Letter Sent September 27, 2024

While I was on vacation in New Orleans I attended Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Louis. It was a beautiful experience. The Mass was presided by the Archbishop and concelebrated by the Rector of the Cathedral. They had a beautiful choir, and the people truly participated in the Mass. At the end of the Mass the Rector spoke about their upcoming capital campaign. When I returned to the Cathedral the following day for confession, it just so happened that the Rector was my confessor. After we finished, I was curious and asked him how much money they were trying to raise. He told me $70,000,000. I have to admit, that helped to put things in perspective for the financial issues I must address as your pastor.

The last nine years have been an interesting journey for me. It began with the first collaborative of Saint Mary and Saint John the Evangelist, and then the unexpected blessing of creating the brand-new collaborative of Saint Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, and Saint Margaret of Scotland. This process has taught me a lot about the generosity of the many people I've been called to serve through my time here as pastor. Together, we've been through a lot of changes and challenges that we have been able to meet because of our openness to the Holy Spirit and our faith in Jesus Christ.

We are experiencing a time in the Church's history when our identity as a community of faith is being transformed and challenged. For most of us, the parish in our community was where we worshipped when growing up. What we're experiencing now, with three parishes working together to further the mission of Christ, is not something new in the life of the Church. In the early 1900’s, it was not unusual for a pastor to run multiple churches or worship sites as the Church grew in the United States. As the Church matured in our nation, the number of clergy grew sufficiently to serve the growing number of parishes. Unfortunately, that is no longer true, and as such, the dynamic of how we are called to serve Christ as a community of faith moves in a new direction. Christ has tasked us to work together and allow his mission to be furthered in the world.

There is little doubt that we as a community can move forward in the direction that Christ is calling us towards. We have shown that ability in all that we have experienced together over the last few years. It is truly amazing to see people just naturally working together in our three parishes to make so many collaborative events occur. It also brings me great pleasure to see how easily people move from one parish church to the other and clearly feel right at home. The various existing ministries that now serve all three parishes—making it possible to further the mission of the Church—are a wonderful expression of our true faith. All this is possible only because the people of our parish communities are focused on what truly matters—Jesus. 

As part of helping our community/communities remain focused on our true mission of bringing Christ into the world, we began—in January—to participate in a process of renewal with an organization called Divine Renovation. The first part of this process was a twelve-week program for the pastor, which I have completed. The first step called for the pastor to define the vision for the community. After a lot of prayer, I discerned what God was calling me to see. Our vision is “That we become a community built on an intimate and loving relationship with Christ.” For this to happen, we must all work together and recognize that we all have a part to play in this journey. Each of us has our own unique gifts and talents that will, as a community, help to meet this vision; to implement and bring it to life. It is not the work of a few because Christian life is about each person taking on the mission of Christ and making it their own. No one can sit on the sideline and simply watch what others are doing. Obviously, we all struggle with living this commitment, but our desire should be to have a real relationship with Christ and lead others to do so. 

An important part of meeting this vision is to ensure that our parishes are financially stable. Talking about, and asking for money, has never been something I have enjoyed. But Divine Renovation has shown me that it is not only a part of my role as pastor, but necessary to be a good steward of the communities I am called to serve. What I like—or do not like—to do is irrelevant. Rather, I need to step up and do what Christ calls me to do as a good shepherd. And so that is what I am now doing; being the good steward that Christ is calling me to be.

We are blessed by the financial generosity of so many people in our communities of faith. It is truly a gift to recognize the support that you give to help us to meet the day-to-day financial needs that we have in each of our communities. And yet, as we all know, the cost of living has increased significantly over the last few years. Currently, our offertory is not meeting our day-to-day financial needs. We have been extremely fortunate over the last couple of years, due to some generous donors who helped us to meet those needs, but we cannot always rely on the possibility that future gifts will be forthcoming. The weekly offertory is what helps us to keep the lights on, pay for heating and cooling, pay insurance, and the other sundry and mundane bills that are necessary to maintain our communities. Prior to the pandemic Saint Mary averaged $15,895 a week, Saint John $10,291 a week and Saint Margaret $4,893 a week. Our average since the pandemic is now Saint Mary $14,123 a week, Saint John $9,318 a week and Saint Margaret $4,663 a week. Unfortunately, like any family, our expenses have increased, not decreased. Working as a collaborative has helped our communities in restraining some of those expenses but, overall, they continue to increase. 

As such, I am asking everyone to make a truly honest and prayerful consideration of what it is you are currently giving. First, and I want to be very clear on this, I recognize that there are those in our community who are already giving what they can. And I am appreciative of that. Thank you for your financial generosity. But, for those who have either not yet chosen to support your parish or have the ability to give more, please do so. We need to see an increase of at least 15% in weekly offertory to meet our budgetary needs. I believe this to be a reasonable and attainable goal. 

As this is a lead-in to an Increased Offertory Program, I am not asking for a one-time gift but rather a sustained commitment in our service to Christ. We must always remember where our gifts truly come from and that, ultimately, financial support of our parish is our responsibility in serving His mission. To show that I am not asking you to do what I am not willing to do, I give to each parish, as part of my tithing, $85 per month; a combined total of $255. I share this only to show my own commitment to our communities.

I trust that we, as a community, will step up and meet our financial needs. I am truly grateful to God for having called me here. It is truly a blessing in my life to be your pastor. Know that you are in my prayers and will continue to be. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out and speak to me.

In Christ,
Fr. Brian, Pastor

Letter, Brochure and Commitment Form
Sent October 4, 2024

We are truly blessed to be a people of faith. A people whose lives are dedicated to serving Christ however He chooses to call us. We are blessed to be in a community that strives to continue the  mission of Christ. It is in and through this community that we are strengthened to live out our baptismal calling, as we strive to “become a community built on an intimate and loving relationship with Christ.” It is in and through that relationship that we truly build up the body of Christ. 

Part of that intimate and loving relationship is to foster the virtues of our Father and Jesus. We are called to grow in and through our faith to be like them in many ways. But there is one particular virtue that is at the heart of our relationship with God—generosity of spirit. That generosity of spirit arises out of the virtue of humility, where we recognize that all the good we have in our life—spiritual or corporeal/earthly—come from the Father; we did not earn or merit them no matter how hard we worked. Rather, God has given them to us to further His work in the world. Some of them are, of course, given to supply our needs, but more is given to us so that God can work through us to serve the needs of others.

As such, I would like to introduce our increased giving program that we are inaugurating this year. Through this program, we have two specific requests regarding weekly offertory giving: 

1. For those who do not currently contribute, we kindly ask that you begin doing so

2. For those who do currently contribute, we ask that you consider an increase in your giving

We are not asking for anyone to contribute more than they can afford. However, we are requesting that you prayerfully consider prioritizing your contribution to the church by including this as a line item in your family budget. To meet our goals, we all must practice intentionality.

Talking about finances is never pleasant. Each of you understands the difficult decisions that must be made in budgeting for your home. Your faith home faces these same decisions. In making this request for increased giving, we hope to raise your awareness of the issue of consistent, weekly parish giving, while also bringing your attention to the heavy financial burden on each of our churches caused by maintaining its programs and buildings. 

I appreciate whatever consideration you can give to the needs of the parish, and the Church, in furthering the mission of Christ. I am truly blessed to serve a community that I know will be open to God’s calling in our lives. Know that you all continue to be in my prayers. If you should have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.
In Christ,
Fr. Brian, Pastor