Grace and peace and joy to all of you in this blessed season!

My message to you today is more practical than spiritual, more necessary than I’d wish, and not at all warm and fuzzy. It’s about committing to the future of St. Gregory the Great, since as of today our parish has a $82,507 deficit in next year’s operating budget: That is, we don’t have enough money pledged to meet our 2023 projected expenses of $442,155. Some of our expenses are contractual, for example, utilities, our copier, insurance on our buildings, and debt service to the Diocese of Atlanta for the roof on the Parish Hall, and for meeting next year’s diocesan pledge. Paying our extraordinary staff is another expense for our parish. Other expenses include ministry and program costs, such as Outreach, Music, Pastoral Care, and Christian Education. Without additional pledges or increases in pledges already received, we have two options, neither of them good, to meet our operating budget for 2023:

1. We can use all of the $56,682 bequeathed this year to St. Gregory the Great.

Pro: It quickly satisfies 68.7% of our shortfall.

Cons: This is comparable to cleaning out your savings account to pay the credit card bill. While it may meet an immediate need, it doesn’t improve our long-term financial stability.

The special projects vying for the bequest, including replacing the 40 year old roof on the Christian Education Building, a new organ for the sanctuary to replace the failing 50 year old organ that’s there now, a permanent labyrinth, replacing or repairing the flooring in the Parish Hall and the sanctuary, and funding a capital improvements fund for the preservation of our aging buildings, all would be shelved.

2. Cut staff and/or programs to reduce the parish’s expenses.

Pros: I can’t think of one.

Cons: This isn’t an abstract action. We’re talking here about people’s livelihoods.

We all would have to decide which positions and programs to cut. Christian Education or Youth or Nursery? Those children are the future of St. Gregory the Great, and without those programs, we couldn’t attract new families to our parish. Music? Which of our lives isn’t enhanced by our Music program and Jonathan and Joe’s and the choir’s ministries? Our Parish Administrator? We can’t operate our church without Kendall’s skills and her knowledge of our procedures, necessary products, our services, and our church’s culture. There is no fat to trim in our budget, so we’d be cutting what’s essential to the basic functioning of our church.

I leave you with those two options and welcome your suggestions of others. Our fiscal year is ending in 15 days, and the budget we have so far for next year is a deficit budget. Our Treasurer won’t recommend a deficit budget to the Vestry, and the Vestry won’t pass a deficit budget, if he did, so we’re at a standstill until we have $82, 507 more in donations to St. Gregory the Great. Please help, if you can, and always remember we are blessed and loved by God, whether and however much we give to our church.

Without the herculean work of Alice Mohor, our Stewardship Chair, and the work of her committee, Anna Hiers, Eddie Bennett, and Stacie Court, we wouldn’t have come this far in meeting our financial needs for next year. On behalf of the Vestry, I thank them for all they’ve done, and I thank you for all you’ve pledged for next year in money and time and talent to St. Gregory the Great.

My time as your Senior Warden is almost at an end. New members will be elected to the Vestry at our Annual Parish Meeting on January 15, 2023, and Eddie Bennett, Caley Ross, and I will rotate off the Vestry. It’s been largely a pleasure and in every way a gift to have served on the Vestry.  

I wish you grace and peace always.

Jane Hudson

STEWARDSHIP REMINDER. If you have not yet returned your 2023 stewardship pledge form, you can do so by bringing your completed form to worship (additional forms are in the narthex), by mailing your pledge form to church, or on our home page via the QUICK LINKS tab GIVING TO ST. GREGORY’S.  

CHILDREN'S MINISTRY & BAND OF BELIEVERS

This Sunday, Dec. 18, we will have the last rehearsal for the children's Christmas Eve Pageant. This time we will be doing a dress rehearsal with the Believer's Band of musicians, playing all of the carols, so it will likely take 45 minutes. The Children's Ministry of the church will be providing a pizza lunch (cheese pizzas and pepperoni pizzas) for children and their families, along with the musicians. We will eat lunch in the parish hall immediately after 10:30 worship and then go to the church for rehearsal. We should be done by 1:30PM, if not before.

Our own Doug Adkins will be ordained on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 2PM

at the Cathedral.

Click here for the livestream that afternoon.

CHRISTMAS AT ST. GREGORY’S

Saturday, December 24:

5PM Children’s Pageant & Holy Eucharist

9:30PM Music Prelude

10PM Festival Eucharist & Choir

Sunday, December 25:

10AM Holy Eucharist & Carols

(no Sunday school or nursery)

Sunday, January 1:

8AM Holy Eucharist 

10:30AM Holy Eucharist

(no Sunday school or nursery)

2023 EPIPHANY DRIVE FOR FAMILY PROMISE

As most of you know, St. Gregory’s belongs to Family Promise (previously Interfaith Hospitality Network), an organization of churches in Athens that provides homeless families a temporary place to stay while they work their way back to stability. The breadwinners of the families get rides to work if needed. Those who don’t have jobs are provided some of the support they need to find one. Meals are provided. Family Promise also works to prevent homelessness by helping families with a rent or utility payment or with the purchase of a used vehicle. These are truly opportunities to put our faith into action.

While we have the chance to serve as onsite volunteers during three weeks of the year, there are many parishioners who are unable to show up in person but would be interested in helping with Family Promise. We hope our 2023 Epiphany Drive will provide the opportunity to do just that.

Family Pride has an Amazon wishlist which, of course, is readily accessible to anyone shopping on Amazon. This link takes you directly to the Family Promise wishlist. There, you may add items directly to your Cart, pay for them as you do any Amazon order, and Amazon delivers the items straight to the registered Family Promise address. This provides an easy way to help meet the needs of the homeless population served by this program, and we hope that many of you will agree and participate. We will announce this effort several times during our January 6-February 6 Epiphany Drive. 

In recognition of the fact that not everyone shops with Amazon, we will also provide paper copies of the Family Promise wishlist as inserts in our church bulletins during January. You may purchase as many items as you choose, bring them to the Fellowship Hall at church any time from January 6 – February 6, and we will deliver them to Family Promise.

However you decide to participate, you may rest assured that your contributions will significantly impact Family Promise and its clients.

Instructions for Live Streaming

• Just go to the St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church YouTube Homepage

• Near the time for service, underneath our channel logo, you will see our video for that day, with the word ‘live’ on it. The page will look like this:

• If you don’t immediately see the video that says ‘live’, (for instance, if you opened YouTube before the service begins) keep refreshing it.  

• When you see the video square that says ‘live’, click on it. 

Welcome to worship!