Welcome

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Did your church go Red2Black?

"We used a lot of your material....It was a fantastic service, and I feel so humble to have been part of it. What made it easier was the great material provided by Stewardship. Our Pastor especially appreciated it as he didn't have to write a sermon!

We used the video clip and we are now looking at a small group of people to do a money ministry. God is great!"  Andy & Jane Brown

The Red2Black website will now become a permanent resource for churches. 

Public Benefit - our representation to the Charity Commission

Many in the Christian community have expressed concern over the new requirement on religious charities to demonstrate public benefit - most notably in the charity's annual report and accounts.  

The Charity Commission have published guidance on public benefit and recently consulted on draft supplementary guidance covering charities for the advancement of religion.

Stewardship has prepared a comprehensive response to the consultation. We were generally pleased with the underlying messages in the draft guidance and our sense is that if the Commission take careful note of the responses made by us and others, the final guidance will remove many of the concerns voiced from within the church since charity legislation was revised.

Click here for a copy of the Consultation Document

Download a copy of Stewardship's response here

Updated Budget 2008 Paper

The detail of the budget in March contained some mixed messages. Stewardship were invited to meet with HMRC at the Treasury recently to get to grips with the real implications of the Gift Aid announcements.

As a result, Kevin Russell, our Technical and Professional Services Director, has updated the original Briefing Paper on the budget. Take another look here.

Accounts Examination - demand outstrips supply

Due to an unprecedented demand for our Accounts Examination service we have taken the unusual step of temporarily halting new client work. 

Stephen Mathews, Head of Accounting Services, comments "We have been victims of our own success.  The quality and value of service that we have achieved in recent years has led to a sharp increase in new enquiries.  In order to maintain our standards to existing clients we will be limiting new clients until the Autumn, by which time more resources will be in place to deal with these enquiries."

Could you, or someone you know, have the relevant skills to strengthen our team of examiners at our Loughton office?  Please visit our website for more information. 

More efficiency savings

Sovereign Account customers have been appreciating our drive to increase the 'switchover', so that they receive their standard correspondence from us via automated email instead of letters. This is particularly relevant for charities that receive confirmations every time a new gift is made or there is a change to a regular standing order.

By way of an example, in the last two months over 2,000 communications were sent by email instead of letter.

Crown Ministries launch

Crown Ministries is a significant US Christian organisation, known to Stewardship for a number of years.

It seeks to teach biblical financial principles through a range of tools and resources, including the Crown Small Group Study. Crown's ministry now spans 60 countries and is launching in the UK this September. The launch event takes place in Wolverhampton on 25 September. Full information and details of Crown’s resources are available at www.crownuk.org

Free Prince Caspian Resources

Finally, we couldn't resist telling you about a stash of high quality resources for churches that have been made freely available from the Damaris Trust.

Following the current cinema release of the popular Prince Caspian film, a large selection of video clips, illustrations and spiritual themes are clearly packaged for you at www.narnia.co.uk/resources