Wednesday 11 February 2009

The Church and Money don't mix

As a very small act of repayment for a wonderful experience for my sons, I am the treasurer of a small charity that raises money for our church choir. It is known as The Friend of the Music and details can be found here. For some years there has been a degree (quite a big degree if I'm honest) regarding how much of the choir costs the church will pay for. I've always regarded this as highly undesirable and four years ago wrote to the church authorities in an effort to get some clarity in the situation. Nothing was really achieved.

The Church Council now has a new treasurer and he is one of the nicest, most sensible men you could want to meet. Today we met and reviewed the situation and after looking at some old documents, it is clear that things are worse than ever. The church finances are dire. This is very sad, but does at least provide clarity - we, the charity, are going to have to foot rather more of the bill than we would like, but at least we know where we stand.

How did the dear old C of E get into this terrible mess? I can only think that over the years the assets and income of the church have been very poorly managed. Perhaps they put too much faith in the banks?

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