February 08 +Graham Generosity

Generosity is a lovely thing.  We know it when we see it because it takes us by surprise.

For example - someone gives far more to us than we might expect. It is not learnt from books; it is caught from others. We see it and we like it.

It behoves Christians to be generous; for God is very generous and we are his children. How do we know he is generous? He doesn't hold against us what we get wrong; he forgives completely when we ask him to. He is always seeking to do good to us. He gives us families and friends, food and opportunity. But we tend to take his generous gifts for granted; we forget who is the giver of everything in the world. He is longing that we become more like him; Indeed that is our destiny - to become loving and generous people, more like his Son, Christ Jesus.

This year, many parishes will be studying a course entitled Growing in Generosity. The course is in 6 sessions and we shall be thinking about becoming generous in our attitudes, generous within churches and between them. We shall be asking about our part in generosity to the wider community and generosity in seeking to share and give away our Christian Faith. The course makes little mention of money; it is about growing in a spirit of generosity in everything we think or do. Members of churches other than Anglican will be sharing in the studies with us. Above all we shall be thinking about God.

One reason for the course is to prepare us for a new approach in our churches to paying our parish share. We are not going to call it a Parish Share any more. From 2009 it will be a Parish Offering - a generous offering, we hope. Under the old system, when parishes had their share calculated by a formula, it felt like a tax. While people knew that it was needed to run the diocese; it felt a long way from an offering of the heart. There is something much more Christian about a generous offering. The diocesan budget will be divided by deanery agreement and then the parishes will make their offering towards meeting the deanery portion.

Generosity is a radically different way for a large organisation to do its work. The tendency today is to have more and more rules, more and more inspection, as if no-one were trustworthy any more; we have to regulate everything.

Generosity is completely different; and God has promised to bless it; he more than repays. 'Give and it will be given back to you,.. pressed down and running over, will be poured into your lap', Jesus said (Luke 6.38 ). So the astonishing thing is: the more we give, the more we receive. It is a divine law.

I believe that we shall see blessing in our churches. Our generous God will keep his promise. The more generous we are - putting others first, giving time and effort, serving the community around us, forgiving those who have hurt us, and in giving our money - the more we shall discover God's generosity and his joy in our hearts.

                        +Graham Dow, Bishop of Carlisle