As you know Elizabeth will sadly be leaving St. Georges at the end of December.  We need to acknowledge and honour her time with us.  There will therefore be a Farewell for her on Sunday, January 17, immediately after the 10am service.  It is likely that this Farewell will have to be held via Zoom, so connection information will be sent later.  Further information on the event will also be provided as we get closer to the date.   If you’d like to leave a personal note or card for Elizabeth and her family, you can drop it off or mail it to the office by close of business on Friday, January 15.  We will make sure that she gets the card or note.

The long standing tradition of collecting a PURSE for Clergy leaving our Parish must undergo some changes in our collection method, in order to comply with Canada Revenue Agency rules.  

You may well remember when Rev. Austin Spry left St.George’s to move his family to the Kootenay’s, we simply asked those who wanted to contribute to the purse using a cheque to write their cheque payable to St.George’s. Once all cheques (and cash) were collected, we wrote one cheque from our parish account payable to Austin. Using the church account as a conduit in that way in no longer acceptable.  

Before giving you the new options for donating to the purse, we must point out that the purse contributions are NOT eligible for charitable tax receipts. Purse donations are considered GIFTS to Elizabeth, and as such are not connected to our parish for taxation purposes. If you require a receipt for cash or cheque donations, a generic receipt can be provided, but it cannot be used as a tax deduction by the donor.  

By the way, for those of you who recently contributed to the purse for Bishop Logan, these same restrictions applied, so this message may not be news to you.   Here follows some options:  

1.    Write a personal cheque payable to Elizabeth Barnard. You can choose to drop it off at the church office, or mail it to the church, for ease of delivery to Elizabeth, and to avoid personal contact during these Covid restriction times.

2.    For anonymity, get a Bank Money Draft (or similar financial vehicle) that is payable to Elizabeth, but does not have to include your name on the document. Again, get it to Elizabeth via the church office if you want.

3.    Also for anonymity, use cash, and convey it through the church office. Here is where a generic receipt can be provided. Again, NOT Income Tax deductable.

4.    Write a personal cheque payable to our Warden, Gary Fisher, and mail it to Gary at               

Suite 5303 – 2829 Arbutus Road, Victoria BC, V8N 5X5                          

or e-transfer money to garycfisher@shaw.ca  or even call Gary at 778-440-3406 to make other arrangements for delivery. Gary will collect all cheques written to him, add all e-transfers, then provide one collective cheque payable to Elizabeth using his personal bank account.  

We are hopeful that one of these four options will suffice, but please know that if your cheque is written to St.George’s with a Memo indicating it is for Elizabeth’s purse, that cheque will need to be returned to you, uncashed.  

Thank you for your cooperation with these options (and CRA).  

Yours in Christ, St. George’s Parish Council