My boss in my last job was often heard to say with regard to a tricky issue “You can’t boil the ocean”. He absolutely didn’t mean that as a counsel of despair, suggesting that we should give up, but rather he was encouraging an approach where we should take a small part of the issue and deal with that first and then work our way through the bigger problem in manageable chunks.
We have so many issues in our personal world or the wider world that just seem to be too big to handle. Sometimes, I despair with the problem of plastics in the ocean or the increase in greenhouse gases, but when I am on a beach or in the sea (Oh, happy but distant memories) I will pick up discarded plastics and I try to reduce my impact on the environment with regard to carbon emissions.
The Trust has started a Spring fundraising campaign ‘The Spirit of St Martin’s’ to appeal to our wider community of friends to support us at this time. The complexity of finance here is something that could easily feel like another intractable problem. Now that I’m PCC Treasurer, I’m beginning to understand that it’s even more complicated than I previously thought!
We will shortly be starting a parallel congregational giving campaign, encouraging us all to review our personal regular giving to our church. One thing that I do know is that whether we bring the ‘Widow’s Mite’ (Luke 21:1-4) or money by the bucketful, we can each do our part and each of us does make a difference
Watch this space.
Jeff Claxton
