New Clause. — (Clergy, Voluntary Offerings.)

Part of Orders of the Day — Finance Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 22 June 1960.

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Photo of Mr Colin Thornton-Kemsley Mr Colin Thornton-Kemsley , North Angus and Mearns 12:00, 22 June 1960

One evidence, if, indeed, evidence is needed, that this new Clause commands universal support in the House is the very large attendance in the Committee at this late hour. I support the new Clause very warmly because, as drafted by my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeenshire, West (Mr. Hendry)—whose sincerity I am sure we all admire and respect—it extends to all denominations, and has no limits as regards when the gifts are given.

In the church that I attend when I am in the South at weekends, the custom is to give a Whitsun-day offertory to the assistant clergy, and the hon. Member for Southampton, lichen (Dr. King) has already spoken of the Easter offering. This new Clause has no such limitation. It is for all denominations and for gifts and free-will offerings given at all times of the year.

One of the troubles about the present arrangement is that it gives rise to abuses. Most of us know of cases where people have slipped a "fiver" in an envelope and have passed it to the parson at some other time of the year, or have put it through his letter box. It is not right that a law of this kind should give rise to means of evasion, and it is not very nice for the recipients of these gifts to get them in that way, since by nature of their calling they are particularly scrupulous about these things. I can well imagine that gifts received in that way may cause them to wonder what action they ought to take.

As has been said by other speakers, we are dealing with a class of person who are on a very low standard of income. That applies to nearly all the denominations. Not one of us in this Committee can be proud of the way that we pay our ministers of religion. They receive a very low income. When members of a congregation—often, as one knows, at personal sacrifice—give generously to the free-will offerings for the incumbent of a parish, our plea is that no part of that gift ought to be taken by the Treasury.