Parish Finance Committee
The Diocese requires each parish to have a parish finance committee. The committee is responsible for assisting the parish priest in managing the parish’s “temporal goods”. The committee is an advisory body. It does not have executive powers, as these rest with the parish priest. The parish priest is however expected to take account of the committee’s advice in making decisions about the parish’s finances and related issues. The finance committee for the St John Paul II Parish, Nottingham comprises parishioners who have financial, business and other related experience and expertise. Acting under the direction of the parish priest, it is responsible for such things as:
Membership of the committee
The committee’s current members are:
- Julie Blazewicz-Bell: Retired Senior Teacher/parish banking & finance team member
- Martin Foulds: Retired Solicitor/St Anthony’s representative
- Michael Gemson: Chartered Accountant/ St Anthony’s representative
- Philip Martin: Committee Secretary/Gift Aid advisor/ parish banking & finance team member
- David Staiano: Account Manager
- Oliver Wastell: Business Analyst and Software Developer
- Canon Philipp Ziomek: Parish Priest
The committee is also supported by John Doherty, who undertakes an annual external audit of the parish’s accounts.
Financial Administration
Rosemary Mahoney, the parish administrative assistant, provides support for the on-line parish accountancy system (OPAS) and also provides general support to the parish priest in managing the parish accounts.
There is also a small team, comprising Julie Blazewicz-Bell, Martin Bolus and Philip Martin, that undertakes the banking of the weekly church collections and other parish income, as well as managing the parish Gift Aid arrangements. The team is normally available in the parish administrative suite on Monday mornings.
Planned Giving
Planned giving is an important means by which you can financially support the parish. The options for planned giving involve either donating by bank standing order (see the link below for the mandate to complete) or by using our weekly offertory envelopes (available on request from the parish office). If you pay income tax, you can also Gift Aid your offerings at no extra cost to you. A Gift Aid declaration (link below) has to be completed to support these arrangements. This enables the parish to claim back income tax on the offerings from HM Revenue and Customs, via the Diocese, and thus increase the value of the offering by 25%. Please contact the parish finance committee secretary (details below) for further information.
Second Collections
In addition to the “normal” offertory collections taken during Mass each weekend at our parish churches, we hold several second collections during the course of each year.
Some of these collections are called “mandatory” collections- these are collections we are required to take on behalf of the diocese or other bodies, such as the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales or the Vatican.
We also currently have a monthly second collection for our parish debt- also known as the “building fund”. These collections are to help us fund the very significant programme of building works we will be undertaking in the near future to address the defective concrete which is adversely affecting the Good Shepherd Church building.
The second collections for 2026 are set out here.
Some, but not all, of the collections are eligible for Gift Aid- these are asterisked on the linked document.