Please separate real gifts from offerings for services.
Many jurisdictions do not allow their priest to accept offerings for services. And many parishes provide a car and parish gas card, or a car allowance plus gas for the car that is used for parish business.
In Greek parishes, at least, your weekly offering pays the priest\'s gas and cellphone. If your parish doesn\'t do this, it should. These are bills the parish should be paying on a regular basis, and they should not come out of the priest\'s salary. Our parish wouldn\'t think of not covering these business expenses the same way we cover paper for the copier.
Gifts are another matter entirely, and a lot more fun to think about!
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