Assistant Priest Appeal 2023

The pandemic crisis of 2020/21/22 has had such a challenging impact on all our lives, and that is also true of the life of our wonderful church.

The Clergy and PCC elected to remain open for weekday private prayer and Sunday service (plus online) as many churches around the country and in our local area kept their doors closed.

We found ways of keeping beautiful music at the heart of our worship, presented the Arts & Crafts Festival, participated in London Open House, offered an outdoor tea/cakes cafe, hosted Cards for Good Causes plus other events including Remembrance Sunday and concerts in December, including one for the Mayor of K&C.

We saw how exposed we are with just the one priest in our parish and relying on a rota of priests who, whilst wonderful visitors, could not offer the desperately needed pastoral support provided by our own clergy.

Our 2023 Assistant Priest Appeal has therefore never been more compelling. We identified the urgent need to recruit a permanent Assistant Priest and The Rev’d Yaroslav Sky Walker was appointed and licenced on Sunday 15th May.

We see the role of our new Assistant Priest as rooted firmly in our mission and defined by three key areas of engagement.

SPIRIT:  We all know how tough the last year was and the necessity of having more pastoral care and support with our worship and our community needs.

BEAUTY: We are proud in the beauty of our mission and liturgy alongside the magnificent music that accompanies our services and festivals. The AP role will prove pivotal in the return and expansion of both our musical tradition and Arts and Crafts vision.

GROWTH: As we look confidently to the future, we know that central to our mission and vision will be an Assistant Priest focussed on nurturing a larger, younger, and more diverse congregation as well as growing the church’s financial resilience and community impact.

Our 2021 Assistant Priest Appeal was a herculean task to raise £45k to secure the first year of our Assistant Priest. This is an on going commitment, and we pray that the financial help we receive may continue beyond the original requirement.

We are reaching out to both our parish and the wider community to carry on achieving our campaign goal.

We hope you will be as generous as you can, to enable Fr Yaroslav Sky Walker to help take us into a new and revitalised era for Holy Trinity.

Once again, our thanks for recognising the need and supporting our vision.

 

Ways in which you can donate to this appeal:


  1. You can put a Standing Order in place by completing and returning by post (see below for our address) the following form:
  2. You can make a Bank Transfer every time you can help us. In which case, please write “Assistant Priest” on the description, so that we can allocate your donation to our appeal.

  3. When in church place cash or a cheque in the white ‘gift aid ‘envelopes and mark it for “Assistant Priest”. Please do not forget to tick the box to gift aid your donation;

  4. Donate online using the button below:


We have a strong preference for options 1 or 2, as others incur extra charges, but understand that these might not always be appropriate for you.

If you are a UK taxpayer, you can ‘gift aid’ your contributions. As a registered charity, we can then claim an additional £25 from HMRC, on every £100 you donate.  If you have not previously done so, it would be enormously beneficial if you would please complete the gift aid form here:

Returning completed forms:

  • Gift Aid Declarations can be returned by scanning or taking a photo and emailing to treasury@sloanechurch.org or,

  • Any form can be returned by posting to: The Treasurer, The Parish of Holy Trinity and St Saviour, Sloane Street, London, SW1X 9BZ