St. David's Episcopal ChurchDear Friends in Christ,
Life attracts life. So it is said of trees. A healthy tree will bear fruit providing all kinds of sustenance for many of God's creatures. Churches function the same way. A healthy congregation will attract new life which in turn attracts more life. And so the tree has become the metaphor for this year's annual giving campaing entitle, "Grounded, Growing, Giving in Christ." On other pages in this section, you will find information regarding this year's annual giving campaign and a pledge form for 2008. While this giving campaing focuses on fundraising for the annual budget, this year your Stewardship Committee and Vestry also commend to you God's call to all of us to become better stewards.
Our stewardship is our life in Christ and is the giving of our time, talent and treasure focused in and through the ministry and mission of St. David's. We invite people to simply reflect on God's goodness and how that has been manifest in our lives. Our response to this is reflected in our willingness to set aside a portion of our earnings for God. Most of us do that by filling out a pledge form.
Making a yearly pledge is a personal decision. However, we encourage all our members to see their funancial giving in Christ as both a benefit and a responsibility of membership. This year as members fill our their pledge forms, they are asked to make a pledge of 5% of their income or to raise their pledge by one percentage point. Forms to help parishioners determine their proportional pledge are included in this year's stewardship packets.
As a vestry, we too are committee to the 5% giving rule. Not only are we committed to maintaining a line item for outreach ministries in the annual budget, but we are also committed to working toward making a 5% level pledge to ministries and mission outside the doors of St. David's. We are hoping that an increase in pledge dollars will help us to accomplish this task. To help us achieve our goal, the congregation will be presented with a model of a tree with branches but without leaves. Every time the congregation receives a pledge for the upcoming church year, a leaf will be added to our tree. Children are also invited to fill out pledge forms and "My First Pledge Forms" have been handed out in Sunday School classes. Their leaves will be added to the giving tree and will be a light shade of green, denoting the new growth in our life in Christ. The sooner pledge forms are returned to us, the sooner our tree will grow its gorgeous canopy! We are asking that all pledge forms be returned to us no later than Sunday. November 18.
Additionally, stewardship opportunities beyond the giving of treasure are plentiful at St. David's. Specific projects utilitizing members' time and talent, plus a list of our current ministries with contact names, are available and can be found on the "How Else Can We Participate?" page.
This November we invite your increased participation in the ministries and mission of St. David's. It is, after all the context in which we are grounded, growing and giving in Christ.
Yours faithfully,
The Rev. Elaine Breckenridge, Rector
Tom O'Leary, Senior Warden
