Browsing Pastor's Notes

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

As we flip the calendar to begin 2022, we pass the halfway point on the fiscal year 2021-22 for Holy Family Catholic Parish. It is a good time to provide an update of where the parish stands.

The parish continues to show forth its generous heart! December is typically an abundant time for sharing God's gifts with one another and those in need. The same was true here at Holy Family as well. Offerings in support of the Mission of Christ through the ministries of Holy Family Church have increased once again. Second Quarter offerings are up 7% from the same time last year. Year-to-Date (YTD), the parish contributions are up 5.8%!!! Your support and generosity really are amazing. On the expense side, we are also slightly less than budgeted at the halfway point. Every effort is made by the pastor, principal, lay staff and parish volunteers to be prudent and faithful stewards of parish resources.

You may have noticed that the parish no longer publishes a weekly collections number in the bulletin. We stopped because they were no longer an accurate reflection of the overall generosity of our parishioners. The weekly in-person Mass offertory alone generally under-represents the financial picture. This is due to a couple of reasons. First, the transition from in-person envelop use to e-giving to the parish through Faith Direct. This is generally more convenient for parishioners and good for the parish. Prior to C19, about 15% of the parish utilized the electronic contributions. Today, we are now over 60%! With Faith Direct, some parishioners do a weekly offertory (36%), monthly (47%), and others one-time annual (3.6%). Another growing practice to support our parish is making an offering by means of a Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD) from an IRA to Holy Family as part of a Required Minimum Distributions (RMD) on an annual or semi-annual basis. We appreciate your support in this way. Thank you for your continued support of Mission and Ministry of Holy Family Parish.

Last fall, several staff members and volunteers checked in and checked up on parishioners from our Holy Family Parish family. Our ReCommit 2021 campaign was a huge success! Karen Schoenfelder & Maria Franxman lead the charge in reaching out to hear from you. We had three weeks of in-pew responses, two rounds of emails, a mailed letter, and two rounds of phone calls. We managed to make contact with 609 of our registered households (93.8%). You can see the response method rates in the pie chart to the right.

Thank you to all of you who responded not only with up-to-date contact information but with a greater heart for ministry to commit & engaged with your parish family. We have many different opportunities for You to share in the Mission of Christ here at Holy Family. A listing of openings can be found on our website “Mission Opportunities” page holyfamilynewalbany.org/mission. Or contact Kelli Reutman to discuss your interests and how we can help you be the Hands & Heart of Christ.

Drawing on the ReCommit 2021 results, Holy Family will be issuing an updated 2022 Parish Directory in the next few months, so you can reach out and stay connected with your Holy Family family!

 

Holy Family, rooted in the Life of Christ, Pray for us.

~ Fr Jeremy M. Gries

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