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Next Sunday’s Readings

This Sunday we will celebrate the Baptism of Christ. The question that has intrigued and challenged theologians for centuries is: why did Jesus have to be baptized if he was already the Son of God? After all, we just celebrated Christmas and all that God did through Mary and Joseph to reveal God’s own self in Jesus. Why do all four Gospels tell of Jesus’ baptism at the start of his ministry?

Read Next Sunday’s Lessons here.

Last Sunday’s Sermon: Overwhelming Joy and an Unsettling Paradox

The 20th century poet T. S. Elliot wrote a fascinating poem about the Magi, or Wise Men, and their experience called, “The Journey of the Magi.” Elliot shows us how the Epiphany reveals God but also reveals the lie of the world we live in. We can not live as if God were not present and available after the Epiphany. Encountering God changes our relationship to the world.

Listen to Last Sunday's Sermon Here.

Blessings for the New Year

Dear Friends,

I want to wish each one of you a very Happy New Year, and wish all the best for you in 2011.  We have many opportunities ahead of us and I look forward to being a part of this wonderful community, known as St. Dunstan’s Church. 

Our annual meeting will be held after service on Sunday, January 30^th.  Please plan to attend.  This is your church and we need your creative ideas and your feedback on how things are going.  I am so pleased that we ended 2010 without the usual “begging campaign,” or “Fill the Gap” campaign.  Our budget for last year was balanced and we paid close attention to our spending.  Your generosity and love of St. Dunstan’s Church allowed us to keep all of our staff and our programs.  Your Vestry thanks you, your fellow parishioners  thank you, and as Senior Warden, I thank you.  It is absolutely amazing what we can accomplish when we work together for the health and future of our church.

We have just finished our Stewardship Campaign for 2011 and a special thanks to all of you who have pledged.  The budget committee has also just finished the proposed budget for this year.  We have cut expenses wherever possible but there are some areas that we have no control over such as taxes, utilities, etc.  Ninety-five per cent of this year’s budget is covered with pledges and other income that we anticipate.  However, we are not quite there yet.   We still need to raise an additional $13,000.  That is a small part of our budget but without it, there will be cuts and none of us want to see that happen.  I know that we can make this up and I ask each one of you to do what you can to help.  I thank you in advance for your caring and your generosity.

Our future is bright at St. Dunstan’s.  Many churches have struggled far more than we have during this economic time.  We are facing our future with the joy of having new members, new enthusiasm and a deep love of God as He leads us into our future together.  We will be introducing our new Mission Statement soon and that will guide us as we move forward.  When we read God’s Word and follow His commandments, we enrich our own lives and the lives of those who are close to us. Let each one of us be a blessing to others.

Blessings,

Mary E. Pacher

2011 Stewardship and Budget Update

Thanks to everyone who has turned in their pledge card.  Here are updated statistics as of January 5: 

Target pledge goal for 2011 Budget: $228,902 

Total amount pledged to date: 97 pledges totaling $216,835

# New Pledges:  8

# 2010 Pledging Households that have not yet pledged:  8

We're almost there!  However, we expect 2011 to be challenging in terms of finances, and it is vitally important that we receive everyone's pledge as soon as possible.  In order to cover projected costs, we need to increase our total income (pledged, unpledged, plate, etc.) by 4% or cut our projected expenses. If you can increase your pledge, even by a small amount, it will be most appreciated. If you find you cannot pledge at all in 2011, please let us know--this information is crucial for budget forecasting. 

Remember that when we work together as a group we're more powerful-both spiritually and materially. On behalf of the Vestry, thanks for your support!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING 2010 PLEDGES: If you have not yet completed your 2010 pledge, please indicate "2010 Pledge" on any payments you contribute in 2011. This will help us in two ways: we can end 2010 with a balanced budget and we can plan a reasonable budget for 2011. THANK YOU!

Diana Rall, Stewardship Co-Chairperson

What a Difference a Year Makes!

Tuesday morning I sat down to begin planning the next week and, really, the next year and I was happy. I think back to this time last year and I am thrilled with what we have accomplished. Last year at this time we were facing a significant budget deficit, we had years of past assessments that were unpaid, we needed to hire a music director, and our administrator had also just given notice. There was a lot to be optimistic about, to be sure, but we had a lot of work to do, and a lot of that work involved fixing things from the past or getting the staff and procedures in place that we would need going forward.

Now we have just finished a year in which we paid all our bills, including our diocesan assessment, on time all year long. It looks like we are going to finish the year in the black (final figures aren’t all in yet but it looks good) and we are working on producing a balanced budget for 2011. We have a wonderful and gifted new music director, Tim Drewes, who is calling forth even more beautiful music from our choir, our organs, and our congregation. We have a great new administrator in Linda. She is a life-long Episcopalian and an experienced church administrator and she is helping us get our systems and procedures into great shape. Early last year the past assessments we owed were forgiven by the diocese as an investment in the growth and vitality of St. Dunstan’s Church.

As we go into the New Year we are working on projects and supporting new programs that will build and enhance our congregation. We have been blessed with many visitors and new members. I can think of 14 people just off the top of my head who have begun attending St. Dunstan’s since last summer. Two of them have joined the choir and three of them are attending our services at the Henry Chapel. I realized just a couple of weeks ago that we now have three families with 3-and-a-half-year-old little girls. We have truly been blessed in the last year.

 The energy and time that we were investing at this time last year to hire a new musician and a new Parish Administrator can, this year, be spent on programs that will further build and enrich our congregation and our worship. We are launching an exciting project to create, as a congregation, with our own hands, a stained glass window for the window over the Guild Hall. (See the article below for more about this project.) We are launching an innovative program called Care Teams that will allow us to take care of one another in new and meaningful ways. We are hoping to have an evening study program for Lent. There is so much good work ahead!

That is not to say that we don’t face challenges. As you can see from our Sr. Warden’s letter this week, we still have some work to do on the budget for 2011. Whatever happens, with God’s help and your support we will again bring another balanced budget to the congregation at our next annual meeting on January 30th.

I am very hopeful and enthusiastic about our next year together. God is certainly working among us at St. Dunstan’s. May God bless each of you, and continue to bless our congregation in the coming year.
 

Your brother in Christ,

The Rev. David Marshall

Click here to respond to this posting in my blog.

A Stained Glass Window for St. Dunstan's

We are making a stained glass window! Last month a group of interested people brought a proposal to our vestry for a project to create a stained glass window for the window over the Guild Hall/Narthex. This project will be funded entirely by memorial contributions and other donations so it will not affect the budget. The plan is to put out a request for designs to artists in the Seattle area (members of the congregation are invited to submit designs too). We will go through a process to select the design we like best. Then, our consultant for this project, Joe Hester, will help us turn the design into a window.

Joe has done this several times at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Seattle with wonderful results (and at many other churches too). He works with a glass blower to produce the colored glass. Then we will create teams to actually cut the class and assemble the window pieces right in our own Narthex. Joe will train us and help us with the work. When we are done, he will do the installation.

The first step in the project is to create a steering committee to guide the process of soliciting and selecting a design. There are still a few openings on this committee so let me know if you are interested. I’ll be asking people over the next week or two to get this committee going. We hope to be able to dedicate the window at our Pentecost service in June.

Fr. David

Community Engagement