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FROM FR. RICHARD: Brothers and Sisters, Last Sunday, we included in the Sunday Bulletin our annual financial report to the parish. I hope you were able to spend a few minutes reviewing it. I think you will see that we run a tight ship and that our parish priorities reflect our parish mission. There is three situations which we face which are not reflected in the annual report, however, and which the Parish Finance Council want you to be aware of. First, this summer we had to replace three heating/air conditioning units on the roof of the parish hall. These units were over 30 years old and, because of attentive maintenance, had lasted far beyond their expected lifetimes. The new units we installed cost a total of $24,000. Paying for them wiped out our "contingency fund" savings. Though we are current with all our parish bills, we are presently living from hand-to-mouth, from one Sunday collection to the next. Please let us all be attentive to and generous with our Stewardship commitments, and we will make up this gap in our budget. We will be able to breathe a little easier, should other unforeseen expenses come our way. Second, many of you will remember a survey we took earlier this year regarding some alterations and improvements to the parish building. We have settled on a few new features which we would like to add to our facility, including Ôair-lockÕ doors, to improve our energy efficiency, and larger bathrooms off the new commons. To position ourselves for these changes, the Finance Council would like to accelerate our paying off the parish debt. To help this along, we will institute a once-a-month second collection for the parish debt. Lastly, many of you have read in the Catholic Virginian about the Diocesan Annual Appeal. If you have not received written material about this in the mail, you will soon. The Diocese has set the weekend of Oct 2-3 for the Appeal collection at all Masses. I invite you to consider making a generous contribution to the Appeal. Our parish goal is $17,120. If we achieve this goal, 20% of this will be returned to St. Thomas More as un-restricted funds for our use. The Diocese will return 50% of our contributions over and above the parish goal. So participation in the Appeal helps the Diocese and St. Thomas More as well. Thank you for your time and attention. The community life and mission of St. Thomas More depends entirely on the generous stewardship of all our parishioners.
Brothers and Sisters, Between October, the Diocese will implement a "Diocesan Appeal" (formerly the "Bishop's Appeal") to support Diocesan-wide ministries, including support for seminarians and retired priests, youth, young adult and campus ministries, and the fuel and hunger fund. Each parish of the Diocese has been assigned a "target" amount, and St. Thomas More's target is $17,120. If we as a parish contribute this amount, 20% or $3,434 will be returned to the parish for our unrestricted use. Beyond that, 50% of anything we contribute over the $17,120 target will be returned to the parish for our use. The Appeal will begin with a Leadership Gift Phase, beginning now and extending through the end of September. A Leadership Gift is a gift of $1000 or more. If you would like to be contacted by a Diocesan representative of the Appeal regarding a Leadership Gift, please contact me. The Diocese has set the weekend of October 2-3 for the general appeal in all parishes at all Masses. You will be hearing more about the Diocesan Appeal as the summer ends and the autumn begins. I write this to you now as an initial "heads-up" and to let you know that participating in the Diocesan Appeal will directly benefit St. Thomas More Parish. I hope we can all be generous in supporting the needs of the Church of Richmond beyond the boundaries of our own parish. Of course, if you have any questions about any aspect of the Diocesan Appeal, I am available to address them. Peace, Fr. Richard
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