Support Us | Holy Family Parish

There are various parts of our Church which are presently in need of repair, which sadly costs money. We are looking at quotes for repairs to the Church roof and upgrades to the heating systems in the Church and Hall. A simple way to raise some funds is through Gift Aid. If you are a taxpayer and eligible, please complete a Gift Aid form so we can reclaim the tax you have paid on your donations to the Parish.

If you pay UK tax and sign a Gift Aid form, we can claim back from the government 25p for every £1 you donate to the Church at no extra cost to you. This can make a big difference to the Parish income.

Church Heating. We now have quotes for the upgrade to the Church and Hall boiler/heating systems. Our fundraising target is £25,000 for a upgrade of the two. Unfortunately, the church boiler cannot be repaired so our most urgent need is to replace this so as to have heating in the winter. This will be approximately £5000. Please support the fundraising initiatives so we can achieve this as soon as possible.

Gift Aid

If you are eligible and have not yet completed a Gift Aid, please seriously consider doing so.

The Church's charity number has changed. If you have already completed a Gift Aid declaration, could you please urgently complete a new one, so we can claim back the Gift Aid under the new charity number.

If you are able to donate to the Parish Office via Direct Debit or Standing Order, this significantly cuts administrative time and costs. Our Parish bank details are:

CPD Holy Family Southampton

Sort Code: 30-93-04

Account No: 00887898

All forms are available in the Louis Suite after Mass (at the back of the Church and in the Parish Office). Please ask if you need any help.

Support the Parish - Time, Talent and Treasure

All we are and have is a gift from our Creator for us to use wisely to build up God’s kingdom here on earth.

What do you give to your church? What does it cost you?

The New Testament encourages us to give “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). For those with ample means, giving time and effort to the church may prove costlier than writing a cheque with several zeros. For those with little wealth, even a small gift may be a huge sacrifice, and such saints may be rich in other ways. Giving to the church is about more than money! One way to evaluate our giving is to consider three resources: time, talents, and treasures. A healthy Christian life involves giving not just one or two of these to one’s church, but all three.

The gift of time.

None of us has ENOUGH of it. All of us want MORE. How much time do you set aside for God? Yourself? How often do you pray? Meditate? How about time for family and friends and those in need? Everyone is given the same amount of time: 24 hours each day, 168 hours each week. The question is: How do we choose to use our time? Make the most of your time by following in the footsteps of Jesus. Study, pray, volunteer. Most of all become an ‘intentional giver’ and make a commitment of your time.

Through daily prayer, we develop a close personal relationship with God, sharing with Him our successes and failures, and asking for His guidance in our daily lives.
Reading Scripture daily helps us reflect on God’s word. It also tells of God’s great love for us.
Assisting individuals and the church is another way to share our personal time to the glory of God. We also show our love for Him by letting Christ use our feet, our hands, our eyes and our voice.

We are all blessed with talents by God – you just may not have discovered it yet!

Perhaps you have a professional trade, an artistic ability, or good organisational skills that could help the church. Maybe you have a beautiful voice and could sing praises to our Lord and be part of the choir. It is usually not possible to develop all of our talents, but, ideally, we can and should develop some of them and use them wisely to bless the communities we belong to. There are lots of opportunities here at Holy Family to express your talents and explore new ones. Become an ‘intentional giver’. Some examples are:

Welcome people as they come in and help them find where they need to go.
Stay back to clean up after Mass or special events.
Mentor younger church members, couples or families.
Help set up for special events.
Visit the sick and elderly.
Type up the weekly newsletter.
Update the Parish social media.
Help out in the Repository.
Answer the telephone.
Teach those who want to learn.
Introduce people to each other.
Decorate for Easter, Christmas, and other special occasions.
Cut the grass.
Litter picking around the church grounds.

It’s my money – I worked hard for it!

The need to share our gifts of Treasure may be best illustrated by the well-known parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), which speaks of a man preparing to travel to a far country. Before departing, he gives talents (money) to his servants. The first servant receives five talents and works to build them into 5 more. The second servant, who receives two talents, doubles their value as well. But the third servant, who receives one talent, buries it. When the master returns, he praises the first and second servants, but he takes the one talent from the third servant because the servant was not a good steward of the money, having done nothing to increase its value. The lesson of the parable of the talents is that we are to make good use of material gifts given to us by God.

God expects us to be generous even if our financial resources are not much. Remember how Jesus praised the poor widow for her generosity to the Temple (Mark 12:41-44).
There are over 2300 verses in the Bible about money, possessions and the right use of them. Why is this? Perhaps because God knows that we sometimes allow money to distract us from keeping our eyes on him.
Consider becoming an ‘intentional giver’ rather than a ‘loose change giver’.