Mearns Kirk

The Kirk Session recently approved the church annual accounts for the year to
31st December 2022 which highlighted a small surplus of £2k, compared to £4k
in the previous financial year. Income for the year was £178k compared to
£214k but 2021 included £41k exceptional income from the National Giving Day
held in that year. Hall rental income has jumped from £9k to £20k reflecting the
quality of the facilities we have.

This is a positive outcome as churches generally are slowly building up their
income base following the battering they have taken over the last two years
from the COVID 19 pandemic. In addition to this, there has been tremendous
work done by volunteers in carrying out key fabric repairs around the church which has saved considerable funds such as serious repairs to the church floodlights which in itself saved probably £10k. Important paintwork to the church to protect the stonework saved £5k too.

Looking forward, the changes made by the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland in their method of calculation what was our annual “Ministries and Mission” payments (now Giving For Growth) each year will see our annual payments fall from £105k to circa £79k. In addition, again using volunteers, will save circa £6k in our hall running costs.

The retiral of our Minister will see financial challenges as there will be a need to maintain church offerings through the implementation of the new Mission Plan as our local Cluster of churches (Broom, Maxwell Mearns, Newton Mearns and Eaglesham) will see minister resources fall from 5 to 3 over the coming years.

Keep up the volunteering!