Churchwardens' Manual: their duties, powers, rights, and privilagesSumner, George Henry
Religion
Churchwardens' Manual: their duties, powers, rights, and privilages
Sumner, George Henry
Church maintenance and repair; Church of England
This leads me to mention another point of considerable importance. In
these days of monetary difficulties and agricultural depression the
frequency of offertories is often a question difficult of solution. It
is perhaps still more difficult wisely to decide the objects for which
the offertory shall be made. With regard to local objects there can of
course be no question. We recognise in these days the power of the
pence, and no one grumbles at the collection of money for purely
parochial purposes. But it is when our people are asked for money for
objects outside the parish that the difficulty really arises. But it
ought to be remembered that we do not lead individual isolated lives
apart from our fellows. The parish is not the centre of the universe.
The tendency of the uneducated mind is to isolate itself from the
interests of others, and to look at all matters from a purely selfish
point of view. The parish is an accidental collection of individual
souls in a particular diocese. The diocese is an aggregation of separate
parishes scattered through an assigned area. The members of the Church
in a particular parish and diocese are members of the Holy Catholic
Church, which by its very nomenclature abrogates individual isolation.
It follows, therefore, that parochial interests must not absorb attention
to the exclusion of larger and less personal objects. The Body is one,
and the members of the Body should work together for the good of the
whole. Corporate as well as individual life is a reality, and this fact
must not be lost sight of in connection with our offertories. I venture
to say that a parish which confines its offertories to local and
parochial purposes will lose by the very contraction of its sympathies.
The duty that lies upon us as trustees of God's gifts to utilize them for
His honour and glory, should be pointed out. The privilege of being
allowed to help with our substance, those who stand in need of our
assistance, should be duly urged; and the warmth which is thus kindled in
the heart towards others will react in infusing fresh life into the
support of parochial institutions. The habit of giving grows by use.
The blood must not stagnate round the heart, or the extremities will soon
suffer. Your fingers die because the action of the heart is weak. The
promise is that "He that watereth others shall be watered also himself."
I have no intention of entering into many details in this matter, but I
cannot be wrong in enforcing this principle. Church work at home and
abroad, as distinct from parochial organizations, should be
systematically brought before all congregations however small: Church
work at home, including home missions; and Church work abroad, including
foreign missionary societies.
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