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My Fellow Parishioners,
The summer is over and I hope that everyone enjoyed their vacations and time off with their family and friends. As the seasons change and we get back settled into our school and work routine I want to remind everyone that our Cathedral has been operating in a steady way each and every day, not taking one day off, providing our spiritual foundation for when we need it as well as being there even when we were traveling. As we start a new ecclesiastical year this September and look ahead to the holidays we all are feeling the crunch of the economy. Many of us have tightened our belts watching and waiting to see what is going to happen and will we be able to meet our budgets. For our Cathedral, none of our programs, ministries, activities, etc have been put on hold. Though to face the challenges of stewardship not coming in on a regular basis with many parishioners not having made any contributions, we have had no choice but to freeze some of the budget items on spending. This has been a prudent action for us to take, since if we can not count on the Stewardship contribution from everyone, then the Cathedral can not operate as it should. Our Cathedral opens its doors each Sunday and for other religious services. It continues to provide the spiritual base and foundation for us. In addition, our ministries, religious and educational programs and activities don't stop. Greek School just opened up with a small tuition to students. Sunday School opened with no charge to our parishioners... and so with Little Angels, GOYA, the Choir, and many other activities. We also offer any religious documents or certificates such as baptismal records for no extra charge to our parishioners. Many other churches have resorted in charging a fee for that request....Saint Spyridon has not. These and many other blessings that we get from our church are gifts that many of us take for granted.
Well the financial climate we are facing today is requiring me to take a very firm stand on my message in this Cathedral News. We took outreach measures to personally contact you by telephone. Some people appreciated that we would reach out to them, others were upset. But getting anyone upset is not the issue any longer...the message has to be strong and it has to start from me, the President of the community. I am asking everyone to look deep into your hearts and offer your Christian Stewardship contribution to our wonderful Cathedral. We need you all to pay your stewardship if you have not done so. We have made it simple for everyone to schedule their payments as follows: Weekly-add $5--$10 in an envelope each week when you come to church and put your name on it as stewardship. It will be added to your total each time you pay; Monthly-we have Parish Pay, or arrange for your bank to automatically pay Stewardship each month; or make payments quarterly, or semi annually...the point is, we need to get it into our minds to make contributing to our church as a priority in our budget...yes even prior to paying any other bills.
On this note, I have devised a plan to find creative ways to get individuals and/or families to look at sponsoring our Cathedral. Earlier this year we presented the $1,000 stewardship challenge and approximately 10 families stepped up to the plate and increased their contributions to $1,000. We thank these people very much....now it is time for everyone to consider the following challenge. It is a very simple formula.... We take our 2009 expense budget which is approximately $750,000 (divide it) by 365 days a year = $2,054. YES it costs us approximately $2,054 per day to operate our Cathedral...basically to open our doors each day. Therefore, I challenge everyone to become a Stewardship Sponsor of our Cathedral for a day . Consider paying the daily expense of $2,054 as a sponsor, or if you are blessed take on the week's expense of $14,378. Does this look steep to all of us...well these are the facts of how our Cathedral operates on a daily basis... The other alternative which we have been trying to achieve year after year is to divide our operating expense by the number of parishioners in our community. Did you know that the amount shared by all of us equally would translate to under $500 per household if we all shared this? But that goal has not been achieved yet. Each and every parishioner is not meeting their Christian Stewardship, therefore our Cathedral is at risk to suffer financially.... and that is what is a shame...
In summary, the constant in our lives is our spiritual life and our church. The church, lead by our spiritual leaders Father Dean and Father Greg, will always be there for us, the door remains always open for both our joys and our struggles and pain. As the holidays come upon us and we look forward to enjoying our families at Christmas, I wish to leave you with the thought that the true celebration of Christmas is not the Christmas lights, or Santa Claus or all the sales at the department stores, but the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and for us to love each other as true Christians.
Happy Fall, Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas, and May God Be with You.
Gus Giannakis |
