Generous Giving
Thank you for being part of this church and for all the ways you support our ministry and mission. God is doing wonderful things among us, and through our thriving, diverse community you are part of that story!
We are blessed to have a large, beautiful building, and each week over 500 people of all ages and at every stage of their faith journey join us. We seek to build St Mark’s as a place of welcome, faith, growth, and care.
Like any community, St Mark’s needs resources to flourish. Over 250 people generously volunteer their time but as a charity, we are dependent on donations (we call this giving) to keep the doors open.
We have now reached a critical time financially.
We hope you will use the links to find out more, to read the reports and get a fuller picture. Giving methods are below. We have also included some FAQs which we hope you will find helpful.
Giving is personal and prayerful, shaped by individual circumstances. The Bible calls us to be generous, while also being wise stewards of what we have.
Please take some time to look over the information and join us in praying for our finances. Our corporate prayer evening will be 25th March at 7.30pm, we hope you will join us.
Our Giving Sunday is 22nd March. We are asking for pledge forms to be returned on or before 22nd March via the church office or post box beside the office door.
Should you have further questions please speak to a member of the clergy or a church warden.
Thank you
We are required to inspect the building every five years to ensure it is kept safe and in good repair. This Quinquennial Report determined that £33,500 of our 2026 budget (part of £90,000 over three years) is allocated to essential maintenance work. Should you have questions about the report please speak to Quinquennial Inspector, Stuart Holland or a church warden.
Regular Giving by Standing Order
If you would like to start giving by standing order or amend your existing standing order, you must instruct your bank – St Mark’s cannot do this for you. Please let us know by clicking the button below and filling in the short form.
Other Ways to Give
BACS
For BACs payment please use:
Bank Name: CAF Bank Ltd
Account Name: St Marks PCC Harrogate
Account Number: 00024457
Sort Code: 40 52 40
Contactless Payment
Please use our contact less payment located in the Lounge
Cheques
Please make cheques payment to:
St Marks PCC Harrogate
Cash
Cash can be donated every week during the collection or by posting it into the wooden box
Gift Aid
If you would like to find out more about giving or if you have any questions, please get in touch with a er of the clergy, a church warden or the Treasurer.
FAQs
251 people volunteer in various ways and this is the main way costs are kept down. Eg; 2 people provide DIY half a day a week, 4 people clean and vacuum, 10 people arrange flowers and 3 clean brasses, 27 people run the cafe, 7 people cut grass and 23 look after the garden, etc.
We review spending monthly to minimise waste and inefficiencies.
The next steps in cutting costs are; reduce the scope of what we do, reduce the money we give to the charities we support, underpay our Parish Share.
St Mark’s employ seven staff all part time including a:
Youth Leader (PT), Children & Families Leader (PT), Office Manager (PT), Admin & Event Assistant (PT), Safeguarding and Pastoral Administrator (PT), Communications and Digital Lead (PT), Parish Fiance Officer (PT)
Our Associate Minister is diocese funded (a direct benefit of our parish share)
Leading our youth, children and families ministries is very time consuming. More volunteers are desperately needed but employing part-time paid leaders has led to significant growth. Our 4pm Lego-church service is now our second best attended Sunday service.
Health & Safety, Safeguarding, Communications and other operational roles take much time and expertise in a church the size of St Mark’s. It is not practical to expect volunteers to do this work. Nor could we risk the work not being done or not keeping up the changing world.
Underpaying the parish share is not a long term solution.
Our shortfall has a negative impact on the direct support that the Diocese is able to provide in supporting the spreading of God’s word in our neighbouring communities – our leadership team consider it a priority to be fully engaged in this critical mission.
As we look at our giving trends we note that giving is not aligned with cost increases.
Parish Share is our contribution to the wider mission and ministry of the Diocese. It helps fund clergy stipends (salaries), pensions, housing and shared ministry costs across the Diocese.
St Mark’s benefits directly from this through the provision of our Vicar, Curate, and Associate Minister.
Another benefit of shared resources and unlike in some other denominations, we don’t have to rent or pay a mortgage on our beautiful building.
In the 2025, we were not able to meet our planned expenditure and therefore significantly underpaid our parish share. As one of the largest and most blessed churches in the Diocese, our shortfall has a negative impact on the direct support that the Diocese is able to provide in supporting the spreading of God’s word in our neighbouring communities – our leadership team consider it a priority to be fully engaged in this critical mission.
Contact
If you are UK Tax payer, we can claim back 25p on every £1 you donate through the Gift Aid scheme without any cost to you. We can do this no matter how you give. To permit us to do this, please complete this Gift Aid Declaration.