We require it but you can’t really force anyone!
Yeah, the larger istitutional entity is known as a diocese, and has proved really useful in protecting the church as a whole pedophile liability.
I’d think one of the largest costs for a UU congregation would be the coffee. 
My husband and I were married in the church he grew up in, a Catholic church. It was known that I was not Catholic, and was not converting. Some time later he was approached by an officer of the church and basically “highly encouraged” to “donate” $500 for our yearly fee of a “family membership,” above and beyond expected donations in the collection plate. I guess it wasn’t required but was expected; he could attend services but to really be considered part of the community he needed to donate. He even tried to argue that his family (aka me) wasn’t even a Catholic or a visitor, but that didn’t count. (Yes, we did already pay a fee to get married there.) I think he avoided saying what they could do with the request. He’s pretty sure that other Catholic churches don’t do this, but this is a very status-fixated area and they’re constantly trying to outdo other churches with their elaborate building plans.
You have to buy tickets for Holy Day services? As someone who was raised Protestant, that blows my mind a little.
I’m sorry for your troubles, elmwood. I would definitely push the issue. I doubt you’re the only one having trouble making dues, but others might feel too embarassed to come forwards. There should be some kind of sliding scale for those who aren’t well-off.
Again, at least in every Synagogue I’ve been to, anyone can come to services at any time. The “tickets” are for reserving your specific seats that you want every year and it’s away to separate yearly dues from the holidays- that way if you are in town and planning to come to synagogue you pay a bit extra, but if you are going out of town for the Holidays you don’t have to pay that bit extra. But again- no one is turned away (college students, newcomers, visitors etc) who want to come observe the holidays.
It’s more of an annual separate donation called “tickets”.
I feel like some people are getting the wrong idea- anyone can come to services (which in our synagogue are held 7 days a week- daily morning services and shabbat services friday night/sat morning plus holidays). No one is denied access to any worsihp services because they aren’t a member. Routine participation in synagogue does come with a fiscal responsibility that we call membership dues and Holiday “tickets”. It s not a club membership or meant to be exclusionary.
I personally have never belonged to a synagogue that didn’t make accommodations for economic hardship- although my experience is limited to the synagogues I have personally belonged to.
Missed the edit!!
ETA: Religious school is held on Sunday mornings for the younger kids and typically Sunday and Wednesday OR Sunday, Tues and Thurs for the older kids. At our synagogue each session is 2-3 hours long with multiple teachers teaching literature, language, liturgy, history and culture. As a result, we do play extra for the kids in religious school, rather than bundling that expense into everyone’s yearly dues. At our small-modest synagogue we have 6 teachers each with an aid to teach K-9th grade Hebrew school and a religious school principal. The money is needed and well used for Bar/Bat mitzvah preparation (learning the language, the prayers involved in services and Torah) and religious education in general.
Well, yeah, but seriously, IME very few Reform Jews go to synagogue much for regular Shabbat services - if they go to synagogue at all, it’s likely to be for High Holy Days. The synagogue has to control capacity somehow. We always used to go to High Holy Days services with Mom, who wasn’'t a member anywhere, so for all I know members got tickets for free.
Thanks for explaining, Eva Luna and IvoryTowerDenizen. I think I’m getting a clearer picture.
Roman Catholics are supposed to tithe.
Is it required? In true Catholic tradition, it is required in the sense that GOD IS KEEPING TRACK.
There’s an advantage that at least some Christian churches gain by “passing the plate”- contributions by non-members. I’m Catholic, and there are certain services that are heavily attended by those who don’t normally cross the threshold of a church. I don’t mean weddings, funerals or baptisms, which IME ,don’t involve a collection. I’m talking about Christmas, Easter, and certain regularly scheduled Sunday Masses which are associated with another event. In my parish, the Christmas collection is about twice the amount of an ordinary collection.
The Anglican Cathedral I go to uses tickets for Easter services, because Easter brings the greatest number of Anglicans out of the woodworks, and the church has limited capacity.
They don’t charge for tickets - they give them out to anyone in the congregation on the last couple of services before Easter. The idea is simply to give a bit of a preference in seating to those who come to church more regularly.
In the Protestant churches I’ve been involved with, it’s also bottom up, the church owns the building(s), pays the staff, takes care of the congregation, and supports charitable programs. If we don’t raise the money, we can’t afford it. But it’s still voluntary. There are semi-regular reminders: “Our expected budget for the year is $YYYY. It’s June. We’ve only collected $YYYY/3. Please think about that when you prepare your family’s budget for the upcoming months.” in the bulletin. And either the congregation kicks in, or the church can’t do as much as it had planned.
I’m surprised there’s no way to do a voluntary contribution sent out every week/month/year that could be sent back in on a non-Sabbath. Contributions are tax deductible, are they not? The people who use it as a tax write-off will still want that.
:eek:
Geez. In the Catholic Church we’re so wanting people will join we have volunteers just to hang out and talk with them. The only fees are due for funerals and weddings, and they’re not much (mostly for the candles and incense and so forth.) And if you really couldn’t pay they’d still give you a funeral somehow.
Wow.
When we moved into our present neighborhood ,the parish priest gave us a call. He informed us that they were having a building fund drive. He knew we were catholic. He then said he had decided from the amount of money we made ,how much we should afford. He then brought out loan papers for us to sign. He had some how found out how much we made.
I sicced the dog on him and never saw him again.
Wow gonzomax that is very in your face compared to the priests I know. Most of them hate asking for money for anything. They do it (we have to pay for things somehow) but I think they’d sell a kidney or something before doing that.
Holy shit, he wanted you take out a freaking loan to donate to the church? That’s crazy.
How did he know you were Catholic and how much money you made?
How did he get a license to loan money - what kind of loan papers did he present you with? Who was the lender?
Any synagogue I’ve ever been a member of has regular (quarterly, in the case of my current one) membership meetings, in which the budget can be reviewed, and during which dues levels and fees are established and, if necessary, increased. Perhaps, if you’re cynical about how much your synagogue collects from its members, you can sit in on one of the meetings (even as a non-member, just to listen and not have voting privileges) and see where the money goes to. In my experience, the biggest expenses are (no surprise) the mortgage, the Rabbi’s salary, and building maintenance and utilities. If the synagogue in question runs a day school as well, there’s more personnel and more utilities usage (than merely at prayer times and the occasional festivity) that needs to be paid for.
My own (Orthodox) synagogue’s yearly dues are only $360 a year. We don’t run a school, on the contrary, a nursery school rents our basement from us, so that’s helpful to the bottom line rather than draining it.
They send Jack Dean Tyler over to replace your foreskin.
You now have my nomination to win the whole damn thread.