Dear Fellow Parishioner,

A belated Happy New Year, and with winter now upon us, the Parish Finance Council (“FC”) held its second quarter meeting on Tuesday February 4th. A brief overview of December 31, 2024 financial results that were reviewed at the meeting follows. Please go to the parish website, under Finance Council, to view these referenced materials.

Statement of Financial Position: With the financial aspects of the WSWC campaign now completed and the construction loan fully paid, the parish and our Pastor can now spend more time focusing on the growth initiatives outlined in the campaign. Father Paul, with advice from Parish Pastoral Council, will decide upon the best way to invest in the parish’s growth in the coming months.

We are still awaiting the proceeds from the Employee Retention Credit (COVID subsidy) the government owes our parish. Once received and after retirement of parishioner loans this will inject approximately $50K of additional capital for growth initiatives. Click to Statement of Financial Position.

Statement of Receipts & Disbursements: In a first for me as FC chairman, the parish generated a small surplus from operations for the six-month period ending Dec. 31, 2024. These results were made possible by parish operating costs coming in $46K under budget, as offertory and other receipts came in slightly below budget. We are pleased to report that the parish offertory is up just under 6% from last year, but we have also experienced a significant uptick in weekly mass attendance, so it is a bit surprising the parish is not exceeding our budgeted 6.5% increase in offertory. We continue to ask more families to commit $40 per week to the offertory. Every family’s openness to listen and act as generous stewards of our parish offertory is essential to sustaining and growing our parish.  Click to Statement of Receipts & Disbursements.

The parish was blessed in receiving numerous non-operating gifts which far exceeded the outstanding

construction loan balance. We also benefited from a successful Bishop’s Appeal, which having exceeded our goal, produced $27K of proceeds to the parish with approximately $6K more expected in later this month.

Parish Financial Outlook: With the construction loan now behind us, a DOB trained bookkeeper firmly in place and parish liquidity significantly improved, Father Paul can now turn his focus to growing our spiritual community and advancing our faith. Father Paul continues to seek and request additional engagement from all parishioners, and our thoughts on ways to improve and grow our community. We are all invested in the spiritual well-being of our parish, so please be open to his call.

In closing, the last two years have shown us that faith and diligence can lead to enormous progress. Our parish is now on sounder financial footing, but we still have much to do. We humbly request every parishioner to be more supportive in the weekly offertory to ensure the vitality and financial health of St. Michael Parish.

Faithfully,

Paul J. Huston, Finance Council Chairman

Paul J. Huston

Finance Council Chairman