Editorial February 22, 1975 Issue

Giving to Church

Naomi Price

The ancient tithe barns that still exist in England are now valued relics of an era long past. Over a thousand years ago a law was made authorizing a tax to be levied for the upkeep of the churches. Parishioners, many of them farming people, were required to pay a proportion of their income—in the case of farmers, of their harvest—for the maintenance of the local church and its ministry, and great barns were erected on church property to accommodate the produce that came in.

Gradually, as the country became industrialized, tithes were paid in money rather than in kind, and the barns fell into disuse. But the responsibility remained for people to support the church in their community, and to this day in many parishes an annual tithe contribution is called for by the church—now on a voluntary basis— assessed on the value of the house property in which the parishioners live.

The custom of tithing for the benefit of the church goes back beyond a thousand years B.C., even before Abraham. It hints at the relation of the real, spiritual man to God, his creator and preserver— man glorifying God by reflection, knowing Him as the source of his being and of his substance and supply. And it symbolizes the homage that humanity can be expected to pay to divine Principle, the power that governs all, and the gratitude people should feel for the spiritual gifts that are theirs through the law of eternal Love.

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