St Mary’s, Egton-cum-Newland

St Mary’s, Egton-cum-Newland, in the Diocese of Carlisle is right on the southern edge of the Lake District National Park. The church serves the two small South Lakeland villages of Penny Bridge and Greenodd, and their surrounding farms. It’s a beautiful rural setting, with views north to the mountains, and the river Crake flowing out of Coniston Water forming the boundary to the neighbouring parish of Colton, part of a benefice of three parishes with Egton. St Mary's (Photo courtesy Colin Dykes) is a deeply rural community and the lessons learned from running Giving in Grace in a rural community are invaluable. A fuller account of the Giving in Grace programme at St Mary's can be found at A Rural Case Study. This document also includes the three bible study notes that were prepared to accompany the preaching series.

The parish has a total population of around 900, and a regular congregation of around 28, mostly retired people, with 35 on the electoral roll. Minister Gary Wemys looks after all three parishes, supported by an NSM, a retired minister and a commissioned lay minister. There is a church primary school, which provides the home for the JAM (Jesus and Me) club which is the Friday based "‘Sunday’ school"

St Mary’s church had been running at a deficit of £4000 a year for the past 3 years but crunch time came when most of the church’s reserves were used to repair the roof. It was clear that within another 3 years the church would not be able to pay their parish share. The PCC were firm and clear that they would not fail in their commitment to the wider church and by chance a Google search found the newly released Giving in Grace web site. A steering group was established in January 2006, although serious planning commenced in April 06, with the Giving in Grace events occurring in September 06. This was just enough time for preparation with a four person planning group. See A Rural case Study for a much fuller review of St Mary's experience.

The development of the Case Statement was valuable in two ways. Firstly analysis of giving patterns indicated that 40% of the church’s planned income came from a single giver and that planned giving was only 40% of the church’s income. It was clear that there was a significant risk to the church’s income looking forward. Secondly the Case Statement helped the difficult process of developing a target budget based on priorities for the church – every initiative needs a target to aim at!

St Mary's serves a rural community with a strong sense of ownership of the church by the local people. A key early decision, based on experience when the church needed a new roof, was to invite the whole local community to support the Giving in Grace initiative. Individually addressed letters were sent to every house in the Parish. The planning group checked whether the parish database needed to be registered with the data commissioner, and considered it did not. The letters were issued immediately after the start of the preaching programme, which seemed to work well.

In Sunday worship Egton used the Exodus material for the preaching series. The Exodus story lent itself to one family service and the Feast of the Shelters material was used by staff in the church primary school. The liturgical material was particularly appreciated by the congregation. To supplement the preaching material Egton produced some ‘take away’ bible study notes for home study. These studies are currently in MS Publisher format: Study One, Study Two, Study Three

Initial responses to the letter came in slowly and at first the planning group were discouraged but the results exceeded expectations. The number of planned givers increased from 26 to 44 with good support from the community. Overall planned giving increased from £9,200 to £15,800, an increase of 71%, with a further £1600 in one off Gift Aided gifts.

St Mary’s is one of the first parishes outside the Diocese of Liverpool to run a Giving in Grace programme. The planning group found the overall structure to be enormously useful in providing a proven methodology for running a stewardship campaign. Not having to start from scratch was terrific in saving time and thought for busy team members. The final words are best left to the parish:

Giving in Grace has also encouraged the congregation that there is a future for the church and most importantly that God answers prayer, – this is much, much more important than the money.