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.
The Foundation exists for the Parish but it is important to realize that a considerable part of the Foundation’s portfolio are restricted funds, that is to say, funds to which we are not allowed to touch the original capital gift for a certain number of years but can only use income generated by interest. And some funds are restricted gifts in other ways, such as the organ fund. Obviously, we are dependent upon the vagaries of the market. What this means is that in every way we have to be realistic and to live within our limits which we have been doing for the most part successfully.
We are still waiting on estimates for the re-siding project but in any event it will require something more than drawing down on the funds of the Foundation. We will have to launch a campaign, I think, and to see in what ways funds can be raised for such an important project that looks to the future of the Parish. Such visions are themselves so very important and are about the lifting up our hearts and minds to God in prayer and praise.
The regular envelope contributions are more or less steady but we need to see if we can’t increase the level of givings there as well. I know that giving is often sacrificial and I thank you for your commitment. We are also hoping to decrease some of our expenditures while at the same time maintaining operations. The installation of the heat-pumps has secured one primary objective: stabilising the fabric of the interior of the Church. But it seems that the heating of the Church in the winter months for services is simply costing too much. The plan for the winter of 2020 is to turn the heat down in the Church to a bare minimum required to maintain the interior fabric and retreat to the Hall for services during January, February and March. The hope is that might result in some considerable savings in our energy costs.
These are all endeavours to live responsibly within our limits while continuing with our mission and purpose. I simply encourage you to think on these things. They belong to the ascension of our hearts and minds to the Lord. May God bless us in our life and work together. My thanks to all of you for your continuing support and commitment.
In Christ,
(Rev’d) David Curry
Sunday after the Ascension
June 2nd, 2019