portunity to look at our parish and its ministry. No longer would the Vestry have to bail out the school each year. But what was to be our community outreach and mission? For decades it was assumed to be the school - but it never seemed to be much of an outreach to me. So the challenge is now before us, and has already been responded to by the Vestry. My brothers and sisters - these are exciting times for this parish. Thanks to the able management of our finances and property by Jim Mickelson, we are starting to make a profit from the school buildings and pre-school. I have insisted that such profits not go in to general income, but kept in a special account that can be used for major property works.

The 2nd opportunity for us came with the hall project. It would have been easy to pay for it out of our endowment funds - as has happened in past years. The Vestry agreed with me that this was the opportunity to stop that habit. The response to the appeal showed that the parishioners were on the same page, too!

Thus you can see that 2 serious financial situations have turned around the thinking and practices of the past.

Now here is the new challenge!
I invite everyone to seize the opportunity of this moment. I am challenging the parish to meet a balanced budget. It is now time to meet the expenses of the parish from the committed giving of its members. This is a big challenge, for the Vestry is looking at a $40,000 deficit for 2007. Rather than estimate what we need in the way of pledging, as is done in so many churches, we are going to accept a budget based on what we need to spend, and asking the parishioners to meet that. This means that those who are employed will have to increase their giving. I make no apology for that appeal - and you know me well enough by now to know that I lead by example.