Your Church Council met September 1 to prepare for our program year. You’ll here the details from teams soon, but we have a great line up of classes, a “meaningful movie”, plans for our groups to cautiously meet in person and continue to gather on zoom. We continue to be inspired by thoughtful sermons, soaring music, and deeply moving prayer.
We are anxious for the time that we can all be in our beautiful sanctuary, sing robustly, and hug each other (we look forward to the day when we can be comfortable hugging again)! The Council continues to struggle to find the right balance between being together and being safe and we welcome your input.
We are significantly heartened that giving has continued to run very close to our budget. These are difficult times for many, and your continued commitment to First Church makes a difference!
We heard from some who, responding to our call from last month, have prepaid their pledge. If you are able to do that, we encourage you to do so. If you are inspired by our sanctuary and services and able to make an additional commitment to cover the cost of our mortgage payment, we encourage you to consider that as we have exhausted our mortgage reduction fund and are now paying the mortgage out of operating funds.
We hope that Climate Change Arena opens as planned in October and that our parking garage becomes a source of income again. However, there are many unknowns that affect out financial situation. To be sure that we are able to make thoughtful decisions and not hasty reactive ones, we have formed a task force of members from Church Council, Finance, Trustees, and Staff Parish Relations to look at options available to us if this fall does not unfold as we hope.
If you have thoughts or concerns, please talk to anyone on Church Council. The list is included in our annual report.
Violet Boyer, Church Council Chair