Stewardship - Share Magazine Issue 40 - How to Make the World a Better Place

the stewardship magazine | issue 40

HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE Baroness Berridge on freedom of religion and belief Reaching refugees in Derby Online giving

transforming generosity

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We’re Stewardship.

We’ve been helping the UK Christian community to give and to receive since 1906, when we started out as stewards of church properties around the country.

We love making giving easy and each year help over 25,000 individuals to give around £72 million to our database of over 19,000 charitable causes.

By offering practical, tailored support, we are committed to strengthening the work of churches and Christian charities.

And we also inspire greater generosity from this community, thanks to our wealth of resources, courses and campaigns for individuals and churches alike, including the award-winning 40acts.

For more than a century we have been driven by our desire to give the wider world the opportunity to encounter Jesus through the generosity of His people and the transformational work of the causes they support.

We are Stewardship, and this is what we are about.

Contact us 1 Lamb’s Passage London EC1Y 8AB Tel: 020 8502 5600 Email: enquiries@stewardship.org.uk Web: stewardship.org.uk You can contact the editor by emailing editor@stewardship.org.uk Editor: Craig Borlase Design: adeptdesign.co.uk Stewardship is the operating name of Stewardship Services (UKET) Limited, a registered charity in England and Wales no. 234714 and a company limited by guarantee no. 90305

Editorial Hello and welcome to the 40th edition of Stewardship’s magazine!

I was recently on a plane travelling from the US and noticed that within just a few rows sat an Orthodox Jew, a Sikh couple, a Muslim family and then my husband, a Methodist minister. As it was an overnight flight there wasn’t much chance for conversation, but I did notice the quiet smiles of acknowledgement when one passed another.

If only that could happen on a global scale, I thought to myself. Reflecting on this – and especially our feature article from Baroness Berridge (page 10) – I have been considering that in order to ‘make the world a better place’, sometimes there’s a need to think (and act) outside the usual box.

I hope that like me you will be challenged by the surprising stats on world giving (page 4), and to consider how to practically respond to people in need. The welcome box project for refugees is one such way (page 20). We have exciting news on developments to our online giving account (page 7) and a reminder on how to be generous beyond our lifetimes.

Wilson who originally came up with the idea many years ago. I am the Head of Giving Services at Stewardship, but am privileged to take on the editorial piece this time as we transition from one CEO to another. Mike O’Neill has very sadly returned to the USA to take up a new role, but I hope you will soon get to know our new CEO, Stewart McCulloch.

Mother Teresa once said that the ocean was made up of tiny drops, and any small action – like a simple smile – or indeed large, such as a legacy gift, does make a difference in this world!

Frances Miles (interim CEO) PS. don’t forget our third Fundraising Conference at Central Hall Westminster on 20th November!

I know many people thoroughly enjoy reading Share, and tell us they find the articles well written and thought provoking. May I take this opportunity to thank our team who work hard to produce an excellent edition of Share each time. I also want to pay tribute to Myles

Like what you read?

Use your Stewardship account to lend your support

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Features 5

GL BAL

GIVING

News in brief

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Ever wondered about the state of global giving? Look no further than our helpful Generosity Infographic.

Stewardship in action: Giving account digital upgrade

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Baroness Berridge: Called to defend

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Welcome Churches: Going where the need is greatest

MOST GENEROUS COUNTRIES Based on the CAF World Giving Index which scores countries based on participation in charitable giving behaviours (helping a stranger, donating money, volunteering time).* 1. Myanmar 2. Indonesia 3. Kenya

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Legal and financial

4. New Zealand 5. USA

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Consultancy helpline

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Why I give: Stewart McCulloch

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The UK comes in at 11th place, ahead of other wealthy Western European neighbours such as Germany and Norway, but behind Australia, Canada and The Netherlands. *Source: Charities Aid Foundation World Giving Index 2017.

HELPING A STRANGER

REFUGEE CRISIS**

Top 5 countries for helping a stranger by participation.*

According to the UNHCR, over 1. S ierra Leone 81% 2. I raq 78%

44,500 PEOPLE A DAY are forced to leave their homes because of persecution and conflict. of refugees worldwide come from three countries

57%

ibya 3. L 77% 4. K enya 76% iberia 5. L 75%

VOLUNTEERING TIME Top 5 countries for volunteering time by participation.* 1. Indonesia 55% 2. Kenya 51% 3. Myanmar 51% 4. Liberia 46%

South Sudan 2.4m

Afghanistan 2.6m

Syria 6.3m

TOP REFUGEE-HOSTING COUNTRIES**

0m

4m

2m

Iran 980,000 Lebanon 1m Uganda 1.4m

Pakistan 1.4m

Turkey 3.5m

SYRIAN REFUGEES TAKEN IN BY THE UK** Aiming to take 23,000 by 2020 10,500 Since 2014

5. Tajikistan 44% **Source: UNHCR 19 June 2018

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News in brief Fundraising conference Stewardship’s third fundraising conference is taking place on Tuesday 20th November at Methodist Central Hall in London.

Tracey Crouch MP and Krish Kandiah of Home for Good spoke last year, and delegates’ feedback showed what a successful event it had been. “I loved the welcome, the hospitality, the location, the passion of the speakers, the encouragement to go for it!” “It was great to have the opportunity to hear top quality information and inspiration about fundraising with Jesus at the heart.

The session with the panel of funders was encouraging and very informative.

The Stewardship team did an amazing job at welcoming, being personable and also providing information.” “Thanks for making it affordable! Really appreciated the standard of speakers; very diverse.”

You can be a part of this year’s event by booking a ticket at: christianfunding.org

Clean conscience In the constant battle against modern slavery, a new app, Safe Car Wash, has been rolled out by The Clewer Initiative. Hand car washes are often used as a front by traffickers. As of summer 2018, there were about 18,000 hand car wash businesses in the UK with new ones opening every week. The app asks questions such as: “Do the workers have access to gloves and boots?” “Is there evidence of workers living on the site?”

“Does the car wash only accept cash?”

The intuitive app helps car wash users to identify the signs of modern slavery and safe ways of sharing concerns.

The app has been endorsed by the Archbishop of Canterbury who recently said: “Through the Safe Car Wash app, we now have a chance to help tackle this scourge which is damaging so many people’s lives.” theclewerinitiative.org/safecarwash 6

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y s a E ike 7 L y a d SMuornning...

COMIN G THE NE SOON… W MOB OPTIM ISED G ILE ACCOU IVING NT!

day er h t o y er And ev ek . e w e h t f to and nigh We’re making online giving even easier with some major changes to the Stewardship Giving Account.

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We’re increasingly seeing people giving on phones and tablets, even on Xboxes and Playstations.

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n an age of digital giving, the way we manage our generosity is changing.

Increasingly, we’re giving on the go. Here at Stewardship, our driving passion is to help make giving easy for anyone on their journey of generosity, so the big news is that we’re rolling out a new mobile-optimised platform for our Giving Account.

Daniel Jones is Head of Business Development at Stewardship. “We know that our clients love to be able to give wherever they are. More and more, they’re not waiting until they get home to give.

They’re being inspired while they’re out and about. When that generous impulse strikes, our goal is to make it easy to give with a Giving Account in just a couple of taps.”

What’s the aspiration for this new mobile friendly Giving Account experience? “We want to make sure that the Stewardship platform is a helpful place for givers to give and for recipients to track the financial support they receive. Our aspiration is to make it easy, joyful and convenient to give and receive money, and the new mobile experience is a key milestone in achieving that goal.”

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In November, we will start offering existing Giving Account users the chance to get early access to their new look account. At the start of next year, we’ll be inviting recipients to switch over too. By next spring we’ll make both accounts more widely available as we continue to add new features and improvements based on user feedback.

As Daniel explains, the way we give is changing rapidly. “Over the last few years, we’ve been monitoring the types of device people use to access their Giving Account.

We counted over 200! While many are still more traditional, using their laptops or Macs, we’re increasingly seeing people giving on phones and tablets, even on Xboxes and Playstations. We all access the internet in many ways and that’s only going to increase.

Our vision for the mobile Giving Account is to create a way for our clients to give easily, on the go, on whatever device they prefer to use.”

The Giving Services Team track everything to do with giving. They are experts on their clients and their needs. Camilla O’Leary takes up the story. “We’re refreshing our Giving Account because we know our clients are ready for this. The new look is going to be user-friendly and simple to use. It looks and feels like an app, but it’s browser-based.

“On the team, we spend a lot of our time supporting clients who have forgotten their login details. With the new look Giving Account, we’ve improved the login process

and you can also log in through your social media accounts, should you wish. If you leave the browser then return, it’s a lot easier and quicker to get back in again with the new system. That’s great for our clients and great for us, as it also frees us up to work on improving the account experience even more.”

Camilla’s colleague Steve Moss agrees.

“Let’s say a client is at Spring Harvest and feels led to give to a charity or good cause.

With our new mobile-optimised system, they can give in a couple of clicks, even if they’re in the middle of a field, miles from their laptop. On the Giving Services Team, we work day in, day out with givers and recipients, listening to their comments and feedback. We’re always open to suggestions to make giving easier, so we’re encouraging people to drop us a line with feedback and comments on the new mobile-optimised account.”

Lisa Hamblin is on the Systems Development Team, who have been working hard on the technical development of the new system since the start of the year.

“With the new mobile-optimised system, a username and password specific to Stewardship is no longer the only login option, which we know frustrated some people, so fixing that has been central to the project. When we rolled out our first version of the online account in 2010, less than 5% of our clients were using Safari [the default browser on Apple devices]. Now, nearly everyone’s accessing their giving via iPhones, iPads and Macs. The way people give has changed and that’s prompted us to change with them.”

If you’re interested in being one of the first to trial the new mobile optimised Giving Account, please email us at giving@stewardship.org.uk

With our new mobile-optimised system, they can give in a couple of clicks, even if they’re in the middle of a field, miles from their laptop.

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Baroness Berridge of the Vale of Catmose actively advocates the fundamental right to have, choose, change and manifest one’s religion or belief.

Why? Because the Bible tells us so…

HE FIGHT F R FREE OM 10

What’s left standing of a church in Qaraqosh, Iraq

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Share: What’s the current state of freedom of religion or belief worldwide?

Baroness Berridge: You only have to look in the news to know there are serious problems.

The Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, as well as Christians and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq, are all examples of violations of freedom of religion or belief. Recent legislation passed in Russia has outlawed the Jehovah’s Witnesses and there have been cases of atheists being put in prison in Indonesia. There are problems in the northern part of Nigeria, and some NGOs say that the situation for the Ahmadi Muslims and the Shia Muslims in Pakistan is akin to genocide. Seventy-six per cent of the world’s population live under high or very high restrictions of freedom of religion or belief, imposed either directly by the state or groups within societies.

There are parts of the world where there is much freedom of religion or belief, such as countries like Gambia, Sierra Leone and across West Africa. Some of the best that we have come across on the inclusion of the Ahmadi Muslim community in interfaith leadership is in Ghana. I don’t want people to think it’s all a bad picture but there are serious problems at the moment.

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OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION LIVE UNDER HIGH OR VERY HIGH RESTRICTIONS OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF, IMPOSED EITHER DIRECTLY BY THE STATE OR GROUPS WITHIN SOCIETIES.

Share: For some people some of these things – like outlawing Jehovah’s Witnesses – don’t sound so bad. How do you square this with your faith?

Baroness Berridge: My understanding of biblical theology, right through from Genesis to Revelation, is the innate character of the human person has been created with the ability to choose or not to choose. There’s never compulsion to follow Christ, never a compulsion to make that decision. It’s just not in the DNA of Christianity. Whenever a group of people – whether it’s a family, a societal group or a nation state – seeks to use the tools at its disposal to compel people to believe a certain belief; that is contrary to how we’ve been created.

Remember the way Jesus deals with the rich young ruler; Jesus loves him, but Jesus also lets him go. And loving our neighbour and visiting those in prison includes those who don’t agree with us. Defending people’s right to make their own choices is part of the living Christian witness.

A lot of the mistakes that are being made today have also been made in our history.

In the Tudor period we linked the nation state with Catholicism and persecuted Protestants, then linked the nation state with Protestantism and persecuted Catholics. Right up until the 17th/18th century you could be fined for not attending the Anglican church. Hence the rise of non-conformity; the Browne separatists who were the beginning of the Baptist church and the Puritans who wanted to reform Anglicanism.

While the Pilgrim Fathers fled such religious oppression in England and searched out a new land, today there are not the places globally for nearly a million Rohingya Muslims to go. The land is all allocated, and that’s part of the difficulty.

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Baroness Berridge with the staff of the APPG for International Freedom of Religion or Belief, Amro Hussain, Rev. Lesley Perry and Katharine Thane.

Photo by Picture Partnership

Share: Have you always seen it this way, theologically, or has your approach changed?

Baroness Berridge: If you’d asked me ten years ago whether I believed that people should be able to choose one way or another, I would have said yes. But since getting involved with this issue about six years ago I’ve become aware of the tendency in the Christian community to speak out only on behalf of other Christians. You can get that in other communities too. You tended to hear from the Bahá’í when the Bahá’í are being persecuted, from the Ahmadi when Ahmadi are being persecuted and so on. I’m trying to unpick when it is appropriate to look after the household of faith, but also when to speak up on behalf of others as well.

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It has been reported to me from many Christians who are under persecution, that their rich trust in Christ and in heaven is very palpable. They’re often less concerned about themselves than about those who have not yet heard the good news. They know where they’re going and they’re concerned about those in their community who don’t have such assurance.

I’M TRYING TO UNPICK WHEN IT IS APPROPRIATE TO LOOK AFTER THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH, BUT ALSO WHEN TO SPEAK UP ON BEHALF OF OTHERS AS WELL.

Share: Are there any persecuted Christians you’ve met who’ve had a particular impact on you?

1990'S

Baroness Berridge: Whilst there are many

TODAY

accounts throughout history and today, one of the saddest situations is to see the decline in the Christian community across the lands of the Middle East and North Africa, the land that Jesus actually lived in. Iraq once had a Christian population of over 1.3 million in the 1990s but some estimates put this figure now as low as 100,000. The Middle East and North Africa now has the smallest number of Christians (about 13 million) of any major geographic region. Overall, the proportion of Middle Easterners who are Christian has dropped from 14% in 1910 to 4% today.

I was so struck by the stories of many children in this area who are holding onto their love of Jesus. The interview by SAT-7 with Myriam, a child refugee from Qaraqosh who forgave her ISIS captors, is truly inspiring and worthy of the half a million hits that it had on YouTube.

IRAQ CHRISTIAN POPULATION*

Equal to 100,000 people. *based on estimates due to a lack of census

CHRISTIAN POPULATION BY REGION Europe

565.5m

Middle East North Africa

12.8m

Americas

Asia-Pacific

804m

285.1m

Sub-Saharan Africa

516.4m

CHRISTIANS IN THE MIDDLE EAST 1900

14.2M 1.6M 141.4M 7.5M

2010 Christians

Non Christians

Sources: Pew Research Center The Global Religious Landscape report 2011

Destroyed Armenian church in Mosul, Iraq

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Share: The Message translation puts Matthew 5:3 as: ‘You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope’. I wonder if there’s a need for Christians to look out and see the bigger picture here, to not circle the wagons, become insular and perceive religious freedom as the right to refuse to bake a cake that celebrates same sex marriage.

The all-parliamentary group has 115 parliamentarians – MPs, peers and bishops.

We have 25 different organisations supporting it, ranging from Bahá’í, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Humanists, Latter-Day Saints as well as Christian groups. We don’t agree theologically but we do believe in everybody’s right to be able to make those choices for themselves.

Baroness Berridge: Yes. Jim Shannon MP, who chairs the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief – and myself, the co-chair – see that there are so many people for whom life and liberty are the issues. If you are Bahá’í in Iran you will not get access to education, particularly university education. For many people around the world this is about whether they are in prison or not, and their religious identity affects every single other right. The needs are so acute and the policy solutions are so sparing that we wanted to put all the pressure we could on the British government to do what it could.

It’s very important for Share readers to get in touch with your member of parliament and raise this issue. Say that this matters to you electorally, that this is one of the issues on which you choose how to vote. Ask them to raise this issue in parliament, to speak in debates and persistently ask questions of the government. Ask to hear back from them about what they have done.

Jamtoli refugee camp, Bangladesh

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Last October the all-party group released a report called From Rhetoric to Reality – aimed at the UK government, outlining exactly what we think they should be putting forward in terms of policy. Although the PM has spoken up in support, it’s got to be a political priority of the Foreign Secretary. When William Hague was Foreign Secretary, he pioneered the work around preventing sexual violence in conflict. That’s the level of political support you need to really bring about change.

Photo by Picture Partnership

Share: Which organisations do you think are doing particularly good work in this area?

belief, both nationally and internationally, and ensure that people understand the rights that they have.

Baroness Berridge: At the moment within the Christian community there is Open Doors, Aid to the Church in Need, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Release International and as I have mentioned SAT-7. There is a role for these groups that are faith aligned, but I think we need a faith-neutral group as well.

We’re very new, (we haven’t even got a website yet), but we’ve taken the model of how we formed the parliamentary group – making sure we have stakeholders and trustees from different religious communities and humanists. So of the current trustees, one is a Muslim, one is Bahá’í and I am a Christian. That’s really important as it gives us credibility and shows that we’re fighting for everybody.

That’s why myself and a couple of other people have been involved in forming a new charity called Freedom Declared Foundation.

We want to focus on freedom of religion or

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Every ne has the righ o freed m of th ught, cons ience a d religi n; this righ includes freed m o hange his religio or belief, and freed m, ei her alo e or in com uni y with thers and in p blic or priva e, to ma ifest his religi n or belief in eaching, practi e, w rship and observan e.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 18

Above: Representation of some of the many faith and belief groups who could benefit from Article 18 of the UDHR

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Right: Rohingya men, women, and children, stateless and unemployed, shelter from the hot midday sun in a makeshift shelter at Jamtoli refugee camp in Bangladesh.

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Ruth Leigh spoke with Karina Martin about an innovative – and life-changing – project among refugees.

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ARRIVALS

A

five-year-old Kurdish girl stands at a UK airport, hands gripping her mother’s skirts, an unfamiliar language ebbing and flowing around her.

There are no welcome home banners, no smiling faces, no reception committee in the arrivals lounge for this family. Worse, there are sideways glances, frowns, words whispered behind closed hands.

A decade later and preparing for her GCSEs, that same girl reflects on the event that followed her arrival in the UK. “Very soon after that, some English people came to visit us. They were pleased to see us. They smiled and welcomed us. Then they handed us a welcome box full of small gifts and it made me feel that not everyone hated me.”

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The woman behind the smile is Karina Martin, founder of the charity Welcome Churches.

With the strapline, “No Refugee Alone”, she and her team believe that refugees arriving in the UK should be made to feel welcomed and valued as they arrive in a new community. They are working to ensure that asylum seekers and refugees are connected with a local church and can explore their faith without fear of intimidation or persecution.

So how did it all start?

“In 2000, my husband and I were praying about whether we should go overseas while at the same time talking to God about working with people from unreached groups. We live in Derby, a city which is home to many refugees. We’d lived overseas previously and when we had our first baby there, we were strangers in a foreign land. That gave us a heart for those who were displaced for whatever reason.”

In 2002, Karina, her husband and their three small children moved into the city centre with open hearts. “I was working and volunteering with some local refugee organisations. My husband was employed part-time at our church and as an English language teacher at the University. We were both connecting with different cultures and starting to see a bigger picture emerging.”

In 2005, Karina started Upbeat Communities, working with others from Community Church Derby to build relationships with refugees, help and support them.

“We came up with the idea of a welcome box so that we could visit refugees in our city, tell them how pleased we were to see them and offer practical and emotional support.

Through Welcome Boxes we trained church members how to welcome and support refugees and asylum seekers. Our church went from a demographic of about 3% nonwhite British to around 20% non-white British.

It’s been such a privilege to introduce so many of our friends to Jesus.”

In 2015, when the refugee crisis hit UK TV screens, Karina and the team started to share the Welcome Boxes project with other churches.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that initially, there was some opposition. “Some people weren’t sure if we should be encouraging people to come over here. There are lots of myths around about refugees and asylum seekers.

I say, ‘What would we feel if we had to leave everything behind and come to a foreign country? How would we want to be welcomed?’ God calls us to welcome the stranger, never mind what their situation is.”

God calls us to welcome the stranger, never mind what their situation is.

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When refugees are treated as human beings and not statistics, the stories move away from tragedy and towards hope.

On the ground in Derby, lives were being transformed. “I remember it was three days before Christmas, dark and raining. There was a knock on our door. A lady called Zahra was standing there with tears rolling down her cheeks. She’d just arrived from Iran, having had to flee as the authorities had found Christian material in her possession.”

Arriving in the UK, Zahra had rung a distant relative who brought her to Karina’s house.

“None of us were quite sure what to do, but Zahra told us she had a brother in the USA. One of our team contacted him. His reply read: ’You’re not the Glynn and Margaret who baptised me 10 years ago in Austria, are you?’ They were! God had brought Zahra all the way from Iran to our house where someone on our tiny team knew her brother.”

It hasn’t all been plain sailing. “Our church changed as we welcomed refugees in, and change is difficult for some. We have negotiated through a lot of crosscultural stuff which can give potential for misunderstandings. However, warm and nurturing relationships have been built between many in the congregation and members love the contribution refugees make in terms of worship, prayer and building community. Everyone is touched when refugees share testimonies of how God has worked in some very traumatic situations. The church and Upbeat have been instrumental in starting Refugee Week and Derby’s City of Sanctuary group.”

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When refugees are treated as human beings and not statistics, the stories move away from tragedy and towards hope. “One of our congregation, a Syrian Christian named Milad, fled when the civil war began, as he lived in an ISIS controlled area. He managed to get to Turkey to board a boat carrying 300. It sank, killing 30. Milad made it to England to claim political asylum. He was in Derby on his own, not knowing a soul. There was a knock at his door and it was two of our team with a welcome box for him. I’ll never forget what he said. ‘My life has begun again. It’s not what was in the box, but what was in their hearts; and their hearts said welcome.’ Milad’s story is miraculous. He joined our church, took English classes and works locally resettling Syrian refugees. He was reunited with his fiancée last year and they married at Christmas.”

For Karina and the team, the next step is clear. “Nations have come. Our dream originally was that the church would look more like Derby. Now it does, and it reflects God’s kingdom far more fully. Next, we want to ensure that every UK church can do something to help refugees settle and find a place to call home. That‘s why we‘re creating a national network of churches who are committed to saying welcome!”

With a vision of empowering and encouraging a culture of welcome and acceptance UK-wide, Welcome Churches are ensuring that displaced and traumatised people coming to our shores are always made to feel that someone is pleased to see them, and that love outweighs hate, every time. welcomechurches.org If you would like to support Welcome Churches’ vision to see every refugee welcomed by a local church, the team would love to hear from you.

Welcome Churches give.net/welcomechurches

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Legal & financial

UR LET YO SITY LIVE ON O GENER WHY LEAVE A LEGACY? Leaving a legacy gift under your will offers an opportunity to make a substantial contribution to a cause you care about. A legacy might be an expression of thanks to God for an organisation which has played a significant role in your life or in the lives of your family.

This may be the church where you or your children were nurtured; it may be the evangelistic organisation that first introduced you to Jesus; it may be an organisation overseas that you have supported during your life and want to continue to benefit after your death.

HOW DO I LEAVE A LEGACY? In order to leave a gift to charity you will need to make or update your will. The formalities for making a valid will are strict and so it is usually best to use a solicitor or will writing service.

Your charitable gift might be a specific amount of money (perhaps indexed for inflation), a percentage of your estate or the residue remaining after payment of any legacies to individuals.

Charitable legacies are free of inheritance tax.

In addition, if you leave at least 10% of your estate to charity, the rest of your estate will benefit from a reduced inheritance tax rate of 36% rather than 40%.

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HOW WE CAN HELP – STEWARDSHIP’S LEGACY GIVING ACCOUNT Stewardship can make it easy for you to remember charities in your will. Your will can include just one gift to Stewardship, rather than separate gifts to different charities. You can then complete a Legacy Giving Account Application Form to let us know about your legacy and tell us how you would like it to be used.

In your Expression of Wishes, you can: cA sk us to distribute your legacy gift to

your favourite causes (immediately or over a period of time) cA ppoint a friend or family member as

your successor to request donations from your legacy cE ntrust your legacy to Stewardship to

distribute at our discretion.

Don’t forget to let us know what should happen to any balance remaining in your lifetime Giving Account or Gold Account on your death.

The Legacy Giving Account offers flexibility, as you can make changes to your Expression of Wishes at any time without the hassle and cost of amending your will. It also offers discretion: your will becomes a public document after your death, whereas your Expression of Wishes remains private and could even request that any donations from your legacy are made anonymously.

Rachel Steeden Rachel Steeden is an experienced private client and charities lawyer who has recently joined the Stewardship team as in-house legal advisor.

CHARITY WILL SCHEMES Charity will schemes enable you to have a simple will drawn up free of charge by a local solicitor. In return, you will be asked to consider making a donation to one of the charities which supports the campaign.

October 2018 is the next Free Wills Month. This scheme is open to anyone who is aged 55 or over or wishes to make a mirror will with a spouse who is over that age. freewillsmonth.org.uk Will Aid takes place each November and has no minimum age limit. willaid.org.uk Will Relief Scotland takes place each September and raises funds for four Christian development charities. willreliefscotland.co.uk For more information about Biblical, legal and tax considerations in making your will, please see our briefing paper Legacy giving: where there’s a will there’s a way available at stewardship.org.uk/legacies Here you will also find the Legacy Giving Account Application Form, which includes a template for your Expression of Wishes.

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Ask Steve Professional advice for churches and charities Stephen Mathews heads up the Stewardship consultancy helpline team, a specialist service offering expert knowledge to churches and charities.

cA dditional questions about payments

made to trustees including non-cash benefits

Q: Our church is getting ready to complete our 2018 Charity Commission Annual Return, but understand that more questions have been added. Can you tell us what to expect?

The Charity Commission has introduced some new questions into the 2018 Annual Return covering areas which they see as currently high risk. These include: cS afeguarding cP ayments to trustees cO verseas income and expenditure cP rofessional fundraising.

Following consultation, the Commission has made some minor concessions to its starting position, but for most charities, especially those which have an international feel, the 2018 Return brings with it a new administrative burden.

The areas more likely to impact on UK churches are: cQ uestions about safeguarding and the

extent to which DBS checks have been obtained in charities which work with children or vulnerable adults 28

cQ uestions about expenditure outside of

England and Wales, including expenditure in Scotland – grants may be an issue here, especially where grants are paid outside of the regulated banking sector.

Less likely to impact are: cQ uestions concerning income from

overseas cQ uestions exploring the relationship with

professional fundraisers cQ uestions focusing on employees receiving

total employee benefits of above ÂŁ60,000.

For 2018, some questions are optional, becoming mandatory in 2019 and in some cases the responses will be made public by the Charity Commission. So be prepared to allow more time to complete the return than in the past.

Q: Our charity provides grants and works with an overseas orphanage which our trustees visit on a regular basis. Is there any advice on safeguarding that you can give us?

Safeguarding, particularly where vulnerable children are involved, is currently high

profile, both with the Charity Commission and with a sometimes hostile media. The Charity Commission is increasingly expecting grant funders to take a greater interest in the controls and safeguards operated by organisations which they fund and, as recently highlighted, their own safeguarding controls “when visiting programmes they’ve funded or might fund”. So, good safeguarding measures are important and might include the following: Undertake DBS checks on all persons likely to visit the orphanage.

Operate a regularly reviewed and properly understood safeguarding policy covering areas such as: The requirement to undertake DBS checks; Guidelines on interacting with the children: c I n what locations can interaction take place? cW hat is considered appropriate/

inappropriate interaction? cN ot being with children without the

presence of at least one other adult; cN ever to be in a one-to-one situation with

a child.

Take, and follow, advice from one of the UK’s specialist safeguarding organisations, such as Thirtyone:eight (formerly the Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service) at thirtyoneeight.org As soon as possible, write an account of situations which could lead to an accusation of inappropriate behaviour.

This package of measures, combined with some applied common sense during visits, should serve to protect the children and also to protect trustees against malicious accusations.

At Stewardship we have been asked our views on using lottery funding to pay for church projects.

My comments are: Church leaders have differing views on whether churches should consider using lottery funding. Even where leaders see gambling as wrong, some would argue that once lottery funds become available then churches should not shy away from applying for them; others would argue that such funds are always ‘off limits’. Some of the arguments on both sides are summarised below, and are more fully explored in our briefing paper ‘churches and lottery funding’.

Arguments in favour include: cT he good that can be done with the funding outweighs any concerns of where the money comes from; cP revious precedent. Biblical examples show that obviously tainted objects or money have been used for Kingdom purposes; c I f we don’t use it, then someone else will; cA ren’t all forms of investment gambling in any case?

Arguments against include: cC hurches give an implicit consent to gambling; cC hurches are seen as hypocritical and lose their ability to speak into or teach objectively on the topic; cC hurches reshape their ministry to fit in with lottery funding criteria; c I t demotivates giving by church members and attendees.

Given the spectrum of views, there is not an obvious or clear conclusion. Take a look at our briefing paper to explore the issue in more depth before making up your own mind.

Visit stewardship.org.uk/blog for links to all the briefing papers mentioned Subscribe to Stewardship’s consultancy helpline service, visit stewardship.org.uk/consultancy Subscriptions for churches and charities start from as little as £50 per year.

If you have a question you would like addressed in a future edition of Share, please write to us at editor@stewardship.org.uk

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WHY I

GIVE Stewart McCulloch

Chief Executive Stewardship

What were you taught about generosity when you were a child?

Growing up, we did not have much money, but my father – a carpenter – gave his time and skills to our elderly and poor neighbours.

If they were in need he was always there to help. I helped him sometimes, replacing the draughty old windows at a women’s refuge or repairing a church hall floor. The latter was where I earned my first £5. I think he and the minister took pity on me for how dirty I got spending days scraping the sticky black adhesive off the hundreds of wooden tiles so they could be reused. I realise now that I learnt that generosity is not just about money; it is about giving all of yourself to loving your neighbour.

Who or what has been the biggest influence on your giving?

Five days after our 25th wedding anniversary, my first wife Jane died from cancer. In those dark days, a grief-stricken father to three teenage children, the pastoral care I received from the Rector of my church was profound.

My first financial gift of any substance to the church came out of unending gratitude for this care. I had no idea that this first gift 30

would trigger a series of events that would deepen my faith, heal my heart, bring me into closer relationship with Jesus and commit my work to Christian ministry.

Eventually I found myself in a position to make another, bigger gift to the church, but was troubled about how to do this most effectively – how could I maintain discretion?

Where would the gift make most impact? My prayers for guidance were answered in the most unexpected way: I was asked to become the Treasurer!

Working through the muddle that had become the church finances was such a blessing. I could offer my skills in the way my earthly father had shown me as a child. I knew exactly how to be most impactful in my financial giving to the church too. And I was blessed to have the support of a delightful Parish Office Manager who helped me in this role. After some gentle prompting from others, we went out for coffee, and Sarah is now my wife.

As I have given money, time and skills, I can faithfully declare that I have been blessed a thousandfold more, spiritually, personally, relationally and in ways I didn’t dream possible.

What’s the best example you’ve seen of generosity in action?

What do you know now about giving that you didn’t know ten years ago?

I began to witness truly radical Christian giving when I worked for World Vision. I saw one particular group of wonderfully generous donors be transformed over a number of years, starting with a routine tour of agricultural development projects in Tanzania. The Holy Spirit was clearly at work as the group became so moved by the organisation we were visiting they decided to significantly multiply their ‘investment’ (without really any expectation of return) and make it their work too.

I have learnt that the more one gives the more God blesses, and that generosity is therefore core to the Christian life lived to the full. And when it is long term, engaged and values the relationship, giving is spiritually transformative for both the giver and the receiver.

Two of the donors were so strongly called that they moved to Tanzania to help lead the organisation; and so the Great African Food Company, GAFCO, was created to transform the livelihoods of small farmers in Africa through a biblically empowered world view and approach to business.

The World Vision National Director in Tanzania at the time, and the architect of this approach, retired recently and also joined GAFCO to help them further pursue their mission with Christ woven deep into its fabric.

God put the donors, charity workers and farmers into relationship, transforming all three in what, for me, is an inspiring example of generosity of resources, time and spirit.

What biblical passages inspire generosity in you the most?

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

2 Corinthians 9:6-8 NIV

What’s the hardest thing about giving?

Our modern society often tells us that we need more, that we need to aspire to live the life of the rich and famous and that only by doing this will we be truly happy. This illusion is one that is built on a world view of individualism, envy and, ironically, scarcity. From that emerges a pervasive cultural narrative that we are losing some of what is ours when we give to others; that perspective can be so easy to fall into and can make giving hard at times.

I am grateful, inspired and humbled to be given the opportunity to now dedicate myself to the cause of Christian Generosity.

And the easiest thing?

I have met many happy and spiritually fulfilled people in the poor communities of Africa and Asia. Their focus on faith, family, community and appreciation of all of God’s blessings are the root of spiritual riches and lead to a biblically empowered world view based on God’s abundance. Despite their comparative poverty, giving is much easier for them than we would expect in the richer northern hemisphere.

I am grateful, inspired and humbled to be given the opportunity to now dedicate myself to the cause of Christian Generosity by taking the leadership position at Stewardship. It was therefore easy to accept this offer to dedicate all of my strength and heart to this service for the Lord.

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