Fordingbridge Open Gardens 25th May to 27th May

Why are we doing this?

St Mary’s Church Fordingbridge is part of the Church of England but despite the Church of England being the “national” church, which means it and its priests are there for everyone, it receives no state funding. Individual churches like St Mary’s have to preserve and run the buildings (usual things like heating, lighting, repairs and so on) by raising the funds. A lot of this comes from the people who attend, and their giving is part of their commitment to the church but it costs more than £400 a day to keep St Mary’s open which includes ensuring the Diocese of Winchester, (of which we are part) has the funds to maintain our vicar’s house, pay his stipend (his monthly income) and ensure he can retire at some point!

St Mary’s is a grade 1 listed building and so repairs are always expensive as we have to use specialist materials and tradespeople. We have spent approximately half a million pounds recently as the lead roof had to be partially replaced as did our heating system and electric supply. The cost of upgrading the electric supply alone was over £17,000. We were lucky to have a legacy which covered this work but it doesn’t cover all of our other expenses and in recent years we have been running a deficit. From 2024 onwards we are determined to at least break even for our regular costs and so we need to raise additional funds and this weekend event is one of those planned fundraisers.

We are there when local people want to baptise a child, or an adult, want to get married or need to say goodbye to a loved one at a funeral and we welcome everyone whether they attend regularly or not, but to do so we need to be able to ensure the building can stay open and we have the people to provide that support.

We are only asking for a small sum from you this weekend (£10 cash) but if you would like to support us more regularly please contact us and we can help you to set up a donation, and if you are a tax payer we can also reclaim and benefit from the amount of tax you have paid on that donation. It’s quick and easy and it is run by an organisation on our behalf so we won’t see your details! Or if you would like to give us an additional one-off sum please contact the parish office.