To: All who worship and contribute financially
to St Eugene’s Cathedral
As part of our ongoing efforts to keep worshippers and those
who contribute financially informed of what is happening
here at St. Eugene’s, I am happy this weekend to present
for your information the income and expenditure account
for the year ending 31st December 2007. I hope that you
will find the accounts to be self-explanatory.
Our main source of income is derived from
the collection taken up every Sunday at the Offertory, amounting
to £185,498 last year. An equal significant amount
of income comes from other sources such as Gift Aid, shrine
candles, parish draw and interest from savings scheme. Last
year money raised from these sources amounted to £113,092.
It is interesting to note that without
income from Shrine Candles, Parish Draw and Interest from
Savings Scheme we would not be able to meet our day-to-day
running costs. It takes on average £4,100 a week to
meet day-to-day running costs. Our average weekly collection
amounts to £3,550.
The statement shows that £46,609
was spent on major maintenance in the Cathedral and grounds
- half of which was a carry over of unpaid bills from the
year ending 2006. As you can easily imagine given the age
and size of the Cathedral ongoing and sometimes major maintenance
are a necessity and are generally expensive.
As mentioned in last year’s statement
a new layout of the ground floor of the Parochial House
is at a very advanced stage and work will commence in the
next couple of days. This will bring it into line with child
protection and vulnerable adult guidelines.
During the past year as everyone is well aware from their
own homes the price of oil and electricity has increased
significantly. This is reflected in the heating bill increasing
by £4,000. I am looking at the possibility of changing
over to gas as well as the possibility of erecting a windmill
to generate electricity. As well as being more environmentally
friendly it should in the long term be more economic.
In October of last year we brought to an
end the weekly parish draw, which was running for 20 years.
The main reason for stopping the weekly draw was that many
big promoters had grown old and others had died. The weekly
profit was less than £400 and was very labour intensive
for that amount of profit. We found that many people wanted
to contribute to the draw but very few wanted the responsibility
of being a weekly collector. The new £100 draw launched
this year can be paid in one payment or by monthly instalments
every First Friday. This reduces the commitment of promoters
and is hopefully less time consuming.
Another facet of life here is the tremendous
generosity of many parishioners to external collections
(the external collections figures overleaf do not include
the donations forwarded directly to LASCO, St Vincent De
Paul and a few other charities).
My sincere thanks to the many people who
contribute regularly and without whose help it would not
be possible to provide our present level of service. I take
this opportunity to thank the many people who give generously
of their time and talents, especially those involved in
the Parish Draw and Parishioners’ Savings. Without
their help the parish would be much poorer in many ways.
|