OUR LIFE AS A LIVING CHURCH In recent years, the financial and practical help that we have gratefully received, has enabled us to: • welcome more young children and their families into our churches through Bubble Church, Children’s Church, children’s craft days and other activities • maintain our beautiful church buildings to be open for public worship, visits and valuable and popular community activities including warm welcome, singing and accessible yoga • provide financial, volunteer and other practical assistance for local organisations that support people across the borough including the Enfield Churches Debt Centre and the Enfield Food Bank. • support important mission work further afield including by the Children’s Society, the Church Urban Fund and the Bridge of Hope Children’s Ministry which is working to improve the opportunities for children in Uganda. However, all parishes are completely self-funding, so it is our ongoing responsibility and as a charity, to finance and support the mission of our church here in the Parish of Clay Hill. To achieve this, we need to maintain our parish operations and buildings in spite of challenges that include increasing costs of heating and lighting, insurance and ministry. Therefore all donations, however small, will be much appreciated. A donation made without any restriction allows the PCC freedom to use it for any general purpose. However, if a donation is given to the PCC for a specific purpose, the PCC is required to set up a restricted fund as that money may not be used for any other purpose without the permission of the donor(s). Clearly, the more restrictive the conditions, the more constraints are placed on the PCC for its use. In the event that a restricted donation exceeds the cost of the specified purpose, then the PCC may ask if the donor would be willing for any excess to be placed in the general fund for unrestricted use. Alternatively, the excess may be returned to the donor. As a bonus, the Government’s Gift Aid Scheme enables the parish to reclaim 25p income tax for every £1 gifted – at no cost to the giver! Accordingly, the parish strongly encourages any taxpayer who makes a donation to Gift Aid it by making a declaration with the following words: “I want to Gift Aid all qualifying donations of money I make from the date of this declaration and have made in the past four years to the Parish of St John & St Luke Clay Hill. I am a UK taxpayer and understand that if I pay less Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax in the appropriate year than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all my donations it is my responsibility to pay any difference.” Gift Aided donations may be made by using the yellow Gift Aid envelopes that can be found in the pews of both our churches, by downloading and by completing a Donation Gift Aid form or by using the online donation facility Donations may be made by: Bank Transfer : To bank account name: PCC of St John and St Luke Clay Hill; Sort Code: 23-05-80; Account Number: 31851777; please add a suitable reference Cheque: Payable to: PCC of St John and St Luke Clay Hill and sent to: The PCC Treasurer, c/o Clay Hill Vicarage, 92 Browning Road, Enfield, Middlesex, EN2 0HG Online: By Debit or Credit card by clicking on EASYFUNDRAISING – DONATIONS FOR OUR PARISH Did you know that whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for our Parish of Clay Hill? There are over 7,000 shops and sites on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis, Tesco, Etsy, Booking.com and M&S. Our parish has registered with Easyfundraising so that online purchases made through their portal will earn our Parish a small donation from retailers registered with the schemes of between 0.5% and 4% of the value of eligible purchases. In all cases, it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds. So what do you need to do to ensure your online purchases generate donations to our parish? The parish ‘s easyfundraising account is called: St John & St Luke Parish Clayhill Enfield All you need to do is: 1. Go to https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/paris hofstjohn/?utm_campaign=raise-more and join by creating your account for free. 2. Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping. 3. After you’ve checked out, the retailer will make a donation to our parish at no extra cost to you whatsoever! There are no catches or hidden charges and our PCC will be really grateful for your donations. Please share this with your family and friends and encourage them to support our parish through their purchases. Thank you for your support.