IF we gave as much to the Church as the national average, we’d raise an extra £600,000 a year.

That was one of the messages from national stewardship adviser John Preston, who spoke to our diocesan synod on Saturday (June 20). 

He told members of the synod that the average worshipper in the Portsmouth diocese gives 3.1 per cent of his or her income to the Church. This equates to £8.32 per week. The national average is 3.4 per cent, or £9.79 a week. 

He said that the banking crisis and global recession had affected investments everywhere, including those owned by the Church, but that it hadn’t significantly affected the amount that worshippers give to the Church. 

In fact, his analysis of giving in 11 dioceses suggested that worshippers were giving 2.9 per cent more in May 2009 than they were in the previous May. In Portsmouth, the figure was slightly more than that. 

“The impact of the recession has been variable,” he said. “If you are in a secure job with a tracker mortgage, you’re probably doing quite well. If you’ve lost your job, it may have affected you very badly. But charitable giving has held up pretty well, including in the Church.” 

He told synod members that there is £11m in the coffers of individual parishes around the diocese - £2.7m more than there was five years ago. And £1m was recovered from the government in gift aid on giving to our parishes in 2007 – it was recovered on 68.9 per cent of donor income, which is higher than the national benchmark. 

There are 9,000 people giving to our parishes in a planned way – that is, in regular donations via direct debits or envelope schemes, rather than simply putting spare change in the collection plate. That’s around three-quarters of our church members, which gives us a solid platform for planning our expenditure.

But the amount that we give per head – the 3.1 per cent of our income – is among the lower figures around the Church of England. The highest is Sheffield, with 4.6 per cent. 

“Some of those dioceses where giving per head is the highest, such as Sheffield, are often the poorer dioceses,” said John. “Sheffield’s figure has actually been achieved by a campaign over 14 years which has included a network of parish giving officers. (NB: Portsmouth now has a giving officer scheme available for parishes in the diocese)

“Talking about giving in a recession is important. Otherwise we assume that people only give from their surplus. In fact, it’s an important part of our faith.” 

He recommended a report entitled ‘Giving for Life’, which aims to transform attitudes to giving by nurturing habitually generous disciples. He urged parishes to preach and teach holistically about money, to link their giving with what the money is spent on, and to thank givers annually. 

Copies of Giving for Life material will be circulated by our mission resources adviser the Rev Dennis Lloyd, ahead of our annual Stewardship Sunday in October. For more information, contact him on 023-9289 9676 or dennis.lloyd(at)portsmouth.anglican.org