As a church our main source of income is the ongoing faithful donations of those within our local community through either the plate collection or the Parish Giving Scheme, but we also are grateful for the grants that we receive that also allow the church to function and to serve the local community.
We are pleased to have been in receipt of a grant from Sutton Coldfield Charitable Trust of £45,000 in spring 2020. This generous grant will allow us to do a number of things.
- Along with the £7,000 raised by the church congregation it means that we can have heating again in the church building, as we are able to replace the old boiler that stopped working over the summer. The new boiler is much more energy efficient and will aid us in our mission as an Eco Church
- It means that repairs can be made to the original glass windows on the south side of the church, which gives the building part of its beauty as a grade II listed building.
- A new digital organ can be installed to aid the worship of the church
The grant from ALLchurches Trust of £4,000 will be used to cover the installation of a Wi-Fi network in the church and the church hall. We estimate that potentially 3,000-6,000 people will benefit from this over the course of a year. It will open up possibilities for worship, particularly once we are able to install a new AV system, it will make contactless payments easier to do and is an important part of the jigsaw in allowing us to record and livestream services; something that is of great importance in light of the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Sutton Town Council made a grant of £10,000 which will help to connect the church with a wider digital audience and provide better AV systems for those using the church hall.
The Garfield Weston Foundation has also donated £10,000 towards the new Audio Visual system, which will benefit a large number of people in the community as they take part in services across the year.