Dear Friends,
I am so grateful to all of our families for the many gifts they bring to our parish family! I hope we can all prayerfully discern how the Lord asks us to make a return of what He has given to us (Ps 116:12) – our time as prayer, our talents as service, and our treasure as sacrificial giving. A few additional bits of information about the stewardship of sacrificial giving part, especially.
The parish tithes. The diocese assesses 6% of our Sunday collection, and I have reserved another 4% to give to other charitable work. During fiscal year 2021-22, as a parish family, we gave away $27,000 benefitting from greatest to least: Women’s Care Center, Fr. Ken’s home parish, Hannah’s House, Right to Life Michiana, Our Lady of the Road, Holy Family Adoption Agency, Holy Cross College’s Haiti Mission Appeal and some parishioners in need. The current fiscal year we are slated to give away just south of $40,000. I budget the amount per year based on the collection data from 2 fiscal years ago (the relatively big difference last and this year: the COVID shutdown).
The Annual Bishop’s Appeal (ABA) is an assessment – for us this year $78K. In order to keep the other diocesan assessment at 6% of the collection (instead of many multiples of 6%, which would be the case without the ABA), the diocese facilitates a once per year major ‘ask’ of all households in the diocese. It’s a great opportunity to highlight the good things happening at the diocesan level (as distinct from what’s happening here at the parish). Anything we can collect over $78K will actually return to the parish. This year, any overage funds will be applied to giving the choir loft some much needed TLC, most notably heat and AC.
St. Joseph, pray for us!
Father Chris