Your Problems Solved
Dear Mary…………..
Q: I make donations to my local church by bank credit transfer under
a deed of covenant. This is tax-efficient, meaning I can ultimately
give more, and saves me a scramble before I leave the house each
Sunday morning trying to find the right money for the collection plate.
Can you tell me what the form is for people in my situation when the
collection plate comes around? I normally smile inanely and pass it
on, but the congregation is quite large and I don’t know many of the
members so I am constantly receiving disapproving looks if I pass it
on without making a contribution. I had thought of dropping in some
small coins as the plate went past, but as nearly everyone else uses
the envelope system, my conspicuously paltry contribution lying on
the top of a heap of envelopes would look even worse that if I had
raced out and put in nothing at all. Shor of wearing a badge saying,
“I have already given”, what can I do?. E A S, St Alban’s Herts.
A: I suggest that you select your pew so that the maximum money
mountain has accumulated before the plate is proffered to you
personally. You can take advantage of the trompe l’oeil effect, which
can be perpetrated by anyone taking money out of a plate when
onlookers are expecting money to be put in. Simply take a pound out
each week as the plate comes your way and out the money into your
pocket. You can exploit tis well-established optical illusion with
impunity by first increasing the amount you give by bank transfer
each year by 52 pounds. In this way you can actually look forward to
collection time in church as a handy way of ensuring you have
enough change to buy yourself a bag of sweets on the way home.
Trompe l’oeil: still life painting, etc. designed to make a spectator
think the objects represented are real. [F, li. “deceives the eye”]
- Contributed by Judy Biggs
St Margaret's News
3
April 2017