Nick Andrews on the world a church treasurer

I have been fulfilling the role of treasurer for almost 13 years. At the moment, we are in the process of selling part of our site, the main church building, and are redeveloping the rest to make a much better space for community, as well as for our own use. This, along with normal financial activities, currently occupies my time.

The community hall we had been using for worship is currently closed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. We have been having church meetings over Zoom, and our minister circulates worship material by email each week. Where members don’t have email, they get paper copies in the post, which are prepared by the administrator. We are spending a lot more on stamps and stationery than previously.

Today started off with me organising a meeting between our solicitor tenants and our architect to discuss roof works and decorating. I have been trying to arrange this work for a while, and it is now fixed for early next week.

As we have not been meeting, the Sunday collection has not been getting collected. So, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote to everyone and suggested that they might like to send me their backed-up collections. This week, a good number of envelopes have arrived with cheques in. I have now sorted them out, and organised the money for banking. Normally we have a team to do this, but at the moment I’ve been doing this at home. All of the entries into the accounting system have been made, and the church secretary (my wife) has gone off to town to drop the money in at the bank while doing a bit of shopping. The money has been very welcome. We do have a number of our people pay by standing order, and this has continued.

After sorting out the cheques, it’s on to the documents received from the synod office about ministry and mission giving for next year. This year, all churches are being asked for more information to do with the effect of the coronavirus on their finances. This takes a while to organise. Because the church site has been closed for a while now, a lot of our letting income has stopped, and I’m having to manage the substantial payments we’re making to the developer. There is a lot of making sure that the money is in the right accounts, and of organising transfers at the right time. Today, I’ve had to move some monies over, and, because of the restrictions, I now have to send withdrawal forms in by email, after scanning them in, rather than posting them. This has actually sped the withdrawal process up. I prefer it. I hope this process continues after things settle down again…

Nick Andrews is Treasurer of Kendal United Reformed Church, Cumbria

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This is an extract from an article published in the October 2020 edition of Reform

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