The service will be held on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 3 p.m. at St. Andrew, Scarborough, 2333 Victoria Park Ave. The guest preacher will be Bishop Peter Fenty, the area bishop of York-Simcoe and a native of Barbados.

“It’s a visible sign that we care,” says the Rev. Jacqueline Daley, one of the organizers. “For some of us, we have very close connections to the Caribbean. This is to gather together and support each other and say we’re in this together.”

Ms. Daley says many people in the diocese have family and friends in the Caribbean who were affected by the hurricanes. “Although it happened far away, it felt very near. Everyone has a story to tell.”

The service is being organized by a group of clergy and laity in partnership with the Canadian Friends to West Indian Christians, a group in the diocese that has supported the work of the Church in the Province of the West Indies for many years.

“The service is important because when our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean region hurt, we hurt because we are from there,” says Elsa Jones, chair of the Canadian Friends to West Indian Christians. “We are in a position to help, and I think it is important that we as Christians do what Christ would have called us to do.”

Ms. Daley hopes the service will be a first step toward ongoing support for relief efforts for the region. “We hope to have an offering at the service but also to find ways that people can commit to long-term support,” she says.

All are invited to the service. “We are God’s family and God’s people, and all are welcome,” she says.

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The church secretary’s position is often misunderstood by the outside world and can be seen as “not a real job” and being done by “grandma types” who have nothing better to do. This could not be further from the truth. A church secretary often runs the day-to-day business of the church and her or his job can include bookkeeping, hall rental booking, building maintenance troubleshooting, assisting church committees, taking minutes, lending a pastoral ear, and booking funerals and weddings, to name just a few – oh, yes, and preparing Sunday bulletins!

The church secretary’s job is exclusive, and anyone in this position usually finds that there is no one to turn to for assistance, advice or just to vent frustrations. That’s why the association is so valuable.

Made up of church secretaries and administrators from across southern Ontario, and from many denominations, our membership allows us to have constant contact with others doing the same job. Solutions to problems or advice can be received easily and quickly via email or a quick phone call.

Each fall for the past 24 years, we have gathered as a group in various cities and towns across the province for a three-day extravaganza of learning and fun. This year’s theme was “Learning with Laughter”. There are workshops dealing with all kinds of relevant topics from “How to Leverage Technology” to “Stopping Elder Abuse” and “Stress is Funny.” Over the years, we have learned about conflict management, working with volunteers, copyright laws and many other subjects.

The conferences are not all about work. There is great entertainment and enjoyable outings to local hot spots. This year, we were entertained by the Howling Heretics, a wonderful musical duo from Jubilee United Church in Scarborough, whose musical talent and humorous biblical references kept us laughing and cheering for almost two hours. Day trips included tastings and shopping at a local winery and a visit to a working flour and lumber mill; their home-made doughnuts were to die for!

I invite all church secretaries and administrators in the diocese to join us in 2018 when we celebrate our 25^th anniversary in the London and Stratford area. For more information, visit www.pcsa.ca.

Helen Elbertsen is the Parish Administrator of St. George, Ajax (Pickering Village).

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The faith group, called “Faith in the City,” says Mayor Tory and City Council are not doing enough to combat poverty and called for greater investments in the city’s upcoming budget, expected to be released in February.

“We have seen Council commit to strategies and projects to tackle staggering inequality in our city, but when the time comes to funding these priorities, our leaders can’t seem to make the leap,” said Imam Habeeb Alli. “We’re here to urge Council to stick to its own promises in the upcoming budget.”

Council unanimously adopted the Toronto Poverty Reduction Strategy in 2015 and has provided funding for some measures but says it cannot fully fund the plan without increasing taxes or using some other forms of revenue.

The faith leaders affirmed the need for good transit, affordable housing and the importance of good jobs in eradicating poverty. “Our city’s most vulnerable residents, including one in four children, desperately need access to affordable housing and reliable transit to help lift them out of poverty,” said Elder Kim Running Bear McDougall of the Oneida Nation.

“It is important to unite with people across Toronto in pushing for action on inequality and poverty,” said Bishop Robertson. “We must work together to urge our politicians to follow through on their own commitments.”

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Keynote speaker Dr. Carl James, the Jean Augustine Chair in Education at York University, spelled out the difference between equity and equality, and highlighted how inequality is built on racism. “We don’t want equality of opportunity because that means treating everyone the same,” he said. “What we want is equity, which takes everyone’s situation into account and is based on justice.”

Canadians are proud of their country as a multicultural oasis, a colour-blind society, said Dr. James. Yet while most people don’t like talking about it, race is a core reality of life in Canada, he noted. “Whiteness is taken for granted,” he said, and we need to think about how whiteness, which we see as “normal,” is impacting our lives. “If we think that the best priest is a white priest, then we are using whiteness,” he said.

Diversity is an ongoing challenge, and we need to think about diversity in all we do. “The work we have to do is bring people to a consciousness that we’re all in this together,” said. We need to constantly think about what offends people from other backgrounds, which is not always easy. “We have to become comfortable with uncomfortability,” he added.

A lively question period followed his address. Bishop Peter Fenty, the area bishop

of York-Simcoe, asked how we can respond to racist comments, and asked, “How do we confront the fact that systemic racism is real?”

The Rev. Canon Don Butler, incumbent of Trinity, Barrie, said that when he strolls along Barrie’s waterfront at night, people steer clear of him as a tall black man. When he did the internment service for a local resident, people were shocked to see a black priest. He appealed to the audience to have courage to confront racism, “to be mindful of who we are called to be as people of God.”

Workshops explored issues of accessibility, understanding privilege, confronting racism, Indigenous issues, youth and social justice, and climate change. Brother Reginald Crenshaw, OHC, an associate at St. Paul, Rexdale, led a workshop on dismantling racism in the parish. It defined racism as racial bias combined with the misuses of structures and institutions, so that one group’s racial bias is institutionalized by its power, based on its perceived racial superiority. The workshops contrasted personal and systemic racism, with the latter, like the water in which a fish swims, being so pervasive that is not perceived easily. Everyone is borne into it and socialized to play well-defined roles.

The Rev. Gary van der Meer, incumbent at St. Anne, Toronto, provided a practical example of interfaith inclusion in action during a workshop he led with Imam Ilyas Ally. The workshop focused on the growing friendship between St. Anne’s and Imam Ally’s Muslim community. It has included interfaith learning events and joint sponsorship of a refugee family.

Mike Walker, a student completing a doctorate on a theology of disability, told a workshop on accessibility and solidarity that “ableism is a sin” (ableism is discrimination in favour of able-bodied people). He has cerebral palsy, and after noting that people with disabilities are sometime labeled as a “retard”, or a “cripple”, he said, “I’d rather have names like friend or brother,” his voice cracking with emotion.

Participants explored the notion of “sacramental solidarity” and how baptism and Holy Communion can lead all people into Jesus’ embrace. They agreed with a suggestion that the Church develop official programs to educate parishes on disability issues, just as it does on sexual misconduct concerns.

Karri Munn-Venn of Citizens for Public Justice led a climate change workshop in which participants highlighted the people and places most immediately impacted by climate change: people of colour, former colonies, and communities that have contributed little to the problem. A discussion outlined the inconsistencies in Canada’s approach to climate change, including tensions between respect for Indigenous rights and pipeline approval, and between the Paris Agreement and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies. The workshop wrapped up with an impassioned call to minimize our environmental impacts, engage church leaders on the Christian imperative to care for the Earth, and to demand action from the federal government.

Parishes were invited to take part in CPJ’s Give it up for the Earth! Campaign, which invites individuals to commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while urging the federal government to increase climate action. For more information, visit: cpj.ca/for-the-earth.

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During a recent green energy audit of the church building, the team learned that a small section of the roof wasn’t properly insulated. “The parishioners in the back pews were always saying they were cold, and we always thought it was because they were sitting close to the entrance door,” explains Iverson Grimes, chair of the team.

Some handy parishioners climbed up to the area in question and sealed off the draft. “On the following Sunday, quite a few people said they noticed a difference,” says Mr. Grimes. “That was our crowning glory.”

The energy-saving step is one of many the historic Thornhill church has undertaken to improve its carbon footprint. It has managed to do this by tapping into expertise that exists in the parish and partnering with a not-for-profit agency that helps places of worship go green.

Holy Trinity’s efforts started in 2015, when it approved the diocese’s vestry motion that asked parishes to take steps to address climate change. It drew together a diverse group of people at the church who had the passion, skill and knowledge to drive the initiative forward. The Green Team, as it’s called, consists of Mr. Grimes, Steven Law, who is an environmental engineer, Dianne Rimmer, Ron Tolhurst, Robin Parravano, Swan Li and Jesús Cruz Arango.

The team’s initial task was to analyze the church’s energy consumption and identify the building assets such as the heating and cooling system, the insulation in the walls and roof, and the windows and lighting. The study showed that the church was relatively energy efficient, but there was still room for improvement.

The group presented its findings at the church’s 2016 vestry meeting and was given $5,000 from the parish’s Our Faith-Our Hope campaign funds to continue its work. It also received a $1,000 grant from Faith and the Common Good, a national interfaith network, to conduct a green audit of the church. The audit cost $1,500, so the church had to pay just $500.

Stephen Collette, Faith and the Common Good’s building audit manager, led a tour of the property, looking at energy-consuming appliances and activities, wiring and piping, windows and doors, recycling efforts, cleaning products and pesticide use, signage – virtually anything that could be greened.

Mr. Grimes says Mr. Collette was easy-going and patient. “He was very pleasant. No question from us was considered insignificant. He was very easy to work with.”

The audit was an eye-opening experience, he says. “Stephen’s team was able to point out stuff that really needed to be done, and identified areas that gave us the biggest bang for our money. They pointed out areas of concern that we hadn’t even thought about.”

Mr. Collette put his findings and recommendations into a report, which has formed the basis of a roadmap for the Green Team’s efforts over the next 10 years. Importantly, the plan contains action steps that the group can implement right away at little cost – what Mr. Grimes calls the “low-hanging fruit.”

Some of the fixes have already paid off. For example, the old air conditioning fans in the balcony storage rooms have been covered over, stopping cold air from drifting down into the heated area. The simple renovation, done by parishioners at a cost $140, will save hundreds of dollars in heating bills over the coming winters.

Mr. Collette also gave some practical advice. He cautioned the church against accepting donations of old appliances from parishioners, as they usually weren’t energy efficient.

Some of Mr. Collette’s recommendations will require a greater investment of time and money. For example, the church plans to upgrade its entire lighting system to LED bulbs, at a cost of about $15,000. It also hopes to replace its air conditioner with an energy efficient model in the next year or two.

The church’s vestry provided the Green Team with a further $10,000 this year from its Our Faith-Our Hope funds, so it now has about $14,000 in hand to make the changes. But Mr. Grimes admits the group might have to go looking for government grants to pay for those and other high-end improvements.

Still, he’s happy with the progress to date. “For now, we said, let’s concentrate on the low-hanging fruit. Yes, we may not be able to do the high-cost things right away, but there’s a benefit to doing the low-cost things. We have 50 to 60 items on the list and have done a lot of them.”

He says Holy Trinity has shared its knowledge with other churches that want to go green but don’t know how to start. “They’re a little intimidated, but we explain that you’re going to do it one step at a time. We’ve gone through this without too much pain, and you can too.”

Donna Laing, the Toronto animator for Greening Sacred Spaces, has worked with several parishes in the diocese, including Holy Trinity and St. Matthew, Islington, to reduce their carbon footprints. She is hosting an “Energy Savings Webinar” for churches on Jan. 24 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The webinar will look at incentives and rebates for retrofits, lighting, heating and cooling. It will also examine how a United Church in Toronto reduced its lighting consumption by 10 per cent and saved money. During the webinar, Ms. Laing will launch a three-year project that helps faith communities measure their energy and greenhouse gas footprint.

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The Baptist pastor began his address, which ranged from scripture and theology to politics and quantum physics, by asking “What was Jesus’ mission in becoming man?” It was, he argued, not to rescue lost souls or to model what it means to be a self-actualizing human being. “It was to declare that the kingdom of God – the one named in the Lord’s Prayer – is at hand.”

Christ wants to transform people from within so that they can change the world into an equitable kingdom as prophesied in the Book of Isaiah, Mr. Campolo said. “Chapter 65 speaks of a time when there will be no infant mortality, when people will live out their lives in health and well-being.” It speaks of an age when houses are inhabited by those who build them, and instead of labouring for the benefit of others, workers will be justly rewarded. “That relates today to the kid in Thailand earning a dollar a day for long hours so North Americans can buy bargain sneakers at Walmart and Kmart.”

Peppering his sermon with hilarious anecdotes and Pentecostal-style shout-outs to the congregation, the former professor of sociology at Eastern University in Pennsylvania explained how much the Church has done to concretely change the world into God’s kingdom. “Twenty-five years ago, 45,000 people a day died of starvation or malnutrition-related disease. That has diminished to 17,000 today,” he said. Furthermore, the number of those lacking access to clean drinking water has dropped from one in six 25 years ago to one in 12 today. “Who drilled most of the wells in developing countries? It’s been Christian people, and we don’t take enough credit for what we’re doing.”

In other gains, he said the global illiteracy rate has fallen over 25 years from 80 per cent to 20 per cent, and the Christian housing mission Habitat for Humanity has just announced the completion of its one millionth house. “Who did most of the literacy training around the world? Christians. And what government can claim to have built a million homes for the poor?” he asked. To keep those statistics moving in a positive direction, he urged attendees to support the world-changing work of Christian organizations.

But to achieve the kingdom of God in a flawed world, Mr. Campolo argued, people must change from within. “Sometimes mainline denominations forget that people need to be changed individually,” he said. “We get so busy dealing with the social problems of the world that we don’t get the fact that people have to open themselves and let Christ invade them and transform them from within.”

He said he begins every day with 10 or 15 minutes of quiet focusing on Jesus to rid his mind of superfluous agendas while he waits for Christ to reach out from the cross across 2,000 years to connect with him. The paradox that the risen and ascended Christ can still be on the cross in 2017 took his sermon in a fascinating direction, where Christian theology met Einsteinian relativity. Einstein’s theory holds that the faster you travel, the more time is compressed.

“If we could travel at the speed of light, at 186,000 miles per second, all time would be compressed into one instantaneous now,” Mr. Campolo said. That is the way God and Jesus experience time, he said – not, like us, as a series of unfolding events. “For them, time is an eternal now,” he said, pointing out that when the Jews ask Jesus who he is, Jesus replies, “Before Abraham was, I am,” using the present tense for something that happened eons ago. “That’s why he can be hanging on the cross and still be at my side in the morning. He is like a sponge absorbing all the dark and ugly and sinful things in my life.”

Mr. Campolo stressed that people are very much in need of spiritual cleansing. “Jesus wants to cleanse us. The Holy Spirit cannot flow into us unless we cleanse,” he said. He emphasized the sacramental nature of reaching out to the poor and needy, the “least” of the world, and in so doing embracing Jesus. “I feel the presence of Christ in them,” he said.

Mr. Campolo also urged people to challenge governments that support the exploitation of the resources of impoverished countries, citing the example of the tax-free exporting of Nigerian petroleum by oil companies with the blessing of the Nigerian government. “Taxes on those billions of dollars in oil could provide schools and medical centres and food for the people,” he said.

He also noted that government-subsidized wheat and rice exports from Canada and the United States have destroyed the livelihoods of grain farmers in Haiti. “People in developing countries are not poor because they’re lazy,” Mr. Campolo said. “They’re poor because we have created a system that is unjust. God calls for justice. We need not only charity but we need justice.”

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Born into a Christian family in the port city of Lattakia, the London-based advocate for interfaith understanding and religious freedom spoke Oct. 16 in Toronto at a presentation sponsored by the Canadian International Council.

Mr. Nassar is a frequent and passionate commentator in the media on international religious affairs. In that role, he has been an outspoken critic of what he considers Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s “appalling support” for western military intervention in Syria.

Westerners hold many misconceptions about the Middle East, and it is proving a Herculean task to raise awareness among them, although the Arab Spring has helped somewhat to lift the veil and spark discussion on this region, he said.

“The West does not understand that in the Middle East, religion colours everything –  economics, politics, social norms, ethics,” he said. “If you don’t factor in the religious aspect, you have no idea about the issues. But the West has been afraid to talk about religion, it’s taboo.”

Few in the West are aware of Christianity’s deep roots in Syria. “Jesus Christ was born in Palestine and so was legally a Syrian citizen since Palestine was a Roman satellite of Syria,” he told a packed audience at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. Many don’t realize that having “a road to Damascus experience” refers to St. Paul’s conversion to Christianity en route to the ancient Syrian capital, he said.

Yet now, according to figures presented at his talk, resident Christians in Syria have dropped from 1.25 million in 2011 to fewer than half a million today, much of it through death and displacement. “Christian and other minority communities are at risk of being wiped off the map in the Middle East,” said Dr. Mark Sedra, president of the Canadian International Council, in his opening remarks.

Mr. Nassar founded the Awareness Foundation in 2003. It is a Christian charity whose mission is peace-building and empowering Christians everywhere to counter intolerance and promote interfaith understanding.

One of its programs is training young people in the Middle East to be ambassadors of peace and preparing them for the democracy they have never experienced. But Mr. Nassar cautioned that western-style democracy cannot be imposed but must be tailored to the norms of the region. “Democracy is like water. It takes the shape of its container, whether that’s a jug or a glass,” he said.

In his native Syria, he faced a very difficult assignment in approaching youth. “Young Syrian Christians were angry, in despair, desperate,” he said. “They were furious with the Church, with God, with the West. They were against everything.” Having lost the lives they had lived in their now-wrecked country, they were simply biding time until visas got them out – to anywhere.

Mr. Nassar related well to their nihilism since he had lived for seven years in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1990. He won their confidence by showing them he was not just another expatriate living safely in the West.

He heard them out quietly, and his listening was rewarded. “It was an incredible experience turning a person from despair to embracing the idea, ‘I can be an ambassador for peace in my own broken country,’” he said.

One positive step the West can take for Syria is to use its leverage to encourage negotiations between the country’s warring factions, with the goal of re-establishing peaceful co-existence. “Why are we not pushing toward Syrian-to-Syrian dialogue?” he asked.

Mr. Nassar has long supported talks with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad – in spite of protestations from others that no one should sit at the table with such a murderous dictator. “Assad is not going anywhere,” he said. “His army is still there.” Mr. Nassar believes dialogue is the only recourse in both Syria and Yemen.

Despite few opportunities for political power, Christians will survive in the Middle East, he said. “History has proven that Christians are resilient, but we have to work for survival. This is why the Awareness Foundation was established.” Rather than aid refugees in camps – which are devoid of Christians and other minorities, he said – the foundation has chosen to support people who choose to stay in their ancestral homeland. “The only way to try to make a difference is to be inside. We want to strengthen those who remain in the country. Exporting people is never a solution.”

Asked by The Anglican what Canadian Christians can do to help Syria, he said,  “Support those working inside the country to strengthen those who remain. And support dialogue between the warring parties.” Only by bringing sectarian stakeholders to the negotiating table can the already hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of evacuations be prevented from spiraling even higher, he said.

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Stephen was talking about our new clergy reading group. He had hosted our latest informal group discussion at St. Bride’s, Clarkson, and we were talking about why reading theology together was so helpful. “The relationship is more important than the opinions,” he said. “That’s where the Body of Christ is – lots of opinions coming together.”

When I first began to study theology, it was like a light coming on and I couldn’t get enough of it. In the years since I was ordained, I have continued to buy books. Sometimes I finish them, but often I don’t. They sit on my shelf, the bookmark a quarter or a third of the way through, at the place where other priorities of pastoral leadership intervened. I might have referenced a quote or a chapter in a sermon or a Bible study. Then I moved on – and there the book sits while I wish I had greater self-discipline.

Last year, I brought a particularly compelling book to our annual clergy conference. At a time of open announcements, I got up and talked about the book. The Crucifixion would be so relevant for preaching during Holy Week, and the author, Fleming Rutledge, was coming to give a talk at Wycliffe College. Who would join me in reading it, so that I would be sure to finish the book? We would get a lot out of it if we could meet and talk about it. I followed up with everyone who expressed interest, and we began.

Our first gathering included people I didn’t know, and people who didn’t know each other. Maybe we recognized each other’s faces from diocesan events, but we had never spoken. The discussion was wonderfully stimulating, and I think we all appreciated the diversity in the room. Some loved the book, some hated it, but the discipline of meeting together helped us finish it – and our shared reading informed our sermons during Holy Week.

We are in the middle of reading our second book, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation by Richard Rohr. Some love it and some don’t, but the conversation is stimulating, respectful, and honest. We are looking forward our next gathering, when our focus will be, “How will you preach this?”

Stephen and I are both reluctant to say that our group represents the full spectrum of theological views in the Church, but the diversity of views is evident in our conversation. We have experienced the breaking down of stereotypes. Talking together about our faith pushes back at the tendency to slot people.

“We are building shared experiences with other leaders and reflecting on pastoral care through what the text is saying,” says Stephen. I think what we are building is a bridge. When you build a bridge and then stand on it together, new things you’d never thought about become possible.

We welcome clergy to join us reading theology together. We will start our third book after Christmas.

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I could not avoid mixing business with pleasure. Thanks to a grant from the Fellowship of the Maple Leaf, a British-based agency designed to encourage dialogue between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Church of England, I connected with colleagues in Oban, Scotland; Bangor and St. Asaph, Wales; and in England. My mission was simple: to learn of their experience with stewardship education and to learn about their vision of the church for the next 20 years.

The tone of our conversations was hopeful. Even in tiny Argyll and the Isles on Scotland’s west coast, where only 720 people are identified on parish rolls in 22 congregations, there is a feeling of optimism about the future. For Episcopalians here, it has always been about perseverance. The Church has maintained a presence here since St. Columba established a monastic community on Iona in 563 AD.

Stewardship is largely practiced in terms of time and talent – with a heavy emphasis on time. With only a handful of stipendiary clergy, lay people step up as readers, pastoral visitors, service providers and diocesan staff. Giving on the collection plate is not substantial, but thanks to outside grants the Church gets by.

Conversations about the need for discipleship abound on Argyll and the Isles’ webpage and in parish bulletins. More and more, evidence seems to confirm that stewardship follows discipleship, as several parishes have experienced numeric growth in recent years. A couple have even added part-time youth ministers. In a part of the Church where numbers matter, discipleship is making a difference.

A similar experience can be found in North Wales. Discipleship is all the rage here, too. On top of that, efforts to increase on-plate collections have resulted in a near doubling of per-person giving over the past decade. The reason for the growth is two-fold: each congregation needs to be self-sustaining, as there are few external granting opportunities, and Pre-Authorized Remittance (PAR) has made giving very easy (and ensured support for ministry goes on even when people are away from church).

As you have read in my column time and again, I am a huge proponent of PAR. The Welsh call it planned giving, and it has helped sustain and even grow some congregations in the past few years. When I attended a church service in Betws-y-Coed, I was pleasantly surprised by the size and diversity of the congregation – the vicar said attendance was lower that Sunday (they must have known that the director of Stewardship from Toronto was coming)! All kidding aside, there was optimism here that the Church must maintain a Christian presence in every community.

My final conversation was with John Preston, the national stewardship and resource officer for the Church of England. He has an office in London, though like most resource staff, he is on the road most of the time. Fifty years ago, he tells me, people in the pew were not required to support ministry. This changed in the 1970s as Church investments were hit hard by declining financial markets. Despite the chaos that it caused at the time, the collapse of investment values had a positive outcome, as it forced church members to become more actively involved in the life and ministry of the Church. Among active members, proportionate giving is about 3.5 per cent of household incomes, and the proportion is nearly double that for those who use direct debit (no surprise here).

The biggest challenge for the Church of England is discipleship. Adult formation is weak, as the Church has tended to rely on its schools to teach about Christian living and to provide sacramental preparation. Fresh Expressions of Church has resulted in positive outcomes, though growing the Church is hard work, especially as society becomes more secular.

My encounter with colleagues across Britain helped confirm my own assumptions about giving and provided optimism that growth is possible when we focus on disciple-making.

One thing I took away from my journey that was completely new was a national giving program called Gift Aid. Simply put, it is a reverse tax credit arrangement where the donor designates their tax credit to a charity of his or her choice. Up to 25 per cent of any gift can be re-gifted. How ingenious!

To put this in Canadian terms, the average donor in Ontario who gives more than $200 annually is entitled to a 40.16 per cent personal tax credit. In effect, a gift of $1,000 over the first $200 “costs” the donor $598.40. This credit is used to off-set tax owed.

While I do not believe that a tax advantage is the leading motivator for giving, it might be a consideration for giving more. Consider that a donation of $1,667 would be necessary to actually “cost” the donor $1,000.

December is the most popular time of the year for people to make charitable donations. Many organizations, including churches, receive up to one-third of their annual revenue during this month. If you are able, can you Gift Aid the Church this year? While the procedure does not exist on any tax form, you can make it happen nonetheless. Up your gift by the value of the tax credit. This way charities will experience their own Christmas bonus and you will feel better knowing that your gift has had an even bigger impact.

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