There can be no unity in the body unless we come together in the head.  The Bishop is the head of the Church of in this diocese.  He is committed to unity.  I am the pastor sent by him to this parish to be his representative.  I am committed to unity.  But I do not make my decisions alone.  I do not develop a financial plan for our parish by myself nor do I implement that plan alone.  I rely on my Finance council to help me strike a course – to give me counsel – to help me hear all the needs of the various groups in the parish – to help me develop a financial plan that moves the whole parish forward together. After almost a year of getting to know the parish – I have begun to form this council.  They are already meeting every month.

What do they do?  The finance council assists me in managing the fiscal operation of the parish.  How do we keep our operations going?  They come together and help me draft a budget.  They assist me in establishing priorities:  What is most important that we have to fund, what is desirable, and what can wait.  This council has been working very hard lately as you can imagine.  They had to help me make some very hard decisions on what we need to cut to keep from going bankrupt – again looking at priorities – they advise me on how we get back on track financially – they developed the giving goals you see in the gathering space.  They spent hours and hours putting together and delivering to all the people the message you heard some weeks ago about our financial situation. 

The finance committee is made up of parishioners whom I selected who in their lives have demonstrated true Christian discipleship  - who are willing to come together as one body to seek the good of the whole parish.  They have been great.  We all owe them a debt of gratitude for their hard and thankless work. This council is made up of people from all the diverse groups of the parish.  Some members represent the Hispanic or Vietnamese families and their needs.   Others represent the elderly.  We even have high school students.  We have people, men and women who each bring to the table what they see from their place in the parish.  And we have some professionals who are managers, who know how to make a company or a business work.  All these different people come together, listen to each other and forge a plan, a direction for the whole parish.

I would like to introduce our Finance Council members to you:

Becky Paque

Hung Nguyen

Marvin Stoffel

Dick Kovich

Jan Morgan

Larry Goodwin

Lori Hernandez

Robert Renteria

Val Stallbaumer

I ask that you keep us in your prayers as we vision, plan and execute the financial future of our parish.