The Generous Giving team have created resources to support our discipleship commitment to become more Christ-like and transform our mission and ministry. We aim to enable our vision of generous churches as part of our diocesan family’s commitment to ‘transform our finances and structures’. It is important that we regularly reflect on generous giving and living as church communities. Resources can also be found here for those who may wish to leave a lasting legacy and want some extra help writing their will; an expression of gratitude and thanksgiving towards God.
Downloadable seasonal materials and information
Living Generously Through Advent 2025
The Church of England’s Advent and Christmas theme for 2025 revolves round a single word: Joy!
Our churches and York Minster will – as always – be seeking to make the most of the opportunity December brings to share The Joy of Christmas with their communities.
Below are some of the resources from the National Team that have been adapted to allow you to drop your QR code and church name into. Click here for the vast array of Advent and Christmas resources and training.
We’d love to hear how you use these resources, and have successful they are. Please do get in touch with us at the top of the page.
Practical Resources for Children and Young People during Advent
1. Advent Prayer Stations
This is a collection of generous prayer stations, appropriate for schools and churches. You can download the resource here.
2. Advent Jesse Tree
The Jesse Tree is an advent tradition that introduces Jesus’ ancestor, and is named in Isaiah 11:1. You can download the resource here.
3. Stir-Up Sunday Resource
This resource can be used for a short, all-age slot at the beginning of a service, to encourage a generous Advent through making a Christmas pudding together. You can download the resource here.
Resources for Living Generously Through Advent 2025
1. QR posters
These posters are from the ACNY pack, but have been set up for you to complete the church name and drop your QR code in.
If you have a canva account, you can download an editable version here.
If you need one making for you, please email Phil.
2. Give a Little campaigns
These work on the Give a Little app when you make a campaign. Please note the snow setting will need to be moved out of the way to type your church name in.
To access the template on canva, click here.
If you need one making for you, please email Phil.
3. Our own website.
We have made our own resources in the Faith and Life section of of website. You can access it here.
Living Generously Through Lent
Traditionally, the season of Lent is a time of spiritual internal examination as we journey through the forty days, in preparation for Holy Week and Easter. Historically many Christians used this time for fasting, following the example of Jesus who fasted for forty days in the wilderness. Today, some people choose to use the season to commit to a Lenten discipline – giving something up or taking something up – as a tool to reflect on how we can better live Christ’s story and grow to become the people God creates us to be.
As generosity is the outpouring of a lived-out faith, we have a few suggestions for Lenten disciplines, which you might like to commit to during the season of Lent. We’d love to hear how you get on – do get in touch with us at the top of the page.
Ideas for Living Generously Through Lent
1. Take up the 40acts challenge.
40acts, created by Stewardship, presents a different challenge each day to practice generosity in your life. This is a really creative way of doing Lent differently. Complete yearly plans are available online – find out more here.
2. Donate something every day.
Find a charity or a selection of charities which you can donate to each day throughout Lent. You could include giving supplies to a local Food Bank, or put aside clothes and toys to donate to a charity shop.
3. Commit to praying for your community.
You could commit to giving thanks for the generosity of your community each day in Lent, reflecting on the gifts of money, time, hospitality and other means. You could also prayerfully discern where God is calling you and your church to use these gifts.
4. Sign up to volunteer.
Commit to giving your time to volunteering with a charity. This could be done in person – York CVS provide details of opportunities in North Yorkshire, which you can find here. This could also be done virtually, and there are plenty of opportunities for this, such as the Crisis Text Hotline, Help from Home and Help a Hero. A selection of ideas can be found here.
5. Set aside money for mission.
In addition to your regular planned giving to your church, you could set aside an additional gift amount each day or week, in order to resource mission. You might want to have a particular ministry in mind for this, or generally to bring glory to God in a watching world.
6. Practice gratitude.
Giving springs from the attitude of a grateful heart. Gratitude is a spiritual discipline rooted in the belief that everything good that happens around us is given from God out of love for us. This discipline will help to recover a Christian theology of thanksgiving. Our giving is an expression of gratitude. Commit to giving thanks each day, either by sending a message to someone or by making a note of three things you are grateful for each day.
A comprehensive guide to Lent Resources for 2025
This poster shows a variety of helpful resources, including Bible studies, songs, liturgy, and more.
Lent Bible Study
This Bible study explores the story of Lent and can be used in small groups.
Living Generously Through Harvest
Harvest Bible Study
This Bible Study will enable small groups or individuals to reflect on God’s generous gifts to us during the season of Harvest.
Click here to download the Bible Study
Harvest Thanksgiving Ideas
Resources and liturgy to celebrate Harvest.
Generosity Week
We are holding this space for the Church of England’s national Generosity Week. We will keep you informed of any updates for this exciting time of the year. It gives us all the opportunity to spend eight days collectively focusing on nurturing and encouraging generosity.
Being generous with God’s transforming gifts is key on our journey of that transformation as we seek to put mission at the centre of all that we do. In this Generosity Week, may we give time and space to inspire, encourage and celebrate how generous giving enables mission and ministry to flourish, deepen our understanding of God’s generosity towards us, and explore how we can live more generously in our daily lives.
Here are ideas and materials from previous years to inspire us, while we wait for 2025’s shiny new material and events:
Advent resources and ideas from the Generous Giving Team
The Generous Giving Team offers ideas and resources for churches and small groups to use in their journey of generosity in Advent this year.
- Download A Eucharist to Celebrate Generosity during Advent; includes the complete liturgy from Common Worship including readings. 17 pages A4 PDF 231KB
- Download A Bible Study for Advent; suitable for groups of all sizes – about one hour long. Includes four short Bible readings. 4 pages A5 – print as landscape A4 and fold to size. PDF 882KB
General Resources
Downloadable Resources
The following resources are available to download as example materials, and a generous giving advisor will help you to edit these to include your church’s vision, ministries, photos and response details.
Pray, Reflect, Respond card
document / 823 KB
Pray, Reflect, Respond card (with PGS)
PDF / 698 KB
Teaching and Preaching booklet
.docx / 785 KB
Gratitude Bible Study
This Bible Study focuses on the theme of ‘Seeking the Kingdom of God’ and recognising that we are grateful recipients of God’s blessings. This can be used individually or in small groups and is designed to last around 1 hour.
Bible Study
PDF / 307 KB
Legacy Giving and Will Writing
Legacy gifts can be used to fund mission and ministry projects, help to maintain historic church buildings, and ensure faithful people can be at the heart of local communities in the Diocese of York for years to come.
Legacy giving on average accounts for 60% of UK charitable income, but for our parish churches, the average is much lower at just 7%.
Writing a will and planning your funeral are two simple acts of good stewardship. God entrusted us to use his gifts wisely, for the good of our loved ones, our church family, and the wider world. In thanksgiving, we should also take will-writing seriously – setting our affairs in order and stewarding them wisely.
How to increase legacy giving?
If you want to talk to your congregation about leaving a lasting legacy, a guide on how to frame this conversation can be found here.
The video below outlines the impact of how a legacy (no matter how large or small) can transform the life and mission of your local church community. The video lasts for 4 minutes and 30 seconds, and can be shown in your PCC meeting.
Free online will-writing service
The Diocese of York and The Church of England have partnered with award-winning online will-writing company, Farewill, to offer a free online will-writing service. This normally costs £100 for a single will or £160 for couples.
You can redeem your free online will by clicking on the link below:
We have created a step-by-step guide to help your will-writing journey with Farewill be as easy as possible.
Farewill provides useful online guidance on a wide variety of topics which should answer any specific questions you may have, including a how to make a will guide.
Disclaimer: by participating in this will-writing scheme, your details will not be shared with the Church of England. If you use the Church of England will-writing scheme, there is no obligation to leave a gift to a church in your will. Your loved ones should always come first. If you do choose to remember your local or a favourite church, thank you. Every gift, great or small will make a real difference to that church and its mission and ministry in your community for future generations.
For guidance on ensuring that legacy fundraising is carried out in accordance with the Code of Fundraising Practice, please visit the Fundraising Regulator. Contact the National Legacy Officer at giving@churchofengland.org for more information.