What you'll notice
A tray or basket goes down the rows at some point in the Liturgy, or sits by the door, or doesn't appear at all because everyone gives by pledge. At the candle stand people slip a few dollars into a box before they take a candle. The bulletin lists memorial offerings. A table at coffee hour collects canned goods, or coats, or checks for a family whose house burned down. In the fall, a card shows up in the mail asking what you plan to give next year.
What it's called
Almsgiving is the old word for giving to the poor. The Greek is eleemosyne (mercy, alms), the same root as eleison in "Kyrie eleison," "Lord, have mercy." What you give is mercy, because it's what you're asking for.
Stewardship is the word American parishes use for supporting the parish itself: time, talent and money, usually promised once a year on a pledge card. Many parishes also have philanthropic societies; in Greek parishes it's the Philoptochos (the "friend of the poor" society).
What's actually happening
There are two kinds of giving going on, and they overlap.
Alms go to people in need: the beggar at the light, the food pantry, the widow down the street, the parish's fund for families in crisis. Jesus wants this done quietly.
Stewardship keeps the parish alive. Orthodox parishes in America get no money from any government. The members pay for everything: the priest's salary, the mortgage, the electric bill, the candles, the wine and the flour for the prosphora, and a share sent on to the diocese. So most parishes ask each household for a pledge, a promise of what it will give over the year. Some hold up the Old Testament tithe, a tenth (Leviticus 27:30), as a goal. Others ask for proportional giving, a percentage you choose and grow into. Many also raise money with festivals and bake sales, and you'll eat well when they do.
Why it matters
Jesus put almsgiving first in the passage where he teaches prayer and fasting: "Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly" (Matthew 6:2–4).
The three go together. Fasting frees up the money; prayer keeps the giving from turning into self-congratulation; giving keeps the fast from being about your waistline (Fasting says more). The Didache, from the late first or early second century, says both halves of it: "Give to every one that asketh thee, and ask it not back," and also, "Let thine alms sweat in thy hands, until thou know to whom thou shouldst give."1 Generous, and not foolish.
Stewardship has its own logic. Giving to your parish is a concrete way of saying, "This is my Church, too." Everyone in the Church should have skin in the game, and committing to a financial gift is an important way of doing that. You don't have to become Parish Super-Volunteer of the Year. But you're no longer just passing through. This is home, and everyone in the family should chip in.
Where it came from
Giving to the poor runs through the whole Old Testament: the tithe, the gleanings left at the edge of the field, the warnings of the prophets. Jesus praised a widow who put two small coins into the temple treasury, because she gave out of her poverty (Luke 21:1–4).
Saint Justin Martyr's description of a Christian Sunday, written in Rome around 150, already has a collection in it. He says that after the Eucharist "they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need."2 The man presiding at the Eucharist was also the community's almoner.
The pledge card is the American parish's answer to a plain fact: with no state church, the people in the pews pay for everything.
What you do
If you're Orthodox: give alms in secret, regularly, and especially in the fasts. Make a pledge to your parish according to your means, and treat it as part of your rule, not as a bill. If you're a catechumen, start now; the catechumen's checklist I've used includes "Begin contributing as a steward of the parish," well before the baptism date.
If you're visiting: nobody expects you to give anything. When the tray comes by, it's fine to let it pass. If you light a candle, there's usually a suggested donation by the box; drop in what you can. If the parish fed you at coffee hour and you'd like to say thanks, the candle box or the tray will find its way to the right place.
Go deeper
- Matthew 6:1–18; Luke 21:1–4; Isaiah 58:6–7.
- Saint Justin Martyr, First Apology 65–67 (ANF 1), his account of a Christian Sunday.
- "After the Chrism Dries," Simply Orthodox, on becoming a parish person.
- Coffee Hour and The Path In.