Vicar's newsletter Parish Giving

[Hugh Kempster]

Dear Parishioners and Friends of St Peter’s,

September each year is usually Parish Giving Month at St Peter’s Eastern Hill. It is an opportunity for us to reflect on our stewardship of time and resources as a faith community. The thought did cross my mind as to whether we should postpone our stewardship campaign this year, given the sensitivities of the pandemic, but after discussions with the Wardens, the Treasurer and other Parish Leaders we decided to go ahead. Stewardship is of course much more than dollars and cents, and Spring is a good time of the year to undertake, in the broader sense, an audit of our mission and wellbeing as a Christian community. This year in particular, it is important for us to reflect on how we are travelling as a community, and draw together as a parish as best we can during this time of pandemic.

This year our Parish Giving Month is certainly taking a different shape from usual. We cannot gather in person, and will not be able to do so until Advent Sunday at least, so our focus as a parish continues to be on-line. I invite you therefore to join with me in reflecting together on Parish Giving this month in three ways.

A) Giving Through Worship, Devotions and Fellowship. I am very aware, after numerous conversations, and my own experience, of how challenging it is to sustain our communal worshiping and devotional life online. But we must! In chapter 10 of the Letter to the Hebrews, traditionally attributed to St Paul, we can see evidence of the self-same issues in the early church: “since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus … let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” So I do encourage you to continue the discipline of spiritual communion at Mass, as well as your devotions and fellowship with one another: through Sunday Mass (and/or Children’s Church) on FaceBook (https://www.facebook.com/stpeterseasternhill) and our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCivSIL2aOQC9elzNK6zX0Tw); through “Morning Tea at the Vicarage” from 12.30pm each Sunday (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/91491816647); through our Rosary and Meditation on-line groups; and through our Telephone Tree and the informal connections we make with other St Peterites over the week; and let’s not forget Zoom Cocktails :) https://rmit.zoom.us/j/91272670944 

B) Giving Our Financial Resources. In last week’s Pew Sheet our Treasurer and Vicar’s Warden wrote to us all about planned giving and stewardship of our financial resources. You can read their letter in the new Parish Giving Brochure (see link below) but here is an extract: “We ask you to continue to be an instrument of God’s grace. Please continue your generosity to keep the parish going, supporting each other and supporting the wider world. Your contributions help the parish budget so that we can continue our ministries - our music, our liturgy, our bookshop, our work with RMIT, our work with the homeless and up-skilling people into work, the telephone tree, and our teaching ministries. All these things cost money. All rely on your regular commitments and generous giving. There are many ways of supporting the work of the parish, please continue to do so and, in this time of additional costs and reduced revenues, please increase your commitment if you can.” There are a number of ways that you can donate financially towards the Parish of St Peter. These are outlined in the new Parish Giving Brochure (https://bit.ly/32LB1s5) and on the website: https://www.stpeters.org.au/donations

C) Giving Through Planning for the Future. Ever the optimists, your Parish Councilors have commenced work on our 2021-23 Mission Action Plan (MAP). I must say that I did at first wonder if now was the right time to form our three-year strategic plan; in the midst of lock-down, with our West Door still closed to the public. But as I reflected further, I realized that this is exactly the time we should be planning for the future. Many of our current on-line church practices will remain of great value after the church doors open once again, and we need to look ahead with hope, and plan for the time we can once again gather in person as a community. The Parish Council and other Parish Leaders have already undertaken a mission and ministry survey, and these reflections were yesterday fed into the first of two Parish Council planning sessions. Once drafted, the 2021-23 MAP will be presented to the Annual Meeting of the Parish (on Zoom this year) for your feedback. So please pray for your Parish Council, the Clergy and other Staff, and other Lay Leaders at St Peter’s, as we undertake this important process of planning for the sustained mission and ministry of our beloved parish.

Every blessing for the weekend … shabbat shalom :)
Fr Hugh
___________________
The Rev’d Dr J. Hugh Kempster
Vicar, St Peter’s Eastern Hill
www.stpeters.org.au
vicar at stpeters.org.au
+61 488 960 022

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