Giving Outside The Church

At St Matthew’s we encourage members of our congregation to be generous givers both to the church and to other agencies. People do this by giving their money but also volunteering their time and support in other ways. All forms of giving are important and a mixture of giving of ourselves and from our resources is good.

As a church we tithe (give 10%) of the regular income which we receive to charities, seeking to maintain a balance between those charities which are expressly involved in the work of spreading God’s good news for all and also supporting local charities.

Here are the main charities with which we have on-going relationships Please click on the titles if you wish to find out more information.

Oxygen	A youth work charity which was conceived by a group of Christian young people who wanted to make a difference in the lives of their peers and respond to the needs they could see in the community. Sadly, their recent initiative on knife crime is particularly appropriate at this time.
Street Pastors	runs in the town centre in Kingston and is a fantastic Christian witness to those in the night-time economy.
Kingston Foodbank	As with other churches across the area, St Matthew’s welcomes donations of food which are then distributed through the local Foodbank. All items should be placed in the boxes which are at the back of the church.
Fircroft Trust	Works with adults living in the community with mental health problems and/or learning disabilities.
African Vision Malawi	Set up and run by members of our church, the charity helps children and vulnerable people in Malawi, which is one of the poorest countries in the world. Their vision is to see a "healthy, educated and self-sufficient community in Malawi".
Royal Star and Garter	The Home in Surbiton is just up the road from church and is very much part of our Parish life. Its highly trained staff provide specialist nursing and dementia care in comfortable surroundings, where the focus is always on the individual.

In addition we regularly support the work of national charities:

CPAS – Church Pastoral Aid Society

Church Urban Fund

The Children’s Society

Church Missionary Society (CMS)