ONLY cardinals of the Church of Rome can vote for a new pope;
but every Church Times reader has been invited this Lent
to give a vote of confidence in the priesthood in the Church of
England.
The Church Times Train-A-Priest (TAP) Fund appeal stays
open through Eastertide; so there is plenty of opportunity to have
your say - and send an encouraging "smoke" signal to the Church of
England's ordinands.
Simply send cheques, postal orders, charity cheques, and cash
to: TAP Fund, Church Times, 13a Hellesdon Park Road,
Norwich NR6 5DR. For an acknowledgement, please enclose an SAE. To
Gift Aid your donation, please use the form on the right. Or use
our easy online giving page: http://www.hymnsam.co.uk/train-a-priest.aspx.
Generous readers sent in £2963 this week; so this year's appeal
total is creeping up slowly. One way to give it a boost is to
organise a special collection in your church. We have made a
full-colour leaflet available to download and print out at
www.churchtimes.co.uk. This will do all the explaining for you, and
includes a Gift Aid form.
More than 5600 ordinands and their families have benefited from
the TAP Fund since it was set up in 1952. The average TAP grant
made to a married candidate with children in the past year has been
£995. These grants are for students in residential training. Ten
per cent of every donation goes into a Special Hardship Fund. Both
college and course students for the priesthood in the C of E are
eligible to apply for hardship grants.
Please note that we do not use donors' details for any non-TAP
purposes. Hymns A&M never sells on any details for any
purposes.