Diocese of Chichester

Parish Advisor Helen James explained how the project team considered all the applications carefully and allocated the different brands available to the right parishes, based on their visitor footfall, whether they had wifi and/or phone signal, and a number of other factors.

She said: "I'm delighted to have received positive responses from the vicars, churchwardens and treasurers involved. Over the course of the summer, I'll support all these churches with their on-boarding process, running training webinars, answering queries by email and on the phone, and hosting the final in-person collection session in September when the parish representatives receive their devices."

Rev David Hazell (pictured) from St Helen’s in Hangleton applied to the project in June. He explained his reasons: “The church is well loved in the community. It is used by non-church-goers to pray and we host numerous weddings and other special-occasion services throughout the year. There are also local tourists who visit.The ability to offer people a way to support the church would allow these visitors, as well as our congregation members, to donate. Contactless giving forms part of our broader aim to increase our parish’s engagement with digital giving.”

Alison Carrington, parish administrator at Balcombe also applied. “We are desperately in need of more funds. We have major maintenance works due to be completed in the next year or so, and as we're in an interregnum we really rely on the support of the community. A fully functioning contactless machine would take the pressure off the church wardens as our current system is erratic and time-consuming, and we believe that we are losing out on significant funds.”

She added, “We just need a device that will work reliably and is easy to use. We will start using the new device with immediate effect. We're ready to go!”

Father Andrew Birks at Chidham was very excited when he heard that his parish had been successful. He emailed back straight away: “This is fantastic news!” Chidham is a small rural parish by Chichester harbour, a site of special scientific interest, and on a pilgrim walk called ‘The Old Pilgrim Way’. The parish church St Mary’s dates from the 12^th century and is often visited by tourists, walkers and pilgrims.

Fr Andrew wrote, “We are positive that this device would capture donations from these visitors that otherwise would not leave an offering. Thank you so much!”