How can I participate?

Living is Giving invites you, your family and congregation to be part of God’s mission through the wider work of the Uniting Church.

Every year, each congregation in the Synod is invited to meet and plan how its financial contribution to the wider church fits in with its own mission goals.

Congregations can decide to give, as they are able, to the general funds of the church — to support national and international mission, as well as the resources and educational, legal and administrative services required to keep every congregation running.

Or, by selecting mission focus areas from the Living is Giving Handbook, congregations can link their giving to their local mission priorities.

The Handbook appears in Insights each March so you can read about the mission and ministry areas you can support, and help make decisions about your congregation’s contribution to the work of the Uniting Church. At around the same time, your treasurer will receive a Leaders Guide and Planning Form on which your congregation can record its choices and financial targets for the year. Your treasurer will send this form to the Synod for processing.

Choosing mission focus areas

Each congregation will have its own way of participating in Living is Giving. We invite you to give prayerful consideration to the mission focus areas on offer, and choose to support those which you believe:

• God is placing before your congregation in particular, or
• complement your mission and ministry in your local community, or
• weigh heavily on the hearts of members of your congregation, or
• relate to the interests or concerns of people in your neighbourhood, or
• strike some other chord in the life of your congregation.

Your congregation is also free to give all or part of its Living is Giving contribution as an undesignated sum. The Synod Budget Committee will then decide how it will be best used.

Living is Giving teams

Some congregations have informal Living is Giving teams which receive Living is Giving information from the Synod, identify mission focus areas or directions that would interest their congregations and help them to make collective decisions. The team can use one of the following options to make sure the whole congregation has a say in which areas are supported. » READ ON

To find out more about the mission focus areas on offer, click here.

Individual giving

While congregations form the backbone of Living is Giving, many are finding it tough to meet their giving commitments. You can help by making an individual donation to the mission focus areas of your choice — either regularly or as a one-off.

There are two ways to give:

• Fill out an individual giving coupon (available on page 2 of the Living is Giving Handbook, or click here). Send it with a cheque or your credit card details to Uniting Church Board of Mission PO Box A2178, Sydney South NSW 1235.
• Arrange for an electronic transfer of funds. For more information, contact Mele 'Akau on (02) 8267 4391 or melea@nsw.uca.org.au.

Other support for Living is Giving

• The main support for Living is Giving comes from congregations who regularly set aside a proportion of their annual income.
• Congregations also mount special fundraising efforts, making sure they have fun in the process.
• Existing groups within congregations — such as fellowship groups and fete committees — use part (or sometimes all) of their fundraising proceeds to support their congregation’s Living is Giving mission focus area choices.
• A congregation might use any combination of the above to meet their targets.
• Individual donations can also help meet these targets.

Sharing your stories

Do you have a story to share about how your congregation or faith community has raised money for Living is Giving, or how funds from Living is Giving have benefited you or you congregation? Contact Emma Halgren, Mission Promotions Officer, on (02) 8267 4475 or email your story, with a photo or two, to emmah@nsw.uca.org.au.