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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.