A LOOK AT WHERE WE ARE
There are two important reports being shared with our parish this weekend. One looks at the spiritual life of our faith community, while the other looks at the financial resources needed to support our parish, school, and ministries. Both tell us something important about where we are today and what we need to consider as we look to the future. I encourage you to take some time to read our Parish Annual Report (view PDF) and a summary of our Disciple Maker Index Survey on our DMI page.
WHAT WE LEARNED FROM YOU
Last spring, many of you participated in our Disciple Maker Index Survey, sharing your thoughts about your faith journeys and experiences at ICSJ. Thank you for taking the time to do so. Your responses have helped us better understand what you value about our parish and how we can support you in your faith.
The results give us much to be encouraged about and invite us to build on our strengths as we find new ways to help one another pray, grow, serve, and share. I hope you will take a close look at the findings and consider what they mean for the future of our Family of Families (view on our DMI page).
OUR PARISH ANNUAL REPORT
A vibrant and growing parish also needs financial resources to sustain its many activities. Our Parish Annual Report (view PDF) looks at that side of parish life, including the good things happening at ICSJ and some of the challenges we face.
As I reflect on the past year, I see so many reasons to be thankful for all that is happening throughout our parish community.
WHAT’S GOING UP?
There are many great signs of life in our parish. You do not have to look far to notice the vibrancy, activity and growth of our faith community.
Simply put, there many facets of our parish that are “going up” in a good way.
Our attendance at Sunday Mass continues to increase as people enjoy our liturgies that are beautiful, meaningful and enriching.
Parishioners are constantly coming forth to become more engaged in our parish and assuming positions of leadership, as well as volunteering for various ministries and service projects.
Our spiritual programs like Alpha, seasonal small groups, and Young Adult gatherings continue to increase in size.
Just this Fall, 20 adults have already expressed a desire to learn more about the Catholic faith through our OCIA program.
Our weekends in our parish are typically busy ones with the celebrations of multiple weddings and baptisms.
Our annual social events like our St. Joseph Table, Taco Fiesta, and Holy Mary Family Brunch continue to grow in attendance every year as people of all ages come together for great food and fellowship.
We increased our Parish Staff to help improve our operations, communications, and programs.
Our response to serving the poor increases with our various collections that assist families in need.
WHAT WENT DOWN?
What went down in our last fiscal year has been our overall parish collections, specifically our 2025 Christmas collection. Because we did not meet our budgeted goal, our parish incurred a larger deficit than anticipated at the end of our fiscal year—that runs from July 1 to June 30. This deficit of $240,277 is reflected in the 2025-2026 Parish Annual Report that has been prepared by our Parish Finance Council.
I suspect that our Sunday collections have not increased in the last fiscal year due to the fact that many parishioners generously contributed to the successful Generation-to-Generation campaign that was launched in October of 2025 to meet our capital needs.
Another factor that contributed to our parish operating deficit has been the increase of expenses due to fixed costs like basic utilities and healthcare insurance. Also, many of the expenses for our social events, and the costs to run our expanded ministries have significantly increased with the current state of inflation. We all know that everything is more expensive today.
This year, our parish was blessed once again to receive a rebate of $138,872 from the Annual Catholic Appeal that helps to cover some of the cost of our Church expenses for the fiscal year. However, we are hoping to increase our regular weekly offering to maintain the vibrancy of our growing parish.
Our parish needs a weekly Sunday collection of $15,000 to meet the needs of our operating budget.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
This is a good time for you, and me, to review what level of support we can provide financially to our parish on an ongoing basis.
Our Electronic Giving Program continues to remain stable at 62% of our Sunday collection. It is easy and can make it very convenient to fulfill your weekly offering. Please consider enrolling in our Electronic Giving Program, if you have not done so. You can sign-up here on our GiveCentral page.
For those of you who are already regularly giving to our Sunday collection, perhaps you are in a position to increase your giving by 2%. Collectively this would have a great impact.
Some of you may not make a regular gift to our parish yet. It is a myth that small gifts cannot make a big impact. Even if your Sunday donation is $5 or $10 dollars a week, or even $20 a month, this all adds up and can make a huge difference in the big picture of running the operations of our parish.
If everybody can prayerfully increase their contributions, or begin to contribute, then our parish can continue to do many good things in the name of building God’s Kingdom.
Thank you for all that you do to make our parish a place of belonging, prayer, service, spiritual growth and faith sharing.
Parish Finance Committee: Nancy Gies (Parish Business Manager), John Cadogan, Andrew Cubria, Kevin McGowan, David Nick, Ward Russell, Shelia Walsh
