Gift Aid update/appeal

Firstly, on behalf of the Parish, a huge thank you to the members of the Gift Aid scheme. We’re delighted to tell you that your donations will enable the Parish to claim an additional £16,000 back from HMRC for last year. This is truly amazing in the current climate. Thank you. Despite this incredible achievement, in recent years the overall offertory income in our parish has declined, this is not altogether unexpected but as you might also expect expenditure has risen, leading to increased pressure on finances. One example to illustrate this - for both churches the annual electricity bill which has risen from c £5,000 to c £11,000. One way of boosting the parish income without increasing your contribution (although if you are able to that would be fantastic!) is to join the Gift Aid scheme if you are eligible. It is a really easy and painless way of increasing funds, allowing the parish to reclaim tax on your donations. Please see further information about the scheme below.

What is Gift Aid?

By signing a Gift Aid Declaration we can reclaim 25p for every £1 you donate to the parish. If for example you were to give £5 a week through Gift Aid the parish would obtain an annual income tax refund of £65 Am I Eligible?

In order to sign a Gift Aid Declaration you must be a UK taxpayer, and donate either by standing order or weekly envelopes so that your contributions can be recorded. - You don’t have to be paying a lot of tax to join the Gift Aid Scheme – only sufficient to cover the basic rate tax the parish will reclaim. Providing you pay tax on your salary or pension you can join the scheme. If you are a taxpayer and not in the Gift Aid Scheme the parish is effectively losing out on “free money” from the Government And so …

• If you would like to join the scheme, please let me know either by email or telephone as below and I will provide the necessary form(s) to complete.

• If you are in a position to increase your donations– if you give using weekly envelopes just put the extra in your envelope. If you give by Standing Order you can either send a revised form to your bank or amend the payment through online banking if you prefer. Perhaps … If you currently use a weekly envelope you might think about changing standing order? Please let me know and I can give you a form or provide the details to set it up on-line. It is much easier now many of us no longer carry cash and in addition it’s simpler for the parish to administer.

Gift Aid FAQs

• Do I have to commit to paying a fixed amount each week? No. You decide how much you wish to contribute as and when you are able.

• Can I leave the scheme at any time? Yes. Just let me or the Diocesan Gift Aid team know.

• Is the scheme completely confidential? Yes. You don’t need to tell anyone your level of income and the amount of your contribution is kept confidential

• Will it cost me more? No. It will not anything if you are a basic rate taxpayer and if you are a higher rate taxpayer you can actually benefit from further tax relief when you complete your tax return.

• Is it more likely that HMRC will examine my tax affairs? No.

I hope I have covered everything but if you have any questions or you would like to sign up to the scheme I will be “loitering with intent” at the back of Church over the coming weeks or you can contact me by email or telephone as below. Many, many thanks again. Esther Esther Robson, Gift Aid Administrator for the Parish of the Durham Martyrs

Email : estherrobson@ymail.com ; Mobile: 07969 528874; Land Line: 0191 384 01734

To anyone unable to join the Gift Aid Scheme but would like to donate by standing order – please let me know and I will provide the relevant form/information.

Friends of St Godric Summer Fayre

The Friends of St Godric’s are holding their Summer Fayre on Sunday 9th July 2023, 12 noon until 3pm on St Godric’s school grounds Our stalls usually include tombolas for children and grown-ups, pre-loved toy stalls, refreshment and cake stalls, craft tables, hair braiding and tattoos, games stalls e.g. can alley, lawn darts and a football shoot out, pre-loved uniform and more…

Would you like to help? Can you… - Donate good quality items either as raffle prizes or for sale on one of the stalls? For example, soft toys, other toys, books, gift-quality toiletries, candles, smellies, bottles, sweets, chocolates, cakes, pies, scones - Make a donation to our summer fayre prize fund? We will organise a big shop to make sure the tombola and other stalls are well stocked. See below for ways to donate. - Give an hour of your time between 12 noon and 3pm to help with a stall? - Help with some of the more creative stalls e.g. hair braiding, pottery painting, tattoos, crafts? We can arrange the stall to suit your skills! - Help with any contacts for businesses that might be willing to offer a prize for the raffle? - Come along on the day and bring your pocket money!

If you would like to know more or to offer help/donations, please email friendsofstgodrics@gmail.com **Want to donate to our summer fayre prize fund? Donations are preferred via BOPP through this link https://bopp.app/link/24l4k

Thought from Fr. Colm - 2nd July

Can I take this opportunity to say thank you for your kindness as I celebrated 40 years of priesthood. I am very grateful for the many cards and gifts. It was a lovely celebration last Saturday and big “thank you” to those who organised and helped with the reception in St. Joseph’s school after the 5.00pm Vigil Mass. It was good to be able to have Tom O’Loughlin to join me too. Tom was ordained the same date, same time, same place. I know many of you particularly enjoyed both Fr. Tom and Fr. John O’Brien’s words at the Mass. John gave us much food for thought on ‘The Best of Times and the Worst of Times.’ His words were especially relevant to our present position as a Diocese. A continued conversation on an evolving Church is always essential. The Synod of the Laity will provide one way forward, but only one. All takes time to realise. As one wise parishioner keeps reminding me, “we have to keep looking at the positives.” And there are so many, especially in our parish community. “How baffling you are, oh Church, and yet how I love you! How you have made me suffer, and yet how much I owe you! I would like to see you destroyed, and yet I need your presence. You have given me so much scandal and yet you have made me understand what sanctity is. I have seen nothing in the world more devoted to obscurity, more compromised, more false, and yet I have touched nothing more pure, more generous, more beautiful. How often I have wanted to shut the doors of my soul in your face, and how often I have prayed to die in the safety of your arms. No, I cannot free myself from you, because I am you, though not completely. And besides, where would I go? Would I establish another? I would not be able to establish it without the same faults, for they are the same faults I carry in me. And if I did establish another, it would be my Church, not the Church of Christ. I am old enough to know that I am no better than anyone else. …) The Church has the power to make me holy but it is made up, from the first to the last, only of sinners. And what sinners! It has the omnipotent and invincible power to renew the Miracle of the Eucharist, but is made up of men who are stumbling in the dark, who fight every day against the temptation of losing their faith. It brings a message of pure transparency but it is incarnated in slime, such is the substance of the world. It speaks of the sweetness of its Master, of its non-violence, but there was a time in history when it sent out its armies to disembowel the infidels and torture the heretics. It proclaims the message of evangelical poverty, and yet it does nothing but look for money and alliances with the powerful. Those who dream of something different from this are wasting their time and have to rethink it all. And this proves that they do not understand humanity. Because this is humanity, made visible by the Church, with all its flaws and its invincible courage, with the Faith that Christ has given it and with the love that Christ showers on it. When I was young, I did not understand why Jesus chose Peter as his successor, the first Pope, even though he abandoned Him. Now I am no longer surprised and I understand that by founding his church on the tomb of a traitor(…)He was warning each of us to remain humble, by making us aware of our fragility. (…) And what are bricks worth anyway? What matters is the promise of Christ, what matters is the cement that unites the bricks, which is the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit is capable of building the church with such poorly moulded bricks as are we. And that is where the mystery lies. This mixture of good and bad, of greatness and misery, of holiness and sin that makes up the church…this in reality am I .(…) The deep bond between God and His Church, is an intimate part of each one of us.(…)To each of us God says, as he says to his Church, “And I will betroth you to me forever” (Hosea 2,21). But at the same time he reminds us of reality: 'Your lewdness is like rust. I have tried to remove it in vain. There is so much that not even a flame will take it away' (Ezechiel 24, 12). But then there is even something more beautiful. The Holy Spirit who is Love, sees us as holy, immaculate, beautiful under our guises of thieves and adulterers. (…) It’s as if evil cannot touch the deepest part of mankind. He re-establishes our virginity no matter how many times we have prostituted our bodies, spirits and hearts. In this, God is truly God, the only one who can ‘make everything new again’. It is not so important that He will renew heaven and earth. What is most important is that He will renew our hearts. This is Christ’s work. This is the divine Spirit of the Church.” Carlo Carretto PFE (2nd April 1910-4th October 1988) was an Italian writer and a member of the Catholic Congregation of the Little Brothers of the Gospel,