Dear and Good Fellow Parishioners,
Καλό Μήνα! I wish you all a good and safe month! February may be OUR month of good old-fashion winter weather this season. In this brief Trinitarian message, I want to share with you three important subjects effecting our Community this new year, 2019.
Firstly, allow me to address the issue of Stewardship for this calendar year, 2019. As many of you know, our Stewardship Program implemented more than 25 year ago is the main fundraising program for the parish. Our goal, through the Stewardship Program, is to provide the parish with necessary funding to support the ministries, salaries and building expenses for the calendar year. As of last year, I think we only collected from our families about 45 % of our annual income through the Stewardship Program. PLEASE help us this year, through your commitment on the Blue Card that was sent to you with your 2019 Calendar, to raise that percentage so that we can continue to offer all that we do for so many ministries and organizations. If we remember, last September’s Greek Festival brought us 4 days of rain. This has impacted our budget substantially for the year 2019, seeing that a portion of the Festival profits are included in this year’s expense calculations. Please take a moment right now to fill out the Blue Card with your commitment to the Church for this year. You may wish to call the office to re-new or make your pledge by credit card. A credit card commitment can be charged on a monthly basis if you wish which is extremely beneficial to the budget of the parish. Thank you so much.
Secondly, please allow me to show you this tiny phrase from the PEW SURVEY Organization concerning family worship.
If a CHILD leads the way in commitment to church, 3.5% of families follow.
If a MOM leads, 17%.
If a DAD leads, 93%.
No comment is required on such a poignant statistic really. It’s just a reminder to those of us who are parents or grandparents as to what our responsibility is if we want our children to be regular communicants of our Churches here in America. I raised our family here in Westchester and know that it’s not easy to fight the god of sports for Sunday morning games and practices.....but let’s keep in mind that, if we want our children to be good Christian Orthodox people all their lives, we need to lead by example and worship WITH them WEEKLY.
Finally, following the reassignment of Father Patrick O Rourke in July, I am pleased to welcome into our Community Father Andrew Cadieux. Father Andrew will be with us on a part- time basis for this year, assisting the parish on Sunday mornings, Sacraments and several other ministries. Please welcome him next Sunday along with his Presvytera Joanne and their three young children.
Many blessings to you and your family,
Father Nicholas