Monday 26 March 2012

Raising the cost of communion

I noticed yesterday that the bread I use at communion, having been freshly baked, being above the ambient temperature at Birmingham airport meant that I had to stop the service and ask those intending to take communion to add another twenty percent of their offering to the plate before we continued!

Had we decided to use the 'flying saucer' bread wafers we would have been in the clear as these are exempt regardless of the their temperature as the box proudly proclaims that 'no yeast was harmed in the making of these wafers'!

I have also realised that our Good Friday tradition of offering 'hot' Cross Buns will also mean that we have to charge a twenty percent levy. I have formed a sub-committee to assess whether we could get around this situation by providing 'Cold Cross Buns' instead but I'm sure the traditionalists will not be happy.

This is, as ever, merely the tip of the iceberg in that the government spokesperson who outlined the efficacy of the 'hot bread products'  taxation class took great pains to point out that where a 'service' is offered, additional tax applies. The little treasure(r) will soon be having a field day as this probably means that we will also have to raise the level of giving by twenty percent across the board regardless of whether you take communion or not (and then add another if you make the 'expensive' choive for communion).


All destined to cause yet more problems somewhere I'm sure, after all - as one of the congregation mentioned last week - it's hardly good service to have been in the place for forty minutes before you get round to serving the bread and wine!

Pax

2 comments:

UKViewer said...

The way around of course is to offer the things free, but providing consumers the opportunity to make a non-obligatory donation.

With the bouncers (sorry, side speople) on the exits, I think that you might even increase income.

And a couple of collection tins in Aid of Vat payment around the church might also help.

And of course, it's all made from Green, Fair Trade products.

Undergroundpewster said...

They tried the hot prepared food tax in California a few years ago.

You could always argue that from the standpoint of transubstantiation that the bread is not really hot or prepared until it after is ingested by a believer.