Welcome to Christ Episcopal Church, Needham, MA: Giving to the Church

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.

Stewardship (our management of and care for God's many gifts) is a year-round concern. But every Fall, as we approach the beginning of a new liturgical year, we devote time to a serious, intentional, and prayerful consideration of the temporal needs of our congregation and our response to those needs. Stewardship is about more than a purely financial commitment. It is a spiritual discipline that helps to remind us that everything we are and everything we have are God's free gift to us, and that we have a responsibility to use those gifts to give glory to God and to spread God's love to all people.

Dear Members of Christ Church,

Your Vestry is hard at work building the Christ Church budget for next year with the able assistance of Craig Conrad the chair of our Every Member Canvass. As you know, the largest source of financial support for the church comes from the generosity and faithfulness of our congregation.

Knowing what financial resources the church will have in 2010 will allow the Vestry to determine the level of quality staffing, the depth of our Christian education program, the extent of our outreach programs, the ability to sustain our music program, and allow us to meet our obligations to the diocese and to the Barbara C. Harris Camp. This past year the church has been able to sustain the level of ministries necessary for the vitality and vibrancy you have come to expect. But it is not been without serious belt-tightening. I am deeply grateful to all you have generously pledged this past year knowing that for many of you it has been a year of financial hardship.

In most churches, the Every Member Canvass is about “pledging” and I want to try and answer some of your questions about what pledging is.

Why is pledging important and why can’t I just contribute week by week when I wish?

Pledging is about making a commitment. Not just a commitment to Christ Church but to God. Pledging is a way of thinking that I will make God a top priority each week and not an afterthought. Pledging is also a way of stating that I am a significant and valuable part of the church congregation and I want to do my part to see that the church remains vital and vibrant in all of its sixty-plus ministries.

Your pledge helps Tim Lysaght, the church treasurer, the Vestry and the Finance Committee establish its mission goals for the coming year that support pastoral care, worship, maintenance, education, outreach and family assistance.

The answer is personal and private and is determined by each person and family depending upon how one counts their blessings and how they wish to respond to God with grateful thanksgiving. Personally, my wife, Kathy, and I tithe 10 % of our mutual total income to Christ Church, to Children’s Hospital, to our schools, and to several other religious, social justice, and cultural organizations.

God is the one who ultimately knows the depth of your generosity in time, talent and treasure. On a practical level Tim Lysaght, Craig Conrad, the wardens and Bari Weiss, our church accountant, have access to this information. But each pledge is coded and held confidentially by them.

Last year, the church received 188 pledges representing about 70% of our total membership. Many of our members also contribute in other important and vital ways by volunteering their precious time and unique gifts in extraordinary ways that are both visible and invisible.

Christ Church does not have a large endowment; and it was one that took a significant hit this past year. So pledges become even more important in a downturn such as the one we experienced. I know that I speak for the Vestry when I say that we would like to be less dependent on the endowment for our working capital in order to allow the church to support the necessary maintenance and upkeep of the church property, plant and equipment. We hope that over time the church can be funded by today’s people for today’s needs.

As you might expect, the largest areas of expenditure are church staffing, upkeep and improvement of the facilities, and the program and outreach ministries. There are many of our outreach programs that do not appear in our formal church budget such as Shelter Cooking and Pastoral Response Ministries. The people of Christ Church have a proud history of faithful service and generous giving and sharing of their blessings in Christ’s name.

I know that you will soon be hearing from Tim, Craig and your Vestry about the 2010 budget and the process for you to consider supporting Christ Church financially; but, I would like to leave you with these thoughtful verses by the poet James Russell Lowell,

“Give to the hungry sweet charity’s bread,
For giving is living,” the angel said.
“Must I be giving and giving again?”
The weary, wondering question came.
“No,” said the angel, piercing me through,
“Just stop, when the Lord stops giving to you.”

Robert “Skip” Windsor

Rector, Christ Church

In preparation for the 2009 Stewardship Campaign, your Finance committee has prepared a preliminary budget for the 2010 calendar year. You may recall that the 2009 budget presented at the annual meeting in January 2009 had significant cuts to allow us to balance the income and expenses. Balancing the 2009 budget required many hours of finance committee and Vestry to determine the least offensive cuts. I am pleased to report that we are currently on track to end 2009 within that balanced budget. We are again presenting a proposed budget in advance of the stewardship campaign to inform the parish of the anticipated costs and associated income needed to run the church in a level-funded manner. The summary of the budget is presented below: Your browser may not support display of this image.

Even with cost controlling measures, this budget represents an 8.8% increase over the 2009 expenses. Based on our current membership, the pledge goal for 2010 would require a $1,731 pledge from each of the 210 pledging households, recognizing that many of you give more than that, and many of you are not able to give that amount. Please give what you can, and know that the Church is grateful for all gifts, and is a spiritual home for everyone regardless of their means. As an alternative to increasing our average pledges, we would need to increase the number of pledgers at Christ Church to help offset the increase. We are hoping that you each respect our current situation and will prayerfully consider increasing your pledge and encouraging others to make a commitment. This will allow us to continue the wonderful work we do as a parish, especially during these difficult times.