Church of Ireland
St. Maelruain’s Parish
Tallaght
Parish Office: St. Maelruain’s Parish Office, Main Street, Tallaght, Dublin 24. Tel / Fax: 4626006
Gift Day Sunday 22nd November 2020
Dear Parishioner
The Select Vestry has decided to hold the annual Gift Day on Sunday 22nd November this year.
The Select Vestry would like to thank all of you who contributed to the parish funds in the past year. It is an expensive business maintaining a beautiful old church like ours and unfortunately there will always be repairs and upkeep that need to be addressed.
We are all living in exceptional times facing the Covid19 pandemic, as I write this letter we are now back in Level 5 restrictions. Many of you are facing drastic financial repercussions due to job losses as a result of business closures with others being less affected.
Those of you who receive this Gift Day letter annually know that the parish struggles with it’s finances on a yearly basis. By the end of 2019 the parish deficit approached €8000 so needless to say the financial implications for our parish due to the pandemic restrictions have been catastrophic.
We have tried out best to keep the parish connected despite not being physically able to attend church with almost sixty services posted on Facebook live. The doors of the church were only open for eleven weeks over an eight month period. Our other sources of income such as community hall rental, Summer Sale and Christmas Sing Along have not been viable. When our doors were open, we had a core group of about fifty parishioners who attended church with numbers usually in the mid to early twenties on any given Sunday so as you can imagine that giving so far for 2020 has been down considerable, maybe people would consider giving by bank transfer of the usual amount they donate?
We have made use of the Governments pandemic wage subsidy scheme but this scheme covers no more than 85% of costs for our parish secretary and sexton.
There has been a site of worship in St. Maelruain’s since the Middle Ages, it would be very sad if the fall out of the COVID19 pandemic resulted in the permanent closure of the doors of our Church, the Select Vestry appeals to all the recipients of this letter to do what you can to support the parish.
While we are blessed with many families in Tallaght Parish, many may not be regular worshipers in Church on Sundays but still avail of the Church for occasions such as baptisms, weddings and funerals etc. We encourage all Parishioners to reconsider their financial support to the Parish. The Church of Ireland lets each parish stand on its own financially.
We ask that you respond as generously as you can, keeping in mind, that all donations over €250 per annum, either given through the weekly envelope scheme, by standing order, or by once off donations and which are identifiable to individuals can qualify for a Tax Refund. This costs you nothing as it is a refund to the parish on tax you have already paid but can be a significant way for the parish to raise funds. If you don’t already do so, please consider giving in a recordable manner.
If you would like to give a single donation please fill in the Gift Day form attached. You may donate though standing order, form also attached. (contact Parish office for document with this form tallaghparish@gmail.com)
If you would like to join the envelope scheme please contact the parish office 462 6006 or the Rector 086 803 0239.
If you would like to do a once off bank transfer online contact the Rector or Parish Office (tallaghtparish@gmail.com) for Bank details to be sent to you. Please ensure your name appears on the transfer along with ‘GD’ so that our Hon Treasurer can keep track for his accounts.
In the future if you would like to receive this letter by email please let the parish office know at tallaghtparish@gmail.com
We thank you for your support in the past year and hope that you respond as well as you can to this appeal.
From the Rector on behalf of the Select Vestry
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
We would like to assure parishioners that the only personal information that the parish holds on individuals is their name, address, phone number and in the case of parishioners who have provided it, their email address. We only use this information to send the Parish Gift Day letter which is posted annually, to distribute the monthly newsletter or to contact you personally on Parish business if the need arises. We do not pass on any personal information to third parties. We have a record of the PPS numbers of parishioners who are in position for a tax refund to the parish in relation to their donations. If you wish to withdraw your consent for the Parish to hold and use your personal information in this way, please contact the Parish Office
