I want to share with you the joyful news about our Easter offering. Once again this year, the Vestry chose to give away the entirety of the loose-plate offering to organizations working to manifest resurrection hope in our world. We believe this is a significant way we can seek and serve the risen Christ in all persons, and enable people living in the shadow of the valley of death to find their way to greener pastures and calmer waters. This year’s recipients are
  • Episcopal Relief and Development to support their response to the catastrophic famine in South Sudan, where the United Nations says there are several hundred thousand people actively starving, and millions more who face terrible food shortages
  • Our Friends Place, which works to help young women trapped in cycles of abuse, neglect, poverty, and homelessness to pursue safety and a new start right here in the Metroplex
Clearly, you felt as inspired by the opportunity to be generous this Easter, because you gave $17,160! This we can give $8,580 to each organization to support their work. This doesn’t even include the nearly $3,000 given on Good Friday to support the Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East, which means we will have collected and given away almost $20,000 this Holy Week and Easter. This is remarkable.
I am inspired by the courage of the Vestry to decide to give this money away. Our financial forecast as a church is far from certain this year, much as it is every year. We rely upon voluntary giving to fund the entirety of our budget, and that can make it hard to accurately forecast our financial position. Some years, such as last year, what we forecast for revenue (based on the amount pledged) doesn’t fully materialize, and we end the year with a deficit. Some years, it all comes in just as we predicted, and everything is just right. The Vestry always works hard to be good stewards of your giving, but there is quite a lot of faith, hope, and love in church leadership, especially around finances, and I’m proud to say that our Vestry has all three in spades.
So during this Easter week, I want to say thank you. Thank you to the 1,300 people who attended our Easter worship to worship the risen Lord, and who gave over $17,000. Thank you to the Vestry for choosing to give all that money away. Thank you to the 444 pledging households whose giving makes all our ministries and programs possible all year-long. And most importantly, thank you to Christ Jesus, whose resurrection power working in us makes possible infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.