Posts Tagged ‘parish’

Finance Council Report to Parish Sunday June 27, 2010

(Presented by finance council members at all Masses).

My name is ________________, and I am a member of our parish Finance Council. I serve on the Council partly because of my background and experience, but mainly because this community of faith has nourished my own growth in faith. It continues to challenge me to grow in love of neighbor and in stewardship as a way of life for a follower of Christ. In this regard, the Finance Council has just finished preparing the budget for fiscal 2010-11.  I believe the budget we have prepared is both realistic and appropriately challenging. A summary sheet of this budget is found in today’s bulletin, and the full detailed budget can be viewed on the parish website. If you wish to have a paper copy of the detailed budget, you can obtain one simply by calling the parish office. What I wish to do in the next four minutes is to highlight the rationale behind the major changes in it.

Again this year, we began our budgeting process by soliciting input from those involved in all our ministries. We asked them to submit both what were the bare essentials needed to accomplish their ministry, and what was needed to grow their ministries in ways God was calling them to grow. In doing this, we believe we were being true to the way the Spirit has moved in our community, especially in the recently completed discernment process. We listened carefully to what the Spirit was telling us through the voices of our fellow parishioners and the voices in our community. What we heard was, first, that we were proud of our roots, our history as a small country parish responding to the needs of a small country town. There are many strong values in this image, which we want and need to preserve. At the same time, we heard a call to begin to re-image ourselves. We are now a mid-size parish in a growing community. Given this new situation we need to define our mission more clearly. We also need to be prudent in going forward, in view of continuing economic uncertainty.

Still, our discernment found some urgent needs which we have to address in order to be faithful to our identity as a Catholic Community of faith. First among these was our comprehensive Faith Formation program. This includes offerings from pre-baptism through Adult Ed. Over the years, more and more responsibilities were added to the job of the Faith Formation Coordinator, without a significant increase in her hours. She has performed her ministry excellently in the midst of great constraints. In order for her to continue to do her ministry with excellence we believe we need to increase her position from part time to full time. This, along with the supplemental equipment and supplies needed for this ministry, accounts for the biggest increase in the budget – an increase of 6% in that area. A second major area of increase was liturgy. Liturgy is the central activity of every Catholic parish. From it all ministry flows, and to it all ministry leads. The budget for this coming year includes line items for new liturgical books and study aids, needed to accommodate the changes in liturgical texts, currently scheduled for publication sometime in the Spring or Fall of 2011. The budget also includes modest increases in stipends for directors of our Music Ministry, and funds for some necessary vestment repair and replacement. Other increases involve mostly cost of living increases.

We are confident that we can both meet this budget, and move forward with funding the phased building additions which our discernment process has also called for. Yes, this will require that we all increase stewardship of all our resources – of our time, talent, and treasure. We sincerely thank all who are currently giving to the support of our parish, and ask them to continue to do so, increasing that giving if possible. We ask all who may not be currently contributing financially to begin prayerfully doing so. We do have reasons to be confident in moving forward.  Last year at this time, although required to submit a balanced budget, we basically were facing an $11,000 deficit for this fiscal year. This was approximately 6% of the budget.  Through your generosity, even with the hard economic situation of this past year, we will finish this year in the black.  The budgeted increase over this year’s actual is only 2.9%.  We are also asking the Diocese to help us in this effort to be the parish we are becoming by providing a subsidy – although we cannot be certain of receiving this subsidy. We have come this far by faith, perseverance, and commitment. Let us continue to challenge each other to grow through our love in Christ.

The Discernment Committee, guided by the Holy Spirit, has completed its work.

Below are two documents with the reports

The entire parish community, invited to an All Parish Meeting on June 17, 2010 discussed these recommendations and as an added bonus, met with the new pastor.

The Documents may be opened by clicking on the titles.

Discernment Committee Recommendation - Final 2010 May 5

Parish Mtg 10 0617

Our Lady of the Woods BUDGET for Fiscal Year July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011.

For a summary of the budget click this link … … … Budget Summary with charts

To view the detailed line item budget click this link … … … OLW 2010-2011 Budget

Finance Council Members: Lorraine Bailey, Johnny Lopez, Terry Lutz, Dale Schnitker, Todd Wiseman. Staff Members: Fr. Don Dilg, Vicki Rector

ALL PARISH MEETING

As you know, our parish is in the midst of a discernment process, the results of which will affect our community for generations to come. Literally hundreds of hours have been contributed to this effort by many of our fellow parishioners; and this process is now at a very crucial juncture. That is why I am making a special appeal to you to come to the next All Parish Meeting.

On Sunday April 11, from 10:45 – 12:30, in the church, the preliminary results and proposals from our combined sub-committees will be presented to the parish as a whole. I honestly believe that the Spirit has been working through them, and now desires to work through you.

This meeting will be repeated on the following Tuesday evening, from 7:00-9:00 PM. Please do come to one of these meetings and offer the gift of your insights to our parish.

In the peace of Christ,

Fr. Don