December 17, 2010
Taking care of ourselves in order to continue to serve others…..
Good Morning, As most of you know, my name is Molly Ryan. Over the past twelve years I have had the opportunity to speak before the parish on many occasions. You have heard me speak about Catholic schools, share the Sunday readings and give various other witness talks through the years. Today, as the Chair of Council, I will give the most difficult speech I could ever imagine giving. I thank you in advance for listening to me today and supporting my efforts.
I would like to begin by asking you a few questions and challenge you to think about your answers. These questions apply to your own family, and they apply to your parish family:
+ What do you do to take care of the people and the things you care about most?
+ What do you sacrifice daily for them?
+ What is it that keeps you committed?
+ What happens when you spend more money than you make?
+ How can this be corrected?
+ What are the realities of operating in an unbalanced financial condition?
A few months before Fr. Don left St. Anne, the finance ministry spoke at all the Masses and reported the financial shortfall we were experiencing at St. Anne and the fact that we did not have a balanced budget. Cutbacks were talked about and realities were put in front of us. For a small amount of time the parish responded and the weekly giving increased. Since then, we are struggling each month to make our bills. In October of this year, Fr. Bob sent out to every parishioner a detailed letter and Q & A describing the serious issues in front of us. He told you about the prior cutbacks in the music ministry, the challenges with our monthly bills and the effect this may soon have on our ability to serve the greater community through our social outreach, something that truly sets us apart and what Jesus calls us to do. In this letter, there were challenges to each of you to help increase revenue and close the gap.
For years we have been speaking about closing the gap and if we just had a little more from each family we could get there. The situation in front of us is much more serious than that now. Today, we are even further from being able to close the gap. We just don’t bring in enough each month.
Some families are sacrificially generous and for that we are grateful. Some families just can’t commit any more and we respect that. Some families may be holding back for whatever personal reason they have: I challenge you to reconsider.
These realities that I would like to share with you that may make some of you run, some of you worry but mostly I hope it makes all of us pray.
St. Anne has a monthly mortgage payment of $37,500 and monthly operating expenses that average $40,000. Over the years we have had to use our reserves to help pay for these monthly bills. First, we used the reserves of the old parish center, but those are all depleted now. With our current operating deficit, we will now have to begin using reserves from the Faith In our Future Fund to carry us through the monthly bills. The intention of the Faith in Our Future reserves was to help us secure a long-term mortgage. By taking from these funds we are putting ourselves in jeopardy of securing this loan. In six months, when we begin to negotiate this new mortgage, we need to have a balanced budget, reserves to fall back on and adequate monthly income. If we do not, there will not be a bank in town that will give us a loan. This is the strongest reality in front of us.
Our staff is operating on bare bones. We have cut back the music ministry. We are holding checks and paying bills at the last minute. We are struggling to serve others in our community because we can’t even take care of ourselves right now. We are currently operating in the red. We simply do not have enough funds to cover our expenses.
Fr. Bob, parish council and the finance ministry are taking this situation very seriously and working diligently to resolve these issues and get St Anne on a healthy financial path. We are looking at new ways to generate money within the parish. We will continue to re-evaluate and trim the budget wherever possible. We are committed to this path: we simply cannot spend more than we take in.
At this time I would like to charge each of you with a few very doable tasks that will help lead us to that balanced budget and healthy financial state we so desperately need.
Please, sign up for ACH automatic giving. Statistics show that, although families commit to weekly giving, in real life they give on average less than 45 of the 52 weeks each year. ACH is a great tool which helps us fulfill what we have committed. There are forms and workers after Mass to help with this. 150 families currently use ACH, our goal is to have 400 families use it, won’t you be one of them?
Please, purchase a minimum of $200 scrip each month. This year our goal is to sell 1.3 million of SCRIP, won’t you help us reach it.
Please pray and consider what your family can better tithe to our church community in knowing that there is so much received from the Lord in return. Set an attainable goal for your family and a minimum amount you will contribute each month.
Please, think and pray about all of this as you prepare to turn in your stewardship form, so that your solid pledge of commitment to our parish will enable us to plan financially and continue to have vibrant ministries to serve our community and the greater community. If we are true to what we commit, Saint Anne will thrive.
What are you prepared to do for Saint Anne?
During the past twelve years I have watched on many occasions how generous and giving this community can be. I have watched us first hand raise money for Carters wheelchair, a parishioner we all love and cherish so deeply. When Fr. Oriol comes to pray with us we give to his ministries with amazing generosity. When my own family suffered a great loss in the June 19th 2009 flood, parishioners came to our door unannounced bearing financial gifts for our children and our home. Most recently, we raised $10,000 for Claire Bevec, our parishioner who will undergo a kidney transplant this month.
We never hesitate to help those in need and we do it without reservation. I know how hard it is to ask for help for ourselves, but today that is what we need to do. We now need to help ourselves so we can sustain the giving, hospitable, caring and loving parish we all have grown to be a part of. We need to get ourselves on a healthy financial path so we can ensure our outreach to the greater community for years to come. We need to balance our budget and have a sustainable healthy income of $77,500 each month so we can move this parish forward and continue down a path of growth.
God has blessed us with the tools to make this work but it is up to us to do it. Please return your stewardship form, your gifts of time; talent and financial giving are the heartbeat of this parish. Everyone matters and everyone can make a difference. We must unite as a parish to make this happen, and focus on our future.
We all came to St. Anne for a reason; we found it to be a different experience, welcoming and one that made us feel like a family. The only way this church can continue to exist is with the help of EACH of the parishioners – no exceptions. Just as I am asking for your commitment, I commit to you that I will report back with our progress, keep the financials posted in the bulletin, continue to review our budget and most importantly pray for each of you and your families.
Please honor your commitments to St. Anne and please continue to pray for us and with us! As Fr. Bob mentioned in his homily last week – as long as we walk with God, there is no situation that is without hope.
Thank you for your attention. Together we will continue to make Saint Anne a strong and loving parish family.
