Please click here to access the 2012 St. Andrew’s pledge form.
This community is a gift from God, and we are all its stewards in this world, entrusted to use our gifts to make God’s love visible here in this neighborhood in downtown Denver. The people of St. Andrew’s have been and continue to be generous with their time, their talent and their treasure to ensure that this community’s ministry and missions serve as a bright light on the corner of 20th & Glenarm.
Think about what drew you and continues to draw you to St. Andrew’s – the warm and welcoming parish family; the opportunity for your children to learn about and meet Jesus; the intentional service we do in this city and around the world; the well-kept and well-loved gardens and grounds; the intelligent and eloquent clergy whose sermons and presence encouraged you to ask questions, or to find God’s love in your daily life; the transcendent vocal music and worship that links us to Christians of ages past, and that brings Christ’s presence into our lives today; the fact that, in our renovated building, you can slip in right after the procession and find a comfortable seat.
The generosity of our parish family makes each of these things vital, possible and real. This is our time to support all that is good about St. Andrew’s. Ongoing pledge support from about 130 households helps us to live out God’s mission in our community, our neighborhood, and the world. In 2012 it will cost nearly $9000 a week to do that. Over 75% of our revenue comes from your pledges, so that’s about $3000 per household per year, based on the estimated number of pledging units.
Some St. Andrew’s parishioners are able to give $10 a week, or $10 a month. Some give $100 a month, some $100 a week; many give something in between. And there are some who are able to, and feel called to give $1000 a month or more. Some saints at St. Andrew’s give hundreds and thousands of hours of their time over the course of the year, and over a hundred of us volunteer on a regular basis. Every gift of time and money is precious and every gift provides our community with the resources we need to continue to be the kind of community God is calling all of us to be.
It is for you to discern how you will participate in our shared mission and ministries through the gift that is right, generous, and faithful for you. Please consider prayerfully how you are called to support our shared ministry and mission. If you would like more detailed information about our 2012 budget, please see below. Then click here to fill out your online pledge card, or call the office to get a paper pledge card. To help us in our planning for next year, please make your pledge this week. And again, thank you. It is your generosity that enables this community to thrive and grow.
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
2012 Budget-at-a-Glance
| Expense Category | |
| Salaries and Benefits | $200,149 |
| Music Ministry | 84,806 |
| Building and Grounds Expenses | 79,200 |
| Diocesan and Regional Pledges | 52,000 |
| Administrative Expenses | 19,000 |
| Outreach Ministry | 10,200 |
| Other Ministries | 13,710 |
| Total | $459,065 |
The parish income necessary to pay these expenses comes from several sources, including pledges, unpledged income collected in weekly offerings, fundraising (such as the annual parish auction), and reimbursements collected from the parking lots jointly owned by the church and the Urban Land Conservancy. Pledged income is our primary source of revenue, making up more than 75 percent of the income necessary to fund our budgeted expenses. In 2012 it will cost nearly $9000 a week to operate this parish. That’s about $3000 per household per year, based on the estimated number of pledging units.
November 27, 2011
For All the Saints – Today
Imagine . . . It’s Sunday morning, and you are arriving at church. You walk past grounds that are lovingly tended. You see young children and their parents heading to the nursery, or the Godly Play area. You see old friends gathering at the foot of the steps to catch up on news. Visitors arrive, people who have never been here before, and you see them take in the beauty of our worship space. You arrive at the front door, and a friendly person greets you, and hands you a leaflet. You enter the church, cool in summer and warm in winter, swept and clean, lights on, the altar set with linens and candles. The organ plays, the procession forms, the choir sings, the service begins. Readings, sermon, anthem, bread broken and wine poured out, hands outstretched to receive the mystery and gift of communion, and then we are sent out into the world – but only after coffee hour!
Who makes all this happen? The saints of St. Andrew’s today – you and all those who offer their gifts of time and talent, and treasure. Everything we have is a gift – everything we have, and everything we share. Our church thrives because over 130 volunteers dedicate hours upon hours of faithful service and donate their skills. Our church thrives because over 130 households make a pledge and offer a financial contribution to our mission and ministries. Our common life depends on all these gifts.
During this week, as you give thanks for your blessings, we give thanks for you. And we ask you to consider the place of St. Andrew’s in your life. How will you support St. Andrew’s in the year to come? How are you called to take your place among the saints of today?
Tuesday, November 15
For All the Saints – Today
Imagine . . . It’s Sunday morning, and you are arriving at church. You walk past grounds that are lovingly tended. You see young children and their parents heading to the nursery, or the Godly Play area. You see old friends gathering at the foot of the steps to catch up on news. Visitors arrive, people who have never been here before, and you see them take in the beauty of our worship space. You arrive at the front door, and a friendly person greets you, and hands you a leaflet. You enter the church, cool in summer and warm in winter, swept and clean, lights on, the altar set with linens and candles. The organ plays, the procession forms, the choir sings, the service begins. Readings, sermon, anthem, bread broken and wine poured out, hands outstretched to receive the mystery and gift of communion, and then we are sent out into the world – but only after coffee hour!
Who makes all this happen? The saints of St. Andrew’s today – you and all those who offer their gifts of time and talent, and treasure. Everything we have is a gift – everything we have, and everything we share. Our church thrives because over 130 volunteers dedicate hours upon hours of faithful service and donate their skills. Our church thrives because over 130 households make a pledge and offer a financial contribution to our mission and ministries. Our common life depends on all these gifts.
During this week, as you give thanks for your blessings, we give thanks for you. And we ask you to consider the place of St. Andrew’s in your life. How will you support St. Andrew’s in the year to come? How are you called to take your place among the saints of today?
For All the Saints, Tomorrow: St. Andrew’s Kids Imagine Our Future
Imagine the St. Andrew’s of the future. Imagine that more kids keep coming to St. Andrew’s, and that as we get older, we have a great youth group to go to. It is a safe place for us to ask big questions, to learn about God, our neighborhood and our world. We become known around our neighborhood for doing service projects with lots of organizations, and we are even working to raise money to go somewhere like Mexico, or Guatemala to build houses and help children.
Imagine that when you drive onto this block, you see not only the church, but places where lots of different people can live. Some of them would have been homeless if it weren’t for the housing here. Imagine a large community garden near the church, which supplies fresh produce to nearby Metro CareRing, and where St. Andrew’s members work with school children from nearby schools to take care of the garden and bring in the harvest.
Imagine a community of college age kids and young adults here, centered around the arts and service. It would bring talented young people from around the country to live in Denver, sing beautiful music, and work in schools where there are no music programs.
Imagine a growing church community, where we don’t just come to worship on Sunday morning. Several services on different days of the week provide the opportunity for many people to pray together and have communion whenever they have Sabbath time, even if it’s not on Sunday.
More people in our neighborhood walk to church, more families come with their children and teenagers. It is a church community of many ages, many backgrounds and many different views about church, but in this place, we are one family.
–Beckett Stokes, with Ellis Coldren, Alex Medema, Chris Medema, Genevieve Reyland, and Eleanor Seelaus
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
For All the Saints – Tomorrow
Imagine our church, tomorrow. What will it look like? Who will be there? What will be the mission, the passion, the call for those who come after us? The theme of our stewardship campaign this year is For All the Saints – Yesterday, Tomorrow, Today. Join us in reflecting on our past, and consider how you will be part of our future. Between now and Sunday, think about the church we are building for tomorrow. Just as the saints of the past made the church where we work and worship today, our imagining and action now prepare a place for the saints of tomorrow. What kind of church will they inherit from us?
For All the Saints – Yesterday
Someone walking past St. Andrew’s might not expect it to be a place that has seen many saints. We live in a relatively young city, and we located at a corner which is rather hard to find if you don’t know it is there. But we who worship here know better. We know that this space has been home to many saints, and those saints continue to bless and inspire us today.
Our saints have given us the beautiful style of worship that we treasure today. In the 1920s, Father Neil Stanley became the rector of St. Andrew’s, and brought with him the Anglo-Catholic worship style that sets us apart from other churches in this city. The children we now train as acolytes continue a tradition he started, when he invited local children to serve at the altar. It was our history as an Anglo-Catholic parish that in part inspired Father Ken Near to embrace this church in the 1980s. And it is that style of worship that continues to draw people to our church today.
Our saints have given us an example of service. Father Jon Marr Stark inspired this church to be involved in the social issues of his day, reaching out to the homeless, even sheltering them in our building. This space also served as the home of the precursor to the St Francis Center, and Metro CareRing, organizations we still support. With Mother Connie, we helped to start a tutoring program, a residence for people living with HIV/AIDS, and St. Elizabeth’s School, and found other ways to reach out to the community. Today, we continue to ask, “who is my neighbor?” as we find new ways to reach out to our community, following in the steps of the saints of our past.
Our saints have inspired us with their creative and ceaseless stewardship. Father Stanley supported the church by writing stories for pulp fiction magazines. Betty Luce produced plays as a fund raiser for the church. Judie James has spent and continues to spend countless hours making St Andrew’s a special space in the midst of the city (and wore a rainbow dress a s a liturgical dancer). Martha Bollenbacher inspired us to start our endowment fund, which provides funds for outreach to this day. Dorothy Elliot connects us to our lively past, when the word about St. Andrew’s was “hippies in the church.” So many of you have given so much of your time and your resources to keep this church alive and thriving, because stewardship is part of our foundation.
St. Andrews has been and continues to be blessed with saints. They inspire us to worship, they inspire us to serve, and they inspire us to be stewards. Someday we will be the saints that inspire others. This is a blessed corner, and a place that the saints are happy to call home.
– Ben Skeen