Stewardship
Legacies
Making the most of legacy giving in your parish
Making a will and keeping it up to date is good Christian stewardship. Churches should be encouraging, whether or not church members are likely to include their church in their will.
For nearly 500 years, the Church of England has encouraged its members to keep their wills up-to-date. The Book of Common Prayer gives firm guidance on will making. In the section on 'The Visitation of the sick', people are 'admonished' to make their will and the more general point is made that they should often be reminded about settling their estate whilst in health. Much of the land and some church buildings have been built on the generosity of previous generations. There is a strong tradition of leaving a legacy to support the mission of the Church.
Most people will only leave gifts in their wills if they think the church will use them well. So, it is good practice for PCCs to agree a policy on how legacy income will be spent; things such as development or mission projects and not just to fund operation costs.
It is a good idea to discourage people from leaving restricted legacies. A legacies policy might look something like the following:
The policy of the PCC is to use legacies to help fund significant development projects in the parish, whether buildings, equipment or staff. As circumstances change over the years, it may not be possible to fulfil specific donor requests, so church members are encouraged to leave legacies for the general purposes of the parish. The PCC will discuss with executors the most appropriate use of the legacy in the light of current projects and the donor's known areas of interest in the church (e.g. children & youth, music, buildings).
A leaflet to help PCCs to think about how to encourage legacy giving together with other information on legacies is available from Communications & Resources.
The Diocesan Stewardship Adviser is available to advise you on legacy giving and the best way of approaching this subject with the congregation. The Church of England has a useful website www.churchlegacy.org.uk to help parishes with this area of stewardship.