Stewardship and the ACA
I received a letter from Archbishop Carlson, congratulating all of you for your efforts and sacrifice for the Annual Catholic Appeal. As you may have read in the St. Louis Review, the campaign was a success, largely due to parishes like ours who not only reached our goal, but also reached our challenge goal. Thank you for your stewardship of the gifts of treasure God has entrusted to you. Be assured of his continued prayers of gratitude and support.
Next weekend is Stewardship Sunday in our Archdiocese. As part of my stewardship of your gifts, a summary of the Annual Parish Finance report will be presented in the Pastor’s pen. The entire report will be available online on the parish website. The news is not great, but nor is it unexpected. We have some challenges before as we continue the mission of Christ here in our neighborhood. I intend to lay out a vision that hopefully will guide us forward for the next year or two at all the masses next weekend.
As part of that vision, we will be sending out a link to an electronic survey from our Stewardship team during this upcoming week to all those who have supplied us with an email address, as well as have paper copies available for people to take home. I would ask that each household take the time necessary to fill the survey out. Part of that survey is informational, part of it is seeking input about current practices within the parish, and a part of it is to ask for an accounting of the gifts that God has given you for the building up of the church. I ask that you take time to prayerfully look at those gifts of time, talent and treasure that God has given to you, and then ask for and listen to whatever guidance God is putting in our heart about your stewardship of those gifts.
Finally, next weekend we are going to distribute a form which will allow you to do your weekly/monthly giving electronically via an ACH transfer. It will simplify your support of our mission, and hopefully provide a steadier income stream during the disruptions to mass attendance caused by inclement and winter weather. You certainly are not obliged to use this form of giving, but as more and more people do their banking online, we thought you might like the option.