Well the events of the day went very well. We were able to make some plans for the next year and I hope and pray that we acted in the way that God is calling us to act. It is always difficult to make plans when one is not sure of what the future holds. So much of what we do as church depends on many factors that are out of our control. We have an older parish here and most are on a fixed income so it is difficult to plan finances. After the assembly we had a discussion at coffee hour about raising funds. It always turns to the easy things like raffles and other forms of gambling. We have several of those events here each year and I am not keen to add more. So what is the answer? We have begun a discussion about Stewardship. You will be hearing more about that this year as we move in that direction.
So I announced a new ministry yesterday. We have become an affiliate of Come Receive the Light National Radio Program. We will be syndicating the national weekly talk show on our local AM radio station. The show will air from 8:30-9:00 on Sunday morning and will end with an invitation from me to come to church. This is a very large undertaking for us from a financial position but we have made the commitment to reach out. The cost for this new ministry represents about 5% of our total budget for the year but we have to do it. We will be the only religious programing of any kind on the station. This could be good. So that is the news from the Village.
Fr. bless, does your parish have a program to help parishoners leave bequests when they fall asleep? Just a thought. I don’t think my parish would be so strong today if some forward thinking people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had not thought to leave gifts when they died.
Matt,
At present we do not but that is soemthing we need to look into as well. Thanks for your comments.
Blessings,
Fr. P.