[Magdalen] Stewardship

[Grace Cangialosi]

Thanks, Ann—some good thoughts.

This is a very generous congregation in many ways. They give large quantities of food to the local food closet—at least a full truckload every two weeks—and they support every benefit dinner in the community, sometimes by volunteering, sometimes by buying.
When I suggested giving our Christmas Eve offering to the building fund of the church that was burned out and came to use our space, they didn’t bat an eye. The offering was close to $900 that evening.  Our ASA hangs just under 30.

> On Oct 7, 2020, at 4:11 PM, Ann Markle <ann.markle at aya.yale.edu> wrote:
> 
> I'm thinking that I'd do some teaching or community  meetings (via Zoom?)
> about the discipline of Christian Giving, and see where they come down on
> that.  It may be that they all practice this discipline (Richard Foster's
> chapter in "A Celebration of Discipline" is helpful,  if you  need  a
> resource) fully, but rather than just jump  into pledging, maybe seeing
> where they are with any giving (including financial, but also time and
> talent) as a spiritual practice first.  Sounds like this may be something
> they haven't thought about much --  but "giving the tenth part (tithe)
> back to God" (not necessarily through the church; there are lots of good
> charities out there) might be an area that would interest  them from a
> spiritual perspective.  You're lucky to be in a church that doesn't rely on
> giving.  Seems to me, though,  that some of the same principles as parish
> stewardship might apply -- like calculating what portion of their income
> they currently give, and working toward a tithe -- again, as a spiritual
> practice to draw closer to God, rather than as "church  giving."  Maybe
> this "season of stewardship" could be truly about stewardship for them,
> rather than just supporting the church. Depending on how they've been doing
> lockdown, stewardship of time might even be a  place to focus.
> 
> Ann
> 
> The Rev. Ann Markle
> Buffalo, NY
> ann.markle at aya.yale.edu
> 
> 
>> On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 11:56 AM Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Thanks for this, Ann; I"ll check it out.
>> 
>> I'm curious as to whether anyone else is in, or has been in, a small church
>> with no history of pledging.  I was amazed when I came here as long-term
>> supply last year to learn of this, but it seems to be working just fine.
>> I've been priest in charge since January, and I haven't done anything to
>> change this, except to insist that they needed to adopt a budget for the
>> year, but that was a somewhat sketchy venture.  I talked with one of the
>> former rectors, who was here for 13 years, and he said it had been his
>> experience tha t for small churches, pledging isn't necessarily the way to
>> go.
>> 
>> This church has always been self-sustaining, pays a good pledge to the
>> Diocese every year, and has the money to do what's necessary in the church
>> and for outreach.  They have a healthy savings account and money invested
>> with the Diocese, which gives them a dividend at the end of the year. When
>> I asked about pledging, they said people wouldn't like it, that it would be
>> embarrassing, that it wasn't necessary.  What they're doing seems to be
>> working.  Part of me thinks it's foine to leave it as it is, but I guess
>> the part of me that is "institutiional" worries that I'm not doing it
>> right,
>> 
>> On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 11:41 AM Ann Markle <ann.markle at aya.yale.edu>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Just saw a diocesan clergy presentation  (via Zoom) on stewardship this
>>> year.  If anyone's interested, TENS (as usual) has some excellent
>> resources
>>> for stewardship in plague days. And if other clergy are like me, there
>> is a
>>> little more time and energy than in other years for thinking about this.
>>> 
>>> Ann
>>> 
>>> The Rev. Ann Markle
>>> Buffalo, NY
>>> ann.markle at aya.yale.edu
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Grace Cangialosi
>> Ruckersville, VA
>> 
>> *"Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great
>> love."*
>> *St. Teresa of Calcutta*
>>