is and how it is directly affecting all of us.
The Church is not exempt. We have had to close down the church and
halls and all activities have stopped, but we still have financial obligations
to meet, such as our contribution to Ministry and Mission and Insurance.
We have also taken a decision to continue to pay the salaries of all our
staff throughout this time of closure, which I hope all will agree is only
right and proper.
There will be some saving from reduced heating and lighting, but we will
lose the benefit of the income we receive on a regular basis from
organisations using the MacFarlane Hall, so we will continue to be under
significant financial pressure in the coming weeks.
In my article in the March Magazine, I reported that the Kirk Session had
agreed that a Gift Day should be held during the year, as a means of
reducing what in any case is likely to be significant deficit. It had been
planned to hold this at the end of May, but that will no longer be possible
and we will now need to think of holding it in the Autumn.
In those circumstances, your continued financial support at this critical
time will be greatly appreciated. I ask all those who normally use Gift Aid
or Free Will envelopes or a cash offering, to continue to set aside your
weekly offering, which will be gratefully received once normal Sunday
services resume, which hopefully will not be too far in the future.
Many of our members now make their offering monthly by Standing Order
and I hope everyone who does will continue to do so, as this does provide
a large part of our income flow. I would encourage anyone who does not
do so at present, to consider changing to a Standing Order if that is
possible. If you would like to change to this form of giving, please contact
me on 01721 720592 and I will be happy to send you the necessary form
to send to your bank.
In the meantime, I hope everyone will stay safe and I look forward to the
day when we can once again take our places on a Sunday morning in
Peebles Old.