Giving to the Cathedral - More Information
2 Steps to Giving at St Andrew’s Cathedral
Step 1 - How Much Should I Give?
In theory
In the Old Testament, God commanded his people to give at least a tenth ('tithe') of all their produce to God in joyful response to his blessings to them. Much of the tithe went towards supporting the priests and Levites who served them in God's work, and through them, to the poor in the community (e.g. Numbers 18, Deuteronomy 26).
The New Testament never stipulates percentages. But in some practical advice about a collection for the Jerusalem poor, Paul says (1 Corinthians 16:2),
On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.
This tells us:
We need to plan responsibly ahead to give.
Giving should be proportional to our income.
So how much should we give? Can you imagine the disciples giving less than their previous tithe after they became Christian? Perhaps 10% is a good starting point. But it should be a launch pad for generosity, never a legalistic figure we must stick to. For example, with very large families or very low incomes, 10% may be difficult to manage. But many Australians have been abundantly blessed, and can afford to give a higher percentage.
In practice
The first step is to work out how much money you receive. You can do this by adding up your various sources of income (e.g. total wages or salary, pensions and allowances, interest and dividends). Calculate your expected total annual income. Then decide on a percentage and do the maths! Lastly, break this amount down into a monthly or weekly figure. In calculating the amount to give, make allowance for:
Providing for you and your own family (1 Timothy 5:3-8) - needs rather than wants (1 Timothy 6:6-8)
Paying your taxes and debts (Romans 13:6-7)
Being prudent for the future (Proverbs 27:23-27), but not greedy or anxious (Matthew 6:19-34)
The process of 'deciding in your heart' how much to give should be repeated each year or so, or as your financial situation changes. This could include a review of the percentage you give, as well as a recalculation to reflect a change in income.
Step 2 - To Whom Should I Give?
In the Old Testament, the Israelite tithe was channelled to the Priests and Levites who had no other source of income because of their duties, and to the poor of the land. We see a similar patten in the New Testament, where Christian giving is directed to meeting the needs of those who labour amongst us in the Lord, as well as towards the poor.
In practice, this means directing your giving towards your church, wider gospel work and to the poor. Accordingly, you will need to apportion the amount you calculated at Step 1 between these different areas.
St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney
A large proportion of your gift should go towards supporting the local ministry from which you benefit. Indeed, 60% of our expenses go to paying for 'those who labour amongst us in the Lord'. The rest is spent mainly on ministry resources and property maintenance and conservation.
We are blessed to receive some property income and ministry subsidies from other sources, but much of this is tied to the very expensive maintenance of our heritage-listed Cathedral site. It will not substantially fund the expansion of our gospel ministries.
Wider gospel work and the poor
We encourage every believer to consider directly supporting Christian agencies that support wider gospel ministry and aid the poor.
On our main giving page, we have linked to ministries we trust, which support and resource gospel ministry and care for the needy here and abroad. Those agencies were: CMS, Anglican Aid, Anglicare, Moore College and Youthworks. All are closely connected with our Anglican churches in Sydney, and undergo rigorous auditing procedures.
You can, of course, give to many other worthy Christian or secular agencies as you see fit.
Currently, in all cases, we encourage you to send you gifts to these agencies directly.