The bulk of our time this month was spent doing a detailed walk through of the operating budget for 2026. Our treasurer, Sherman, met with our church staff earlier in the month, and with their input, assembled a first draft of next year’s budget for our council’s review. With the council’s recommendation, the budget is now headed off to our trustees for adoption, which will either happen later this month or early in January. While the full budget will be available at our annual vestry meeting, the shape of it isn’t changing much year to year, simply adjusting amounts to account for inflation; luckily there is much less of that this year than in recent years!
Melanie shared the excellent results of this year’s Illuminate Gala, which raised $8,500 for the church operating budget. We are grateful for all the people who came out to support the event and to enjoy what was a truly entertaining evening. It was a great opportunity to see our church community shine!
The other major area of work for our meeting was a conversation about whether or not to participate in the low carbon fuel market with the carbon credits generated by our EV charger. We spent time discussing the pros and cons of the carbon market, and how we might, should we choose to engage with it, use the funds it generates to faithfully move forward to the work of addressing climate change and other pressing environmental concerns. Two possibilities for that faithful sort of work are:
- Using the money to help pay for further energy efficiency and environmental upgrades at the church.
- Using the money to help struggling parishes in our diocese to lower their energy usage, both reducing their environmental impact and helping them to save money.
Our parish council will pick up this conversation again at our next meeting and make a decision about whether to move forward or not with it.
Finally, we spent time looking at the schedule of Advent and Christmas services being offered here at the church this coming season. You can find information about everything happening at the church for the holidays on our website.
Sincerely,
Adam Yates
Thank you for sharing this summary