Stewardship Report 2025:

STILL AFLOAT, STILL ON STORMY SEAS

Last October in the dreaded “Sermon on the Amount” I came to you, our faithful parish crew, and begged for your help. I needed you to help me bail our little boat out.

For a couple of years past, our parish boat had been taking on water. A stormy, very unpredictable financial climate, some overly sunny budgeting ignoring an inflationary horizon, the shifting weight of reducing our debt, and a lot of needed expenditures put us in a perilous situation. Waves were crashing over our deck. Relatively inexperienced captain that I am, I needed the expert advice of some seasoned financial sailors to help us avoid calamity. And most of all I knew I had to declare, “All hands on deck!” and ask you, good generous people that you are, to start bailing out the boat along with me.  

You responded with great generosity. We came through that storm together, and we have been able to dry out our clothes a little and keep fishing, like the apostles did of old. Through the generosity of so many of you who made gifts small and large, we achieved our goal: our income last year returned to being greater than our expenses, we did not have to cut or curb important programming, and we’re continuing to pay down our debt, which now stands at about $2.4 million. We have continued to grow our charitable works while taking decent care of our staff of good people who work so hard here for us all. They are indispensable, and very dedicated. And so many of you have donated not only from your means, but your talents, creativity, and dedication. And, of course, your prayers. 

Any sailor knows that you must always keep your eyes on the horizons, looking forwards and backwards. We’ve trimmed the sails a bit, a prudent thing to do when winds are uncertain. No one knows when the next squall will blow up out of nowhere, so we’re trying to lay in stores that we need for the next, inevitable round of storms. Still, I discovered a cloud on the horizon this past week, looking at the new 25-26 fiscal year’s first quarter numbers, and finding that we’re about $20,000 behind where we need to be. At the same time, we haven’t forgotten, nor can we forget, that loving charity is what keeps us afloat, light, nimble, and ready to reach out to at least some of those around us to keep them from sinking, just as Jesus did for doubting Peter. 

So where are we today? Where do we want to go? This bulletin contains a more extended than usual report of our pastoral works and the many ministries old and new that we are providing, and the charities that you support through our parish. In this report, we are focusing on the parish’s ordinary works and financial profile, and at a later date we’ll present to you our parish school’s story with its successes and its challenges. 

So, to begin: a number of declarative sentences:

We are solvent. 

We experienced a significant increase in overall giving last year after our October Stewardship appeal: overall, an increase of 23% (8.6% in Offertory, and an outstanding increase of 170% in Unrestricted Donations, thanks to many one-time gifts). 

We have budgeted expenses conservatively, projecting that this year’s income may not reach last year’s extraordinary levels. We have budgeted only a modest 3.4% increase in our expenses this year.

We have controlled our expenses, while giving our employees a cost-of-living increase of 3.5% as suggested by the Diocese. Like yours at home, our insurance and utility bills continue to escalate.  

We are slowly rebuilding the cash reserves we needed to spend from in the past few years. Recall that those cash reserves are also used to pay the $95,000 each year for our required paydown of our construction debt.

Thanks to your pledges and gifts (and the total $190,000 that together the Parish and School pay each year out of their reserves), we are continuing to pay down our debt at a brisk pace.  

We continue to grow our charitable outreach.

So with this positive news, what more is there to say? I’ll start with “Thanks again!” 

There is an old Breton fisherman’s prayer: “O Lord, the sea is so great, and my boat is so small.” The great sea in which we live is more unpredictable than ever. Storms are more frequent, it seems, and stronger. 

We need your continuing help to stay afloat, so we can share in God’s saving work together. I need to ask you to keep bailing out the boat with me, and not to bail out on us as a community. With your continued help, we can keep rowing and growing together. 

In concrete terms, last year I asked you to consider your contributions to our Parish and its works, and as you can, to increase them, even if only by a small factor. I make that appeal again this year in this Sermon on the Stormy Sea. We’re doing the best we can with our limited resources, hard work, and God’s grace. We know we cannot fail because Jesus is in the boat with us, bailing and rowing alongside of us. 

So Ahoy, Mateys, and Thanks! 

Blessings,