Finance Report

Submitting this letter will be one of my last official duties while serving you as a member of the Parish Council, and specifically as the Treasurer (aka Finance Chair). While it hasn’t always been easy, it has truly been an honor to have served you in this capacity for nearly six years! In fact, I don’t recall what Parish life was like before joining the Council, so I’ll take that as another signal that it’s high time for me to move on. Though, in reality, one never truly moves on from the work of the Council – you simply cycle through stages of activity and hibernation. It’s not quite “Hotel California,” but that part about never leaving is about right!

Before I move on or prepare to take a long nap, let me say how truly grateful we are for you and your financial faithfulness to our community! We are once again sitting here at the end of the year with a healthy surplus in the annual budget, and we are projected to have another year-over-year increase in our General Fund pledge campaign.

One of the benefits of having served for an extended period of time on the Council is the hindsight one acquires over time. It wasn’t that long ago that we were seeing contraction in our General Fund, which leads to reduced budgets and some tough decisions. By the grace of the Most Holy Trinity, we navigated those periods and become stronger as a result. Our Parish community is currently experiencing a growth phase, as evidenced by the ever- increasing list of Catechumens. This is truly a blessing and one that that we should never take for granted. While a blessing, managing growth also presents a unique set of challenges to our community. Those challenges will require both sacrifice and hard work to overcome. My final appeal to each of you is to do whatever you can, starting today, to place your financial “house” in order. In doing so, we will each be in a better position to receive that appeal and to help this Community take that next step.

Respectfully Submitted,
Nick Crown
Treasurer