Parish Newsletter

July 20, 2022

Staying Connected

FINANCIAL UPDATE – SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2022

CHRIST THE KING and ST. STEPHEN PARISH

Now that we are halfway through the year, we want to provide you with a brief update on our parish finances.  In short, thanks to your continued generosity, our parishes are financially healthy and able to support their many ministries, charitable causes in our local communities, and contribute to needs worldwide.

Capital Investments.  For Christ the King, we completed a major project to repave the parking lots.  This was the last major element on our capital project plan that we developed over 7 years ago.  We are now current with all our major renovation projects at CTK.  Cost for this work came in at $580K which was within the budget estimates for this work.  

Fund raising for this work is still in progress.  To date we have raised around $350K from donations and pledges.  If you can help, it’s not too late to make a pledge and/or a donation to help us cover the costs of this work.  No pledge or donation is too small.

There are two related property improvements that we are still evaluating.  One is a new entrance to the parking lot from Gregory Lane and the second is a pass-through from the small parking lot to the large parking lot.  This work is dependent upon city approval and how our fundraising goes. 

For St. Stephen, paving work is scheduled for September with a cost estimate of $210K.  One other major project is needed to replace the HVAC system in the church and offices.  We are in the process for getting quotes on this work and will share this soon.

Operations.  For both Christ the King and St. Stephen Parishes, the good news is that our income is ahead of expenses, and we are operating in the black.  At CTK we have a year-to-date surplus of around $45K and St. Stephen a YTD surplus of $14K.  Our forecasts show this level of operating margin carrying through the end of the year.  

St. Vincent De Paul.  With your generosity, the CTK St. Vincent De Paul ministry, during the first 6 months of 2022, has been able to help 9 families representing 12 adults and 12 children with rental assistance. In addition, the ministry was able to serve 5,105 adults (610 of which were homeless) and 2,464 children (76 of which were homeless), providing Grocery Outlet Vouchers, Grocery Bags, Homeless Bags, Clothes, Gift Cards, or Showers, depending on the client request. St Stephen’s St. Vincent de Paul ministry also has been very active, providing direct food assistance, food vouchers and rent assistance as well as financial collaboration with other Vincentian organizations to assist those in need in our community.

Other Accomplishments.   

New Web Site.  Earlier this year we rolled out a newly designed web site. We hope you have looked at this site and like what you see. The new platform is connected to our weekly email newsletter and our Realm system, so we now have one system where we can keep our records and email addresses together.

Realm System Roll Out. We upgraded our 25-year-old Parish Data System to a modern, web enabled system called Realm.  We use this system to routinely  manage our parish membership and donation records as well as student records for our Religious Education program. Realm allows us to provide you with an online account where you can login to view and update your information including donations, pledges, and balances.   The new system also enables you to register for events and classes, update your mailing and email address, and other data that help us in our ministries.  Many thanks to those of you who have tried it out!

We’ve now had six months of experience with this system, and it is living up to expectations.  We sent out invitations to those of you with email addresses and offered you a chance to create an account.  We will send out reminder invitations again soon.  I encourage you to sign-up and create an account.  It would be a big help if you could look at your data and update your information since in some cases it hasn’t been updated for many years. Of course, this is purely your choice and only needed if you want to take advantage of this system. If you do not want to participate let us know when we send out the next email and we will take you off the reminder list.

New On-line Giving System. With the Realm system we also have a new online giving system. We encourage you to shift to online giving if you haven’t already.  This is a convenient and secure way to donate to Christ the King or St. Stephen parish. The system is easy to use, and our office staff is standing by to help you if you need it. Just call. 

We wish to retire our old online giving system, but we need your help. Unfortunately, we are prohibited from moving your accounts from the old to the new system.  We have been copying your donation records from the old system to the new system each week, so you only need to go to one system to see your donations. But we want to phase out this process as soon as we can.   Well over half of our online giving users have made the transition to the new system. If you are still using the old system, we will be reaching out to you soon to ask for your help to move your online giving to the new system.  

Finally, thank you for your continued support through your regular donations. Both CTK and St Stephen have been very careful with their continuing operating expenses (e.g., salaries, utilities, their many ministries), and thanks to your generosity, both received sufficient donations to cover these expenses.

On behalf of our priests, our deacon, our staff, and our many volunteers, from both Christ the King and St Stephen, thank you for your continuing generosity, which enables us to serve the financial and spiritual needs of our parish families, our local community, and God’s Church worldwide.

Greg Thornbury

Chairman, CTK / St. Stephen Finance Council

Annual Eucharistic Celebration of the

Feast Of St. Mary Magdalene

Friday, July 22, 9:00 am Mass

 at Christ the King Church.

“The Song Within Your Heart: Sing O Women.”

All are invited! 

Reception in the CTK Ministry Center patio

following the Mass.

Women’s One Day Retreat

October 15th - St. Stephen Parish Hall

Men’s One Day Retreat

October 22nd - CTK Parish Hall

Youth Ministry's Back to School Movie Night

on the Lawn!

Saturday August 6th at 8:00pm

*We are now opening this up to the entire community!*

Bring your family

We will be viewing

“Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” PG-13

Religious Ed and Youth Ministry

Meet and Greet

On Sunday, July 31st representatives from Christ the King Religious Education and Youth Ministry will be available after the 9:00am, 10:30am, and 4:00pm Mass to answer your questions.

Learn more about:

-Registration

-Sacramental Prep Programs

-Junior High and High School Ministries

-Confirmation Prep

-Health, Wealthy, and Wise Ministries

-The Summer Mission Trip

and much much more

Registration is now open for

Faith Formation Students for the

School Year 2022-2023

Registration is open for:

 Grades 1-6

Jr. High Grades 7-8

High School/Confirmation Program

Please visit our website at ctkph.org and click the

 ‘Register Now’ button to register on-line.

If interested in helping as a teacher/catechists at any grade level. Please contact Deacon John Ashmore at faithformation@ctkph.org

Dear CTK Faith Community,

Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." Our CTK Religious Education program has been praying for you to be one of the laborers for the Lord's harvest. Passing on the faith to students in grades 1 through 6 is both a challenge and a joy, and you can be trained to do this.

Please consider volunteering to be a Catechist in our Religious Education program. We are currently registering students in grades 1 through 6 in our Religious Education program for the coming school year, but your help and participation are needed to make our program a success.



Please contact Deacon John at  faithformation@ctkph.org or call him at his office (925) 686-1174.

In 1959, Fr. Thomas Murray arrived as pastor - during his short term,

the school and convent were built.

Construction began in January of 1961 and our CTK school opened in

September 1961.

The Carondelet sisters arrived: Sr. Geraldine Mary was our first principal along with

Sr. Noreen O'Connor, Sr. Susanne Marie and Sr. Claire Marie. (1961).

BERLIN | NUREMBERG | OBERAMMERGAU | FUSSEN | MUNICH

The World Famous Oberammergau Passion Play is a passion play that has been performed every year from 1634 to 1680 and every 10 years since 1680 by the inhabitants of the village of Oberammergau, Germany. This tour to Germany is scheduled in September and tickets are limited. 

This is NOT a Christ King Sponsored Tour. More Information can be found here.  All inquiries should go through the tour company.

Welcome to our weekly reflections on

the Sunday Scriptures.

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time



As faithful Jews, the apostles already knew from their youth how to pray. They attended synagogue and prayed privately at designated times during the day. Yet, in living close to Jesus they had discovered a new way to live in close fellowship.  Read More

To donate a one-time/on-line donation.

Or regular and/or second collections.

All Masses are Inside the Church. - Face Masks are encouraged.

Worship Aide for Mass - July 23/24 Here

Readings for Sunday Mass Here

Ongoing Services:

St. Mary Magdalene

St. Mary Magdalen (1st c.) was a friend and devoted follower of Jesus Christ. Formerly she had been a woman of ill repute out of whom Jesus exorcised seven demons. Mary Magdalene has a special place among the Lord’s disciples and is mentioned several times in the Gospels. She stood at the foot of the Cross with St. John and the Blessed Mother, and went the next morning to Christ's tomb to anoint his body. As a reward for her great love and faithfulness, she is the first recorded witness of Jesus' Resurrection. It was Mary Magdalene who informed the twelve Apostles that Jesus rose from the dead—for this she is called “Apostle to the Apostles.” After Jesus’ Ascension into heaven, Mary Magdalene continued her mission as an evangelist, contemplative, and mystic in the heart of the Church. According to the Eastern tradition, she went to Ephesus with the Virgin Mary and died there. St. Mary Magdalene is the patron of women, repentant sinners, penitent women, reformed prostitutes, contemplatives, converts, pharmacists, perfumers, hairstylists, and against sexual temptation. Her feast day is July 22nd.