(This post was copied from the Holy Rosary parish web site and is provided for informational purposes. No authorship is implied.)
We’ve been in the news a little lately: from KIRO TV to the News Tribune, to the Seattle Times. All the attention online, from blog postings to FB, have focused on the closure of the HR church building. That’s all great – but resolving that crisis is beyond us right now.
- It is clear to me that we have a deeper and more fundamental challenge.
- We have 296 registered families currently. 179 people attended last weekend – that includes babies, children altar servers, the choir, Father and myself. Last weekend we brought in c. $2700 including online giving (which is tough to figure as some give every week or every other week, some every 2, 3, 6 months). 119 people on average contribute either with an envelope or online giving. We have no way of tracking how many contribute to our loose cash.
- We have a shortfall of $56,667.00 currently. We need $6964 per week to make up the shortfall and stay solvent to meet our current expenses without exhausting our savings.
- We had to take another $10,000 out to pay expenses from our savings to offset the February deficit. Now we have c. $36,000 left in savings. So every 4-week period we fall short of our needed $28,000 we will have to withdraw from our savings. When we exhaust our savings, I’ll have to let our very small staff go and close the doors.
- Thus to make up the shortfall and do the regular giving we budgeted, we need $125,352 between now and June 30, with 18 weekends remaining. If 180 contributing people attend this weekend, we need $39 every week from every child and adult present. If 300 households attended, we would need $24 from each family.
- What are we going to do?
- The Archdiocese has helped Holy Rosary for years, forgiven debt, paid for shortfalls even with our ACA goals. The Chancery staff has gone out of its way to help us in this difficult time. The AB is even paying my salary as HR and Visitation are not being charged for my services. The Archdiocese paid for the study on the damage to the Church building, and the rental of the fencing, while parish benefactors have bailed us out in the past. Through their efforts, as well as Todd Wolfe, from our parish, Nick Hilger, from Hilger Construction and Kevin Broderick and Associates donated thousands of dollars in assessing the condition of the Church.
- I’ve been in dialogue with our pastoral and finance councils. I’ve written countless emails and texts. I’ve been in ongoing conversations and meetings with Chancery staff in Seattle. Friday I spoke to Archbishop Sartain for 30 minutes on the phone. The leadership of this Archdiocese cares and is deeply concerned. Either we consistently bring in enough money to cover our expenses or we will force AB Sartain into making a difficult decision.
- We’ve been given 4 weeks to show that we want to exist and want to continue as a parish community. Starting next weekend, we have to meet our expenses with our giving, $7000 per weekend.
- People are angry, discouraged, defeated, have left for all kinds of reasons, or are considering leaving our parish, so worried about the iconic building of Holy Rosary yet seemingly unconcerned with our community of faith. Some criticize and blame the Archdiocese, Archbishop Sartain, our pastoral and finance councils, blame the fact that we’ve had so many pastors and priest administrators over the last 10 years, they blame the construction of I-5 of over 60 years ago. People blame Fr. Martin, and me. You know what, blame time is over. It’s time to take responsibility.
- I coached high school tennis and boys basketball for almost 30 years. I can’t even begin to tell you how many players and teams I’ve seen rally when they were way behind and couldn’t possibly win. I’ve witnessed kids and teams make incredible comebacks. I’ve worked with hundreds and hundreds of high school kids over 42 years on retreats and in prayer classes and seen incredible growth in Christ with students who had the deck stacked against them. I’ve worked with inmates at the Pierce County Jail who recovered from horrific situations to become disciples and better people even as they went off to prison. I’ve seen people overcome incredible adversity. Two years ago my wife Cindy was given a 10% chance of surviving her cancer. She is still believing and still battling with more faith and courage than I’ll ever have.
- Is there any hope? You bet there is. My hope is in you. I know that God is with us. He is calling us to be with each other, to be people of prayer and people of action/responsibility. Our hope is in the opportunity we’ve been extended. We can make a statement to the Archdiocesan staff and to Archbishop Peter that we want to be a viable parish. I need each of you today to make a commitment to give more financially to our operating expenses starting next weekend. I cannot predict what will happen in our future, but I believe we must give this our best shot.
A church is not a building, it’s a group of people committed to Christ Jesus, who are hospitable, joyful, forgiving and merciful, welcoming of the stranger, inclusive, committed to justice and service with the poor, to spreading the gospel, and becoming missionary disciples of God’s kingdom, open to prayer and worship in any space – even this auditorium
