Letter to the Parish, June 2019
Dear Friends,
“Lift up your hearts.” “We lift them up unto the Lord.” The familiar words of the Sursum Corda, as it is known, capture an essential feature of the liturgical and sacramental life of our Parish. It is very much about our being gathered into the motions of the Ascension. “We ascend,” as Augustine beautifully puts it, “in the ascension of our hearts.” Ascensiontide signals that profound gathering of all things to God in the homecoming of the Son to the Father. His homecoming opens out to us our true homeland of the Spirit, the Trinity.
Bev Morash has been the sexton of the Parish for many years but for reasons of health is stepping down officially as of the end of June. He and Jacoba wish to continue to help out with the sanctuary guild when and to what extent they can. Wonderful. On behalf of the Parish, I want to thank Bev and Jacoba for their many labours. We will be putting into place various ways of ensuring the continuing maintenance of the Parish and its operations. We have established a reasonable protocol about garbage which, thanks in part to Scotty and Kathy, will go to curbside when needed in accord with the stipulations of the Town of Windsor. Please note the directions in the Hall about garbage (clear bags), compost (small bin to big bin to green bin), and recyclables (blue bags in blue bin).
At the Annual Meeting of the Parish, ideas were raised about the possibility of replacing the siding of the Church with newer and improved vinyl including insulation, repairing the sills of the windows, and replacing the lexan protective panels. We are still endeavouring to get estimates about cost. This would be a major, major undertaking. I want to be clear about the financials of the Parish with respect to capital plans.
The operation of the Parish depends in part, indeed, a large part, upon contributions from the Christ Church Foundation. We have been able to maintain operations and some capital improvements from funds generated from the interest on its investment portfolio; we have not touched capital. We also depend upon the offerings of all of you. Like many small institutions, it is a constant struggle but one which I am pleased to say we have managed rather successfully in terms of our mission, thanks to so many of you.
