An article from the Cathedral Times.
Wow!
Thank you! Last week, the Chapter of the Cathedral of St. Philip met for our first formal meeting of the year. The Chapter, of course, serves as a Board of Stewards, Trustees, and Overseers for the incredibly complex and powerful ministries of the Cathedral Parish. Many of those ministries, over time, have grown into entities with their own incorporations and boards of trustees, though they still relate and report to the Cathedral Parish; these are such grand ministries as the Cathedral Book Store, the Cathedral Preschool, the Cathedral Towers, the Cathedral Counseling Center, the Cathedral Farmers Market, the Friends of Cathedral Music, and the Cathedral Thrift Store. Each of those entities, called “parochial entities,” has steady income and ministry components.
But the Cathedral Parish itself will always require strong financial generosity in order to create and nurture Christians of service and mission. Our parish depends, absolutely DEPENDS, upon your contributions and pledges of financial support.
Those of you reading this newsletter weekly, or paying attention to my announcements in church, heard me say in December that we still needed much, much money if our parish budget was going to break even for 2014. In fact, we needed over one million dollars. That is a lot of money! We knew the money was pledged or was intended to be given; but we still needed it. Thus, I sent out my usual December plea for people please to be faithful.
Well, last week, the Cathedral Chapter received our usual and ordinary treasurer’s financial report. But what we saw was incredibly unusual and extraordinary. YOU DID IT! The Cathedral Parish contributed over $1,099,000 to the Cathedral in December of 2014!
That is absolutely amazing to me. That means that the finances of the Cathedral Parish of St. Philip finished 2014 “in the black.” In fact, we finished 2014 with a surplus of $9,963.
Even had we not made it, even if we had finished “in the red,” the Cathedral of St. Philip would have been proud. For we are not simply a business worried about the bottom line. We are a ministry of the Body of Christ. We are a true “corporation” (the word “corporation” comes from the word for “body”) devoted to service and to creating Christians. But it sure is nice to rest comfortably with a responsible budget!
The money that YOU pledge and give to the Cathedral Parish is not just money. It is transformed when you give it. Through the energy of our body, the money you contribute becomes ministry and service and mission in the world.
In fact, it’s a miracle. The money you give, in whatever amount, becomes transformed when we bless it, and when we give thanks for it, and when we distribute it responsibly.
Wow! Thank you! Your generosity is changing the world. Your generosity is building up the Body of Christ. Thank you.
