by John Wood & Mac McNeill, Treasurer & Chair of Finance Committee
Today at St. Peter’s Cathedral, we begin our annual Stewardship Campaign. As Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee, we are writing on behalf of St. Peter’s requesting your pledge of support to our beloved Cathedral and its missions for the upcoming year.
For those new to St. Peter’s and the Anglican process of stewardship, we do not simply draw up a budget based on our financial requirements of salaries, mortgages, utilities, missions, spiritual priorities, etc., and then hope gifts will match our budget. We ask our members to prayerfully consider their financial investment and then we construct our annual budget from the total of the funds pledged.
God has certainly blessed our development and growth at St. Peter’s as we have been blessed financially with balanced budgets each year. We have suffered through great turmoil, and to borrow from a biblical parable, God has pruned our vines back a bit. Additionally, we have endured a worldwide pandemic, and yet, we have remained financially strong with good and prudent stewardship of our resources and finances.
St. Peter’s Cathedral has a bright and brilliant future! As a parish, we should all be excited about where we now are and where we are being led by our Dean and Rector, Fr. Marcus Kaiser. At the recent Annual Parish Meeting, Fr. Marcus shared his vision of St. Peter’s as a ‘Working Ranch Church’ –working to do God’s will in our church, our community, and wherever else God leads us!
Through your gifts, we sustain, grow, and pursue excellence in worship, missions, music, and Christian education, as well as maintain our beautiful Cathedral and property, which is a tremendous blessing to our congregation and community. More importantly, through your generosity people come to know the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ and follow him as disciples. We are called to give to the church with a cheerful heart because Christ has given so much. Please pray for God’s work within the St. Peter’s family and within your lives as you discern the role you will play in supporting our Stewardship Campaign.
Consider the words of St. Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, and yes, to us at St. Peter's as well:
“The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work." –2 Corinthians 9:6–8
Sincerely,
John & Mac