Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

“The kingdom of heaven will be like this,” Jesus said, and he told the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids.  The core of the parable, the focus of the story, all has to do with the oil.  The oil has been understood as good works, faith, spiritual practices, deeds of discipleship, acts of love and mercy.  It’s all about oil.  It could be about my family’s olive oil business.  You can get Napoleon Olive Oil at Bartell’s for just $3.99.

Oil is about faith, deeds of discipleship, acts of love and mercy, stewardship of time, talent, and treasure.  All mixed with a bit of grace and the Holy Spirit.  Here today to talk about our parish Financial Report and Stewardship of Treasure are two of our young adult parishioners, both CPAs, and members of our Finance Council.  Welcome Adam Janicki and Austen Wiederspan.

Paul A. Magnano

Pastor

Austen

Thank you, Father. Our parish’s annual report was included in the bulletin last month and today Adam and I want to connect that report with our current stewardship of treasure.

The gospel talks about being ready for the Lord, ‘for you know neither the day nor the hour'. Part of the mission of the finance council is to watch over the Church's gifts to ensure that we can be ready to meet the needs of downtown Seattle. We are in our 7th year as a new church in the Diocese and while we are focused on the budget for the next year, we want, with Parish leadership, to look forward and help define the vision for the next 5 to 10 years. We can then be prepared for the expected and unexpected costs of serving our community.

Last week, Rick introduced the idea of giving until it feels good and now we are going to discuss how those gifts have been used over the past year, and what we will need to continue Father’s mission for Christ our Hope. We finished the 2016 fiscal year with an operating surplus of $39k. When you review the annual report, you will see that our largest recurring expenses relate to wages and the rent and other operations of this building. In the last year, we hired Deanna Tighe and Lauren Pusich to assist Father Paul in being more responsive to our parishioners as well as to expand our faith formation and immersion programs. The benefits have been substantial and immediate. To add this staff, we have decided to let our operating budget run at a deficit this year, and we designated our FY16 ACA (Annual Catholic Appeal) gifts to expand our faith and immersion ministry with the goal that we as a parish can raise more operating funds this year to support our growth.  We feel confident that this can be achieved with an increase in parish support through our generous weekly and monthly giving, and with one-time non-recurring gifts. Adam has been closely involved with our many projects this year and is going to discuss the more significant ones and our Statement of Financial Position.

Adam

Thank you, Austen. The connection between the readings and Gospel today align with our mission for Christ our Hope.  The reading from the book of Wisdom refers to “Anticipation”. The reading from St. Paul to the Thessalonians noted, “We must be ready and not fall asleep.” Finally, in the Gospel, it discusses the need for “Preparation”.  How can Christ our Hope demonstrate our mission through acts of Love and Mercy to downtown Seattle?  Our preparation will ensure that Christ our Hope continues to thrive now, and into the future. This preparation includes having a 30-year fixed lease with the Josephinum, so that we will experience this amazing space for decades. I’ve spoken in the past how fortunate we were to have subsidies from the Archdiocese as a new Parish during our first five years.  The guidance of the Finance committee was to operate the parish within our means, which was to not spend money we did not have.  In other words, we wanted to not exceed our costs if we did not have those subsidies, and had to incur the full cost of Father’s wages and benefits, and the operating lease with the Josephinum.  This enabled us to build up operating and capital reserves on the balance sheet (or statement of financial position), enabling us to support future costs as we continued to grow.  We knew the baptismal font would require significant maintenance, which we were able to fund this year.  The initial HVAC exhaust system was too small for the sanctuary space and needed to be upgraded.  We also understood Father would need additional Parish staff to support him through our growth. The reserve we set aside was able to fully fund these projects this past year, without incurring any debt to the Parish.  However, this is only the beginning.  We have our other ACA projects to finish, including the sidewalk improvements, and the lobby lighting. We are looking at new ways to work with the Josephinum for other projects, and immersion opportunities.  Lauren will provide the Parish more information next week on the tasks she is assigned to carry out over immersion programs.  The pastoral council has been recharged and is being led by Deanna, so that we can better serve our parishioners and friends.  It truly is an incredible time to be a part of Christ our Hope in downtown Seattle.

This Parish has been successful because of the vision of Father and the dedication and faith of our parishioners, family and friend’s extreme generosity.  I am continually blown away by the one-time gifts we receive, almost on a weekly basis to support the mission of COH.  We impact our community, and it is wonderful.  However, the parish leadership feels like we can do even more, and expand our reach ever more.  In the past we’ve discussed having outreach in the 3-5%.  However, Father’s goal has always been to exceed 10% of Outreach spending, and for this past fiscal year it reached 13% of ordinary income.  Thank you! 

Austen

We appreciate all gifts, both one-time and from our families who pledge. To put it simply, if the same families who pledged last year gave only 5 dollars more per week, not only would we meet our budgeted donations but also completely cover the operating deficit. This would allow us to reallocate currently designated ACA funds from last year to further expand and enhance our faith formation and immersion programs. All our welcome in this parish; any amount that you can give will continue to demonstrate that we are a beacon of hope in downtown Seattle. Thank you for your time today.

Austen Wiederspan and Adam Janicki, Finance Council