A VICAR is to provide his congregation with a bountiful harvest of £10 notes during a church service, in a bid to start a “Mexican wave of goodwill”.

The Reverend Paul Peverell, vicar of Christ Church, in Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, is planning to hand out about £1,500 during his harvest festival church services on Sunday.

He will give each of his congregation £10, which he hopes they will pass on to a worthy recipient in the community, accompanied by an act of kindness or generosity.

His congregation normally numbers between 120 and 150 members.

He is also planning to hand £25 to each of the six Brownie, Scout and Cub groups which attend the afternoon church parade on the day, to either donate directly to charity, or to help them generate more cash for charity by staging a fundraising event. The money will come from church accounts.

Mr Peverell – known locally as Rev Pev – is banking on the initiative sparking a ripple of kindness.

“They’ll be given £10 and they’ll have to pass it on to someone else, but they have to increase the value of that £10 by putting some effort into it,” he said.

“It might be that they use that £10 to buy ingredients to bake, then drop their efforts off where they would be appreciated. Or they take someone who is lonely for a coffee or to the cinema.

“The use of that £10 can be as inventive as people are. We don’t ask for anything back.

“It would just be nice to hear a few stories of how people felt when they did their act of kindness, or how people felt receiving it, without naming the people involved.

“We are trying to start a Mexican wave of goodwill.”

Mr Peverell said the idea was inspired by the community spirit during the Queen’s jubilee and the Olympics and he wanted to keep the feelgood factor going.

He said the church often gave money from its accounts to big charities, but this was a way of helping the local community. They will also be collecting for the Middlesbrough Food Bank.

He said he had faith that most the money would be passed on.

“There’s obviously the chance someone won’t pass it on,” he said.

“But for the ones that do, it will be worth it.”