A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend a Pastor Workshop hosted by the Institute for Ongoing Clergy Formation out of St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was a very helpful week, and there are many takeaways that I hope to implement in the coming year in my role as the Rector here.
One of my immediate takeaways came from one of the priest presenters who shared with us about how and when he does his annual State of the Parish address. My initial response to his comments was one of regret. I was reminded of how I have really dropped the ball in that regard. In the four-and-a-half years here, I have never done anything like this. We have published a financial summary in the past, and perhaps I have written briefly about it in a bulletin article, but I have yet to dedicate an entire weekend to sharing with all of you the state of our parish. For that, I apologize, but missed opportunities in the past do not define what the future will be, so I am happy to announce that I do indeed plan to do a State of the Parish address!
The priest who presented this topic to us shared that he does his State of the Parish address each year the Sunday before Thanksgiving, which I found extremely fitting. There is so much for us to be thankful for here at our parish, so highlighting some of those things on that weekend will be a great way for us as a parish family to give thanks to God for the many blessings we have experienced over the past year. It is also liturgically fitting, as Thanksgiving always comes at the very end of the liturgical year, so doing a State of the Parish address then will be a good way to close out one year, setting us up to enter into a new year of grace in a posture of gratitude and joyful expectation of what the Lord has in store for is in the year ahead.
I would therefore highly encourage you to make every effort to make it to one of our Sunday masses on November 23-24, as I will preach at all of the masses that weekend, working the State of the Parish address into the homily. One of the topics will obviously be about our financial stewardship here at the parish, with some numbers that show how we are doing in that regard. I will also give an update on where we stand with our debt, since I have heard that questions have been asked about it, and I owe it to you all to share updates on that key piece of information. I will also speak about some stats regarding our Mass attendance, sacraments celebrated over the past years, as well as other pieces of information that I hope will give you a feel for how we are doing as a parish.
Since I will be situating this in the context of gratitude for God’s blessings over the past year, I could use your help in making the address more complete. I would love to hear from you about any of the ways in which you have been blessed by your experience here at the Cathedral over the past year. I certainly have my own perspective of what I see the Lord doing, but I know He is touching all of us in different ways. There is information later in the bulletin, as well as in our eWeekly, about how to submit your responses. I would be most grateful if you would take a moment to share your thoughts.
In the next two weeks, I would humbly ask for your forgiveness for my not making such an address a priority in the past. At the same time, not dwelling on the past, I ask for your prayers for me now as I prepare for this address, which is something new for me. This is something you deserve because of your faithful dedication to our parish, and it is something I am excited to offer as your spiritual father.
Father Alford