|
Preparing for Annual Meeting, Part 2 In this season of transition – marked by the absence of a full-time rector and the shared work of stewardship and budgeting – it feels especially important to begin with gratitude for the clergy and staff whose steady leadership has sustained the life of St. John’s throughout 2025. Father Mawethu extends St. John’s ministry both within the parish and into the wider community. He regularly serves at the Community Table, offering hospitality and presence to our neighbors, and represents St. John’s at community events, strengthening our relationships beyond church walls. He also provides essential pastoral care, visiting parishioners who are sick at home or in the hospital, bringing prayer, compassion, and connection during times of need. We are grateful for Father Mawethu’s faithful presence and the many ways his ministry embodies care, connection, and service both within our parish and beyond it. Our worship life is deeply enriched through the leadership of our Music Director, Karole Badgley, whose ministry helps shape how we worship together. Through the Cantate Choir, handbells, and instrumental ensembles, music plays a vital role in our liturgy. In addition, Karole provides ongoing leadership for our Tapestry program, which serves multiple families each week and creates a welcoming space for formation, creativity, and shared faith across generations. We are deeply thankful for Karole Badgley’s leadership and creativity, which enrich our worship and help form a vibrant, intergenerational community of faith. The daily life and ministry of St. John’s are sustained in countless ways through the work of our Ministry Coordinator, Barbara Kwiatek. Barb serves as the point of contact for parishioners seeking information or assistance. She ensures that the parish functions smoothly and hospitably from day to day. During a year without a full-time rector, followed by two interim rectors in succession, Barb has carried an expanded workload with grace and dedication, providing continuity and stability during a season of transition. We are deeply grateful for her faithful service, which quietly enables so much of the ministry we share. The responsible stewardship of St. John’s financial resources is supported through the careful work of our part-time bookkeeper, Mynn Paige. Mynn manages the day-to-day financial recordkeeping of the parish, ensuring that income and expenses are accurately tracked, bills are paid, and financial information is available to support sound decision-making by clergy and lay leadership. Her work provides essential accountability and transparency, allowing the Vestry and staff to focus on ministry with confidence. We are grateful for her faithful attention to detail and the steady support she provides to the financial life of the parish. Finally, thank you. Our recent stewardship campaign raised $465,000 in pledges. This is a remarkable expression of generosity, faith, and commitment to St. John’s. While pledges are not the only source of income reflected in our budget, they are by far the largest and most reliable foundation of our financial life together. It is also important to name one of the central realities of any parish budget: people are our primary expense, as well as the primary way we minister in our church and parish. For 2025, our total personnel costs were projected to be $477,000. This figure reflected a full complement of staff needed to sustain our worship, pastoral care, formation, administration, and outreach. It included compensation for a full-time Rector, an Associate Rector, two full-time staff members, a part-time EYC leader, and a part-time bookkeeper. (For informational purposes, I used Mo. Sarah’s salary as the rector salary in this number.) Our staffing was not accidental or excessive – at the time it was a faithful reflection of who we were and hoped to be. Coming out of the pandemic, we were a growing church who had just invested in working with Ministry Architects, a church consulting group who was helping us move from a pastoral size parish (where everything is centered around the rector) to a program size parish (where there are often multiple priests, more specialized staff roles, and multiple programs and ministries requiring more organizational structure and communication systems). We were understanding it was no longer feasible for Mo. Sarah to show up at every meeting, gathering, or event that was occurring at St. John’s, in addition to being responsible for all adult formation, worship, pastoral care, and community outreach. The work of the church happens through people – clergy who preach, teach, and care for souls, staff who ensure that ministries run smoothly, that children and youth are formed, that finances are handled responsibly, and that the daily life of the parish is supported with care and professionalism. As we look ahead, it is important to be transparent about the realities we face. At our current level of pledged income, it is not likely that St. John’s can continue to be staffed at the level we are today without sustained growth in giving or other reliable sources of revenue. This is not a reflection of mismanagement or excess, but of the real costs of supporting the people who carry out our ministry day by day. The Vestry continues to work on the budget and we are committed to thoughtful, prayerful discernment about staffing and sustainability, and we invite the parish into that ongoing conversation as we seek a faithful and responsible path forward together. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any of our vestry members or Interim Rector Stephanie Yancy to share your thoughts on any of this prior to the January 25 Annual Meeting Part 2 which will focus on the 2026 budget. In love, Camille Stell, Sr. Warden |
|
