This year, we at St. John’s have a special reason to be very proud of our vestry and parish finance team. These representatives and leaders of our parish have committed to accomplishing what our national leaders and politicians have been unwilling to do: to stop deficit spending and live within a balanced budget. Five years ago, the vestry at St. John’s set into place a plan to have a balanced budget and this year they are doing the final round of cost cutting to make that a reality—trimming our deficit from approximately $46,000 to $0. This will allow us to stop borrowing from the principal of our parish endowments and will allow these funds to return to their original purpose of helping to secure our parish’s future.
This cost cutting comes with a lot of sacrifice and faith that God will help us continue to be able to serve and minister with growing vitality and to reach the world as Christ has called us. Areas that are proposed to be cut from the budget include the $1500 rector’s discretionary fund for giving assistance to those who come to our parish seeking aid, $3500 from the choral scholar program, $6000 from the lunch bag outreach program and cuts to staff salaries and reductions in parish office hours. These cuts to the budget don’t mean that these ministries will cease or that we don’t value these programs. To the contrary, these are our some of our most valuable ministries and our best ways of fulfilling Christ’s call to ministry.
The reason that we feel able to make these cuts is that we have had wonderful support for these ministries from the congregation, over and above people’s pledges which go to the basic upkeep of St. John’s. For 2013 we are asking the you to maintain your pledge from last year and consider offering a special donation to support one these vital outreach and worship ministries of which St. John’s is so proud. The reason that this cost cutting is essential is that our financial means have been dwindling over the past five years and we have been supporting these ministries from monies given by past generations to ensure the church’s future upkeep. With our stained glass windows in need of $70,000 worth of repairs and many other parts of this historic Church building in need of attention, necessity tells us we must start living within our means and using our endowment for its original purpose, not current ministry. So in 2013, I encouraging us all to support the ministries we love and to work to ensure that St. John’s will be strong and vital for generations to come.