Proceedings of the first part of the homonymous international conference held by the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic and the Institute for State-Church Relations in Bratislava and Nitra (Slovakia) on 14-16 October 2009. The aim of the conference was to compare and appraise the existing way of financing of churches and religious societies in various countries of Europe and world, with regard to gaining experience from time-tested practice as well as to avoiding negative phenomena. The participating experts presented specific models of financing and described historical, economical, religious-demographical, social and political contexts of the origin and routine practice of church financing in their native countries.