Question- I get the sense that our parish priest wants everyone to pay via envelope at the offertory. I have an automated electronic payment get sent from my bank acct to the church’s. Inevermiss a payment- and it saves on paper and processing.
Does anyone see a problem with this? Has anyone run into a problem with this?
We have our kids each throw in a dollar to the basket-but we don’t use the envelope. Sometimes we may even forget to bring the spare dollars for the kids.
You may want to find some way of asking the parish staff ‘why’ they “want everyone” to do this. On the surface, it seems obvious that as long as the parish is receiving the donation, it shouldn’t matter how it arrives, but that’s not necessarily true. Some parish accounting systems are more up-to-date than others. Some are downright antiquiated. Many people would be surprised to know in this day and age just how many parishes are still doing all of their bookkeeping on paper.
There might be some reason for why they don’t want it this way. The only way you will know is if you ask them. It could be that they just don’t know how to work electronic donations into their current system, and it’s just a matter of someone showing them how to do it. In my own personal experience, parishes are reluctant to use e-donations simply because they don’t know how to work it into their current system; however once they understand how easy it is, they accept it.
In one of my assignments years ago, the pastor asked all parishioners to put an envelope into the basket. He told them that even if it was empty, please use it, because it was a large parish in a heavy tourist area, and the only way to track “attendance” at Mass was by the envelopes. It was a little more complicated than that, but suffice to say that he had his reasons for asking people to use the envelopes. (Similar to TheDoctor’s example) Those who made electronic donations simply wrote the amount on the envelope and then wrote “computer” next to the number.
ProVobis also brought up a good point, that there is a value in people “seeing” donations made in the collection basket. One of the way children learn that it’s important to support the church is by imitating their parents who put something in the basket when it’s passed around–like you’re doing with the kids dollars.
Bottom line: speak to someone on the parish staff and ask them why they prefer the envelope system. We can talk about it all day here on CAF, but only they can give you an answer. It might be that you’ll see the value in their reasoning and begin using the envelope system, or it might be that you will “inspire” them to make some changes. You won’t know until you ask.
