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During the next few weeks, we’ll have several opportunities to reflect on our community life together at St. Clare’s, and what we can all do to support our congregation in the year ahead.
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- Pick up your Stewardship devotional book, Generosity, after church this Sunday or next, and reflect on this theme throughout the coming season.
- Hear from several St. Clarians on Sundays (or in our podcast) about what they have found transformative about being members of St. Clare’s.
- Reflect on the saints who have come before us on All Saints Day (celebrated on November 3).
- Participate in Ingathering Sunday on November 24, when we’ll bring our Estimate of Giving cards to the altar and pray and celebrate together.
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Voices From St. Clare's Leadership
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What is the best gift you ever received?
Better still, what is the best gift you ever gave?
Perhaps you will recall that in each instance,
The best gift was one that was tied
With the heartstrings of the giver,
One that included a part of self.
-- Wanda Fulton
I believe there is a voice inside each of us asking us to consider the meaningfulness of sharing our treasures to this very high purpose. I invite everyone to think about what matters and how you want to be remembered.
Sometimes I think it is hard to step up our giving a notch, but when we realize the importance of religion, church and community in our lives, it helps us evaluate with clarity what generous giving really means. Giving can lift us up, lighten our load, as we praise God for an abundance of blessings. Our church cannot do all the wonderful, caring services and activities including humanitarian concerns, church school, youth programs, food pantry, and community support missions without financial resources.
Seek. Consider. Please give as much as you are able. Spread the word. Together we can grow this joyous worship community, maintain it and sustain it in perpetuity. This is essential work we are doing for the betterment of Christian life for generations to come, truly an investment in the future of our children and grandchildren. All humanity will be better because we support what we believe in.
Respectfully submitted and with so much Love,
Susan (Jones) Draffen, Junior Warden
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Constructing a budget, whether at home or in your business, is an inexact exercise. It is so for our beloved parish.
The needs are clear, real, and indisputable. To equitably and fairly fund our staff, our programs, both internally and in the greater world, along with our facility calls for deep, prayerful, hard thought and decision. As you know, the cost of maintaining our valued leaders and space is always on the rise.
For Saint Clare's to remain a vital, essential part of our lives, we must recognize these realities. The Vestry is seeking a budget increase of 3.5% and humbly and prayerfully asking each of us to consider a 3% to 5% increase in each of our pledges from last year.
We are confident that St Clarians are up to the call.
-Mac Dick
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What have I found at St. Clare’s? For starters: welcome, grace, hospitality, music and insights that lift my soul, agape, forgiveness, understanding, and paths to learning -- all of which have stretched, nourished and transformed me.
What can I give back? I want to do everything I can to nurture this continually growing and loving community. Over time I’ve contributed my time and talents – on the vestry, being a reader and usher, providing meals, helping strengthen connections. And by thoughtfully contemplating how I can even begin to reciprocate what being a part of St. Clare’s means to me and my family. We don't always give ourselves a chance to reflect on what we are grateful for. This year, I will seek to tend a grateful and generous heart as I contemplate how I and my family can increase our financial support for the many ways St. Clare’s serves as a prism of God’s love.
-Barbara Beaton, Junior Warden
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Dear friends,
It’s hard to find one single theme for a year in a place as full of activity as St. Clare’s. I think if I were to try, though, I would say that it’s been a year of discovering and telling the story of who we are now as a congregation, in this place and at this time.
In the story-sharing project that we celebrated at the Annual Meeting and at Pentecost, we heard from a sampling of folks who shared why they came to St. Clare’s, why they stayed, and why this community mattered to them. What we heard were stories of the transformative power of community, experienced both in influential moments and also over the course of years, even decades. These were experiences that continued to animate each person’s commitment to this community and what it takes to create, heal, and sustain its life, even when that has involved hard work and difficult times together. (You can read and watch more of these stories on our website! saintclareschurch.org/stories)
I’m really proud to be the rector of St. Clare’s. This is a community that has important things to offer: a place to experience joy and a connection to God together; a place to grow in faith through learning and through participation in a transformative community life; a place to act for justice, through service and advocacy and generosity. I believe in what we are doing together. We aren’t perfect—no community is—but we try our best to love each other, to listen to God’s voice and to the community’s needs, and to speak and act bravely where it matters most.
No one person or even small group of leaders can build this kind of community alone. It takes all of us, together, each one of us from the gifts God has given us, all of our support and commitment. So I invite you and your family to join mine in committing or recommitting to your part in building this community this year, and especially to consider the needs of a community that is in the midst of significant growth of various kinds. St. Clare’s has always been supported almost entirely by the giving of its living members; to continue to grow in size and capacity, as we are, means that we also need to grow in giving as a community. I trust that, when we all bring what we have to the table to share, that we will have enough not just to answer God’s call, but to share generously from the abundance that we find in our life together.
In Hope,
Anne
Visit saintclareschurch.org/pledge to fill out your Estimate of Giving for 2025.
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