Dear Parish family, last Sunday during the sermon I mentioned that your church was strapped financially. This sort of thing normally happens in August as a result of vacation time. I think that we must all be mindful of the challenging budget that we collectively passed last December. As was mentioned we now have a $7,000 deficit plus we’ve not paid the Diocese our fair share as we pledged to do for two monthly installments. We all know that once we are in a financial hole it is always hard to get out of one.
Some kind folks have stepped up that may help alleviate the shortfall in funds. That said, our base of income is not meeting operating expenses. Our average collections are about $1,500 below normal per Sunday. It is true that it seems like we are OK. We have a new deck and other enhancements. Those were private dedicated donations.
We need operating funds. Operating funds are not exciting, there is no special memorial for them, operating funds are boring. Yet, such funds provide us with the glory of our worship, the beauty of our altar decorations, the music that we so enjoy, the work to maintain our property. On occasion someone offers to improve something in our facility, like the deck and lovely memorial garden that we now have. But those things which give us our worship space, your clergy, administrators, musicians, floral arrangements, computers to manage missions and ministries, website and all that is required to maintain a great place to worship, pray, meet, organize and do the work of Christ Jesus requires operating funds. So, maybe its not so boring.
So if, because of this crazy world, you are behind in your pledge commitment please help us all by catching up or at least restarting your giving. If your personal life has been challenging let us know so that we can adjust your pledge numbers (all calls will be confidential).
If, as a member of the parish family, you have a few dollars extra that you can help with that would be great!
We are a scrappy little church that does more than one can imagine but we still need to support the basic core of our common life and that is the operating expenses of the church itself. Please help by increasing your pledge if you can; catching up if you are behind of pledging; adjusting your pledge if you have need to; or sharing just a bit extra of your funds to keep the missions, ministries, and worship going.
In Christ’s Name, Fr. Bill+