Correction to All Saints Gazette
Greetings from All Saints!
The version of the newsletter that went out a short while ago had a sentence that was potentially incorrect in the section about money. We do however need money, so here’s a corrected version of that section. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Money Again (à propos of throwing money in shoes)
Once we have the means to store membership data in accordance with EU privacy laws, we will invite everyone to pledge for 2025. A pledge is a non-binding (but hopefully realistic) goal for your offerings in 2025.
There will never be a cost to being part of All Saints; as long as we exist, we are a free gift to everyone. God will move people to give us the resources we need as long as this work is God’s will and people value it and need it. But we do need money to keep doing this, and knowing what you intend to give (i.e. a pledge) helps us do the background work that makes things we’re actually here for possible.
As St. Theresa of Avila correctly (if perhaps apocryphally) said:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Every offering, not just of money, is honored by God. The time you spend coming to church or praying, the food you contribute, the way you show up for each other and for justice everywhere all counts! Money may not be the part of this that most of us get excited about (and we may not have a lot of it ourselves). But whatever we can give is an investment in the community we want. A strong pledge base also helps us convince funding agencies (who have more money than we do) that we believe in this enough to support it as much as we can, and they should support it as much as they can.
If you can’t pledge or give a lot, pledge and give a little. It makes a difference! If one person gives €15 a week for a year, they will have paid for a month’s worth of the hours that Mpho or I are authorized to bill (5 per week; we offer many more as a gift). €5 a week for a year pays for a month’s rent at Vrijburg. If 20 people gave €25 a week for the whole year, we would basically be in the black.
In the meantime, while we are still getting the infrastructure for pledging set up, whatever you can give now helps. And if you happen to have something leftover at the end of the year and are looking for a new home for it, consider offering it to God through All Saints. For anyone who does have taxable assets, here or elsewhere: take a look at whether you might be able to deduct a year-end gift!
You can still make a gift now!
Use the QR code or this link, or make a transfer through your banking app (the latter saves us a few cents). Please consider making your offering recurring.
Bank details
All Saints Amsterdam
IBAN NL32 TRIO 0320 8657 62
BIC TRIONL2U
And we still want to talk to you!
Website: https://allsaintsamsterdam.church
Mpho: mpho@allsaintsamsterdam.church
Kyle: kyle@allsaintsamsterdam.church
General: info@allsaintsamsterdam.church
Instagram: @allsaintsamsterdam.church
