Supporting the Churches

Thankyou for considering supporting St Mary’s and St Bridget’s financially. Giving to support the life of the church is just one way of getting involved here. We mainly rely on giving from the local community and congregation members to fund the life and ministry of the churches. The information in this section is designed to help you if you would like to support our work in the local community. There is so much that we would love to be doing.

There are a number of different ways that you can help to support the church financially:

What do we do with the money you give?
We like to be open about the way in which we spend what we are given, and our accounts in both churches are audited and published at our Annual Church Meetings so that everything is seen to be above board.

There are a number of things that the money is spent on:

  1. Supporting and developing ministry in Berrow and Brean, from children’s work through to work with the elderly.
  2. Parish share (our contribution to the Diocese of Bath and Wells) which helps to cover the costs of providing clergy here, as well as providing a wealth of support to both churches and church schools.
  3. Insuring our church buildings, and other running costs like heating and lighting so that they feel like welcoming places to be.
  4. Repairs, maintenance and reordering of our church buildings so that they are as safe and as useable as possible.
  5. Gifts from the churches here to support local and other national and international organisations such as Tearfund’s Toilet Twinning Scheme, and the local foodbank.

Keeping the church buildings open and financially viable is becoming increasingly difficult, and that is why we need your help. We believe that God is good and God will provide, and that he has work for us to do here in Berrow. But sometimes God asks us to get involved as his hands and his feet. Supporting the church financially is one way in which you can get involved practically whether you have faith or not, because you believe that the church being here is a good thing for the community.