Generosity Week

Here you'll find resources to help, inspire and support you in joining in with all that's happening during Generosity Week 2023.

Generosity Week takes place in the Harvest season, so that as we thank God for his generosity to us, we also have the opportunity to think about how we might respond to that generosity.

Generosity Week is also deliberately flexible to suit all types of church. If you want to join in this year, here's how to start:

1. Pick a week. The national week runs from Sunday 24th September to Sunday 1st October, but if another time works better for you, do it then.
2. Contact your Diocesan Giving Adviser for help and advice.
3. Choose what to do by looking at the summary of resources available. Make sure you have enough people to help you out with the initiatives you want to do.
4. Plan your Sundays - two Sundays works well because it gives you one chance to explore gratitude, and one for generosity. To get you started, there are service outlines, sermon starters and prayers - all generosity-themed.

By the end of Generosity Week all of us will have a deeper understanding of God’s generosity towards us and how we can live more generously in our daily lives.

There will also be a national online Eucharist to celebrate generosity on Sunday 24 September. 

The Generosity Newsletter
Monthly newsletters will help you keep up to date with Generosity Week and other giving initiatives. If you’d like to sign up, you can register here.

Take a look at the first launch edition to help you get started. Issues for this year will be added below in the coming weeks and months.

Newsletters for 2023

Download and read the September issue here (final issue of 2023)

Download and read the August issue here

Download and read the July issue here

Download and read the June issue here

Back issues of Generosity Week newsletters 2022

Download and read Issue 10 here (final issue of 2022).

Download and read Issue 9 here

Download and read Issue 8 here

Download and read Issue 7 here

Download and read issue 6 here

Download and read issue 5 here

Download and read issue 4 here

Download and read issue 3 here

Download and read issue 2 here

Download and read Issue 1 here

"Our faith starts with the most generous gift of all – God’s gift to us of life itself and new life and new hope in Jesus Christ. What we call 'generosity’ is just our response to these great gifts. I’m therefore delighted to commend these resources that help us explore God’s amazing generosity. This is what Generosity Week is all about. The stories in these podcasts, reflections and resources are moving, inspiring and encouraging. Just like in the parable of the sower, where the seed that falls on good soil grows a crop a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown, we see that every generous act grows further generosity."

The Right Reverend Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York

Generous Giving

The Generous Giving Team at St Martins House in Leicester supports and resources our churches to establish and maintain a culture of generosity that secures the long term future God is calling us to. 

The team is inspired by 2 Corinthians 9 vs 7-8: "Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work."

Changing the culture of giving in your church involves looking at deepening discipleship, identifying vision, and developing good practice. The Generous Giving team has lots of tools and ideas to help churches that want to explore and embrace generosity. You may be surprised what else flourishes and grows in addition to your income.

Contact Us

Ariel Baker T: 0116 261 5348 E: ariel.baker@leicestercofe.org

We hope this ‘Life Is A Gift’ video will help you to consider seeing generous giving from a different perspective:

What is Generous Giving?

We are all called to be Shaped by God in living out our faith and embracing our calling to build God’s Kingdom here on earth. Our giving is therefore first and foremost not a matter of practicality, but part of our everyday faith and discipleship – our journey of following Jesus. 

As we experience God’s generous nature the results can be seen in our own lives. Our generosity drives mission in communities large and small in our diocese.  It brings the message of the Good News of Jesus Christ to the lost, and it brings food and warm clothing to those who have nothing. We are shaped by God to give what we have and transform lives: ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me!’ Matt 25: 40.

As communities of faith, and as charities, we need to be clear on why we are inviting people to give. Giving to pay the heating bills might seem very important, but what is the larger picture that the heating is enabling?  This requires us to think about what the vision is for the church. What are the plans for the next few years and what is God calling your church to do? That helps us to think about what money and other resources that vision needs to be fulfilled, and how you might go about asking for it. When this vision is understood and well communicated asking for regular giving becomes a lot easier to do because we have a positive story to tell about what we will use it for.

It is also important for us to consider the mechanisms of how we raise our money, and make sure that we follow good practice. We can do this by demonstrating impact to our givers, saying thank you regularly, and making it easy and convenient for people to support us. There are many tools to help churches to do this effectively: the Parish Giving Scheme, making use of tools for digital giving for example card readers and a parish pack for Legacy Giving.

Resources to help you:

• Growing Generous Church

• Legacy Giving

• Parish Giving Scheme

• Parish Resources website 

• Finance web pages (which have further infomation Parish Contributions, Finance Returns etc)

• Parish Contribution webpage

• Bishop Guli's podcast, part of the new resources to help churches explore God’s generosity