Treasure Ingathering
Treasure Ingathering
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Dear Friends,
This year has truly been an extraordinary one at St. Albans with God’s abundant blessings everywhere! For these blessings and for your warm and enthusiastic welcome, I am extremely grateful.
In the short time that I have been with you, I have seen you grow in faith and spirit. You have stepped up to maintain your core ministries. You have worked through the process of discerning God's call to this church at this time and called a new shepherd, the Rev. Sonia Sullivan Clifton. You have honored your graduates and your patron saint. And soon, you will celebrate the 50th Jubilee of your beautiful church.
When I think of stewardship, I think of all that God has entrusted to us: our relationships with family and friends; our vocations; our environmental and material wealth. When we return to God a portion of this abundance, we become more like the generous God in whose image we have been created. The fact is that how we earn, save, spend our time, talent and treasure makes a significant difference in the lives of others. Just as important, these activities impact our own spiritual well-being and our ability to flourish in faith.
St. Albans is a small church with a big heart. Each week, about 75 people participate in worship. Meanwhile, you have about 250 others participating in life-changing programs throughout the week, including Alcoholics Anonymous, Domestic Abuse Counseling, Kairos, and Canterbury Way. At the same time, you support a wide variety of local and global ministries, such as the Blessing Box, Families Helping Families, Mission Lexington and various educational outreach programs. All in all, your faithful commitment to God’s work through this parish allows you to continue to serve the world as Jesus served through these vital and life-changing ministries.
Your vestry has set a goal of receiving some level of financial commitment from 100% of our membership. These commitments will enable St. Albans to grow in ministry and will provide a solid foundation on which your new rector can build. What you give is entirely up to you. But I invite you to consider the many blessings in your life and how your giving reflects the image of a generous and loving God. If you are currently contributing 2% or 3% of your income, please consider increasing your commitment to 4% or 5%. And, if you are giving 8% or 9%, consider increasing your commitment to the tithe or beyond.
It is my personal prayer that each of you will take time to pray and listen to how God is speaking to you concerning your pledge of time and talent, and also money. If you would like to talk about these or any other ministries of our church, I am very happy to meet with you. May you continue to grow in love and service to Our Lord Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Faithfully yours,
Father Mark+
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
The HOLY SPIRIT is alive and jumping all over our beloved St. Albans!
In the twelve months since we had to bid our rector goodbye, we have prayed together, worshiped together, cried together, and held each other up. We have shared meals, shared ideas and shared our hopes and dreams for our church. We welcomed new people and said farewell to old friends. We have formed committees and task forces, compiled surveys, talked to consultants, and looked for new ways of reaching out to the community. And through all of this, God has walked with us.
Now here we are, a vibrant church community, getting ready to celebrate our 50th anniversary as a parish in November and to welcome our eighth rector, Rev. Sonia Sullivan Clifton, in January. I believe our future is bright. Good things are happening all around us. And through Rev. Sonia’s leadership we are looking forward to renewed vitality in all our primary ministries of Worship, Pastoral Care, Christian Formation, Evangelism, Outreach and Fellowship.
But this work requires the commitment of every one of us - a commitment of time, talent and, yes, treasure. Your vestry has worked tirelessly over these months and has provided excellent leadership. We have been good stewards of your treasure. Now as we prepare for our new rector and to give her a solid start, we feel that we need to increase our focus in several key areas:
Christian Formation and Fellowship: We are currently planning new ways to expand our Christian Formation in the new year. Meanwhile, our church is growing and there is a genuine feeling of joy and love in all the various Fellowship events.
Outreach Ministry: A revitalized Outreach Task Force has been charged to make a thorough evaluation of all our outreach ministries with the goal of providing more focus on local organization/ministries. And the Vestry has budgeted $10,000 to support the selected ministry in 2025.
Evangelism: We have established a new Evangelism Task force, changed with the mission to implement new activities to reach the broader Lexington community and better tell the story of St. Alban’s.
Facility Repair, Repurpose and Improvement: We need to address several long-deferred maintenance issues, replacing several major components of our facilities. In addition, as new programs take shape, we will need to repurpose existing facilities to better address those activities.
After a thorough review of our resources, the vestry has decided that we need to increase our giving to achieve these goals. At the same time, we are asking every member of our church to give prayerful consideration to how you can give your time and talent to achieve these goals.
We realize that this request comes at a challenging economic time. Many of us simply do not have the ability to give more money. But I firmly believe that God has carried St. Alban’s through challenging times and will not let us fail now. With His guidance, and your generous support, St. Albans can and will grow in faith and in numbers.
Please review the enclosed materials and give prayerful thought to your response. Please note that we have also implemented a new online payment processing tool, Vanco, to make giving more convenient for those who are comfortable with online payments. And of course, we still accept cash and checks.
Please submit your Estimate of Giving Form by November 1, 2024.
We are blessed to have a loving, caring, and faithful congregation. Thank you for all that you do to keep our faith alive at St. Alban’s.
Your Brother in Christ,
Michael W. Talley
2024 Senior Warden
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