WHY?

Christians believe that everything they have ultimately belongs to God. We are not really owners in the true sense of that word, but rather stewards of God’s gifts. Since we are responsible to God for the stewardship of his resources, we must be wise in the use of all those possessions he has entrusted to our care.

Effective ministry in a church the size of St Philips has its costs. Not only do we need to support our ministers financially, we also need to maintain our property and extend our outreach into the community and into the world.
Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Galatians 6:6

Our God is a generous God. He sent his Son Jesus into the world out of his great love for us. Yet it is not out of gratitude alone that we give; we give in order to follow his example of sacrificial love. God wants us to be generous in our giving, as he is generous towards us.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, that through his poverty we might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9

Moreover, God blesses us through our giving. Not only is the recipient of our giving blessed through our generosity, others are encouraged by seeing the fruits of generosity, and God also supplies the resources for us to go on giving.
The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 2 Corinthians 9:6

In the stewardship of our money, we should therefore give our money firstly to ministry of the gospel in our local church, and secondly to gospel ministry beyond, including those special needs that God lays upon our hearts from time to time.

At St Philips there are four ways whereby you can give to the work of our Church in the local Community, in Australia and the World.

• Cash or cheque in the basket on Sunday
• Regular transfer request at your bank branch
• Internet Banking
• Sydney Anglican Diocese Scheme from your bank account or credit card.

First: just drop your cash or cheque gift into the basket at your worship service on Sunday. You can, if you wish, choose to use our envelope giving system by taking a year’s set of giving envelopes. This can help both in terms of organisation and routine as well as confidentiality.

Second: you can speak to your bank and arrange for them to make regular deductions from your account in favour of St Philips. They will be able to provide you with the appropriate forms and advice, including the bank fees that will be applicable to using this bank service. The bank fees vary considerably from bank to bank and sometimes depend on the type of account that you are using, so you should be sure to check this information at your branch. The details of St Philips’ bank account that you will need in order to do this are:

BSB Number: 704998
Account Number: 100008057
Account Name: St Philips Anglican Church Turramurra South

Third: if you are a user of Internet Banking, through your own PC you can organise your bank’s system to make regular or one-off deposits from your bank account or credit card in favour of St Philips. You’ll do this by signing in, as usual, to your bank’s Internet banking system and setting it up as a normal recurring or one-off transfer. Again, there will be bank fees involved in doing this and they can vary enormously from bank to bank and according to the type of account that you are using. Many banks provide an “allowance” of a small number of free or low price Internet transfers, so you should check with your bank about costs. The details of St Philips’ bank account that you will need in order to do this are:

BSB Number: 704998
Account Number: 100008057
Account Name: St Philips Anglican Church Turramurra South

Fourth: the Sydney Anglican Diocese provides a relatively low cost scheme where you can ask it to make a regular deduction from either your bank account or your credit card and have it credited to the work of St Philips. The costs of doing this are currently 30c for a transfer to St Philips from your bank account or 2.49% of your gift if you are nominating a payment from your credit card. Note that under this Sydney Diocese Scheme, the applicable fee is taken from your gift, not added to your charge: for instance, if you wished to give St Philips $100 from your bank account, then you would have the $100 taken from your account and St Philips would receive $99.70. In order to take part in this scheme, you can download the document here, print it and fill it in. Then you should either just put it in the basket on Sunday or give it to any staff, warden or parish councillor who will make sure it goes to the right place.
Download the Sydney Anglican Diocese Scheme form – click here (.pdf)


 A Special Note About Confidentiality in relation to your Giving at St Philips

Your giving is between you and your Lord!!

However, there are a few matters to note in relation to the confidentiality that applies to these different forms of giving.

Envelopes: St Philips’ giving envelopes are not numbered and there is, therefore, no tracking of individual giving by way of our envelope scheme.

Regular giving initiated at your bank branch: different banks provide different information to the account that is receiving a deposit initiated in this way. If it is a concern for you, you should check with your bank officer at the time of receiving or completing the bank form to ask what information will be passed through to St Philips. This will be by way of information that will be printed on the Church’s bank statement. In most, if not all, banks you can organise to have non-specific information passed through – for instance, some banks may have a “payer” or “receiver’s bank statement” field (or the like) on the form that you are completing and you should be able to write “ANON” (or something like it) here. Talk to your bank about this.

Internet banking: Again, different banks pass different information through to the receiver’s (St Philips) bank statement and you should either ask the bank or do a test transfer to your own account, or both, to see what information shows up. Again, you should be able to enter “ANON” or something similarly non-descript.

Diocese Deposit Scheme: The Diocese provides a detailed report of Diocese Scheme deposits that have been made on a regular (monthly) basis. This does show information about who the givers are and what amounts have been given, and is necessary to both administer the scheme and to ensure that St Philips is receiving all gifts that are intended for it. Only one person at St Philips sees this information: no staff member, warden, parish councillor or other person (apart from this one administrator) will see this detail. No identifying details show up on the St Philips bank statement.