Dear Friends,

 

The reading at the Communion service preceding the Parish lunch at Failand the other day got us all thinking. It came from the book of Acts, which is the story of how the early Christians organised themselves into the beginnings of what we now know as the Church, following the death and resurrection of Jesus. In this particular passage, we are given a picture of how this worked in

practice:

‘The group of believers was one in mind and heart. No-one said that any of his belongings was his own, but they all shared with one another everything they had.

 There was no-one in the group who was in need. Those who owned fields or houses would sell them, bring the money received from the sale, and hand it over to the apostles; and the money was distributed to each one according to their need.’

 

Does that make you feel just a little uncomfortable? I think that was our reaction, as we reflected on this challenging way of life. How far removed are we from such commitment? Would any of us begin from such a standpoint of thinking that none of our belongings was our own? In theory this total sharing happens in marriage, from the point in the marriage service when the couple promise each other ‘all that I have I give to you, all that I am I share with you.’ But to take anyone else into the equation in this total sharing would seem to most people rather unreasonable.

 

Actually, it’s not – and when we look back at Christianity over the centuries, we see countless examples of people whose lives have exemplified the generous and whole-hearted commitment of the early Christians. Some of us, this month, will be visiting Assisi (along with parishioners from St. Francis’ parish in Nailsea) where we shall no doubt be reminded of Francis’s impulsive act of generosity to a beggar: he gave away everything he had, and chose to live a life of complete simplicity.

 

We are not asked to go to such lengths; but the Bible makes it very clear that we should think in terms of giving one tenth of our income to God / to charity / to those in need – however we choose to channel our giving. So someone with a monthly net income of, say, £1,000, should be thinking – according to this basic teaching of the Bible – of giving away £100 per month. This principle of giving one tenth is known as ‘tithing,’ and is practised by many Christians.

 

As a church, we have for a number of years been committed to the practice of ‘tithing’ – that is, giving one tenth of our net income to a number of good causes (these are published annually, and parishioners have a say in the charities we support in this way.) But, with rising costs and diminishing resources, we agonise repeatedly at PCC meetings as to whether we can in fact afford this charitable giving, which in purely economic terms seems somewhat reckless, in view of our precarious financial position. (See the accounts recorded in our annual report to the Annual Parochial Church meeting.)

 

A few days after the last PCC meeting, where we had again discussed this issue, I had a conversation with the distinguished Human Rights lawyer, Rabinder Singh QC. He is an old boy of Bristol Grammar School, and had come there to give the annual David Lunn memorial lecture to the Sixth Form, in memory of my late husband. Recently he appeared in the House of Lords in the case of the Iraqi man who was beaten to death by British soldiers, and I was curious as to how the costs of such a high profile case were met. I asked Rabinder, who was wearing the distinctive turban of a Sikh, whether his faith had any bearing on the nature of his work. In reply, he explained that of course, as a Sikh, he was obliged to give one tenth of his income to charity, and so he fulfilled this obligation by doing one tenth of his work for no fee; thus, he is able to represent some clients who have no financial resources to meet their legal costs I must admit that I thought immediately of our PCC agonisings about paying our ‘tithe’ to charitable causes, and felt ashamed that it had taken someone from another faith to set an example of unquestioning commitment to this principle.

 

But of course, the PCC represents the people of our parish – we can only afford to be generous in our giving if you, the parishioners, also take seriously this principle of giving a percentage of your income away to God, to the church, to charity. Even if everyone in the parish made a commitment to give one twentieth of their income (half of what we are asked to do in the Bible) that would enable us to be more generous as a parish, and to meet our running costs without dipping into reserves. That would mean, using the example of a monthly net income of £1,000, making a monthly contribution of £50 – calculate that sum proportionately according to your own monthly income. That is what it means to take our giving seriously.

 

As we come closer to the launch of our appeal for the Cross Tree centre, which is a project for the whole community, we shall all need to think really hard about the level of our commitment, and whether we truly give what we are able to, or just offer the change that is left over. I’d like to think that as a parish we bear some resemblance to those early Christians who were so enthusiastic about their faith that they gave without reservation. – and no-one was in need. Now that’s a really caring community……

 

With love,

 

Rosey