Published on 04 Apr 2012
AccountAbility Newsletter – April 2012
Part 1: Financial Facts (Jan. 1 – Feb. 29, 2012)
Income
Total Revenue YTD 2011 $140,683
Total Revenue YTD 2012 $147,664
Total Budget YTD 2012 $135,455
Revenue higher than budget $12,209
Income Fast Facts:
1. Encouraged by the increase in offering commitments made immediately following the conversations at Vestry
2. Parishioner offering is tracking 4% behind the same period last year
3. Greatest gains in the receipted offering category have been made by Friends of the Cathedral – up 51% over the same period last year
4. Building Use Donations $4,149 more than projected budget
Expenses
Total Expenses YTD 2011 $231,858
Total Expenses YTD 2012 $233,136
Total Budget YTD 2012 $220,466
Expenses higher than budget $12,670
Expenses Fast Facts:
1. Spending on staffing and salary is down (Dean’s salary cut by 2%, Development Director reduced to 1/2 time, wage and benefits freeze);
2. Building expenses are currently tracking $7,953 ahead of budget due to the timing of some planned maintenance and purchases
3. Street ministry expenses are currently tracking $3,375 ahead of budget
Surplus(Deficiency) of Parish Offering before Capital Grants
Actual YTD 2012 ($85,472)
Budget YTD 2012 ($85,011)
Difference ($461)
YTD Draws from Capital Grants (approved at Vestry to reduce deficiency in parish offering)
Endowment Fund for Youth Ministry $4,092
Curacy Fund for Curacy position $7,333
Part 2: Inspiring Generosity – Mr. Charles Hillman
Former Province newspaper fashion editor Winnifred Mather Hillman loved to garden.
So 94-year-old Charles Hillman donated $150,000 to Christ Church Cathedral toward a meditation garden in the heart of the city, to be shared by everyone.
The garden will officially be dedicated on Easter Sunday to his late wife and the Garden Club of Vancouver, of which she was a longtime member.
On the dedication plaque will be this verse: “One who plants a tree/Plants a hope/One plants a friend of sea and sky . . .”
Charles said in an interview Sunday that the words have deep meaning to him.
“In a setting like that, it seems most profound,” he said.
Winnifred passed away in 1992 at the age of 84, after 30 years of marriage to Charles.
The idea for the garden came from the five years Winnifred spent living in New York, where the young woman from New Westminster was a model and fashion commentator for McCall’s magazine.
A favourite spot of hers in the Big Apple was the Little Church Around the Corner between Fifth and Madison Avenues.
“They had a meditation garden,” recalled Charles, “Winnifred felt she would like to have one here.
“Gardening was her great hobby,” he said. “She pursued it with a great love.”
The Cathedral garden isn’t a replica of the New York garden, but it’s the same idea, according to Charles, “a little oasis in the centre of a very busy city.
Charles decided to donate to the garden project after the sale of their west-side home.
“With meditation being a big thing in people’s thinking today, what could be better than a meditative garden at our wonderful Christ Church?”
Benches in the park, he said, are for people to “sit there and dream.”
The garden is also a wonderful memorial to a love story that began when Charles saw a picture in The Province of Winnifred stepping off a plane to take up her new position at The Province newspaper.
“When I saw the fabulous picture of her arriving in Vancouver I said, ‘Hey, I have to get to know this lady’, which fortunately I did,” he said.
Thanks to FRANK LUBA, of THE PROVINCE for this interview. Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/
Part 3: The Importance of a Three Clergy Team
The Cathedral’s stipendiary clergy have put this community on the leading edge of Anglican leadership, pastoral care & spiritual development, and Christian formation. Without them, the Cathedral we know might disappear. You are invited to make a significant offering to support these clergy positions.
The Dean and Rector – Peter G. Elliott
With your help, the Dean and Rector stewards the Cathedral’s heritage building in the heart of Vancouver. A sacred gem of west coast art and architecture, it was recognized as a landmark Heritage Building by the City of Vancouver in 1976. The Heritage building is a Vancouver rarity, a freestanding building in a dense corridor of corporate towers, serving as a great sacred and civic space.
The Dean and Rector provides the leadership and structure for all the weekly events at Christ Church Cathedral. At the heart of the Cathedral is worship and prayer, with services every weekday and three services on Sunday. The Cathedral is renowned for fine music, religious and interfaith education for all ages, and for its daily food and shelter for Vancouver’s needy — just steps from many of Vancouver’s most powerful corporate headquarters.
The Dean charts the direction of the Cathedral’s witness and ministry in the world. With the Bill Reid Gallery next door, the Fairmont and Hyatt hotels across the street, and the regional headquarters of major banks and businesses nearby, the Cathedral is placed at historical and cultural crossroads. Here, the Cathedral stands on solid ground – and remains a church that is unafraid of change or questions.
Associate Priest – Ellen Clark-King
With your help, the Associate Priest provides individuals and groups with spiritual direction. The Associate Priest facilitates the exploration of Christian spiritual themes (Word, Silence, Creation, Wilderness, Body, Desire, Mystery, etc) and traditions, and teaches individuals how to engage each through spiritual exercises to see which resonate with their own spiritual journeys.
The Associate Priest co-ordinates pastoral care at the Cathedral. Pastoral care for the sick or housebound is one of the most significant ways that members of the Cathedral continue the ministry and mission of Jesus.
Throughout her work, the Priest Associate helps others to awaken to the mystery called God in all of life, and to respond to that discovery in a growing relationship of freedom and commitment.
Curate – Chris Dierkes
More than a landmark building and location, the essence of the Cathedral is its community of members, friends and visitors—a community that lives the Gospel of God’s radical welcome to everyone, that embodies the teaching of Jesus.
The curate incubates and stewards several communities within the larger parish context. Within the Cathedral, there are many smaller fellowship groups for those looking to find community within its larger portals. These range from 20s/30s groups to Cathedral study groups. Over the years, the curacy position has had a profound effect on the energy and missional work of these groups at the Cathedral.
Curates tend to be younger and have recently completed theological education. The curate’s gift to the Cathedral is their vision of how Christian thought and practice can adapt to a changing world. And the Cathedral’s gift to the curate – and the wider church – is an invaluable 2-year educational experience that will shape their future ministry.
The Cathedral Needs You Now
Christ Church Cathedral serves as a centre for progressive Christian thought and practice, and stands for inclusive community and the reconciling love of God and Jesus Christ. It was the site of the first ordinations of women in Canada, and has been a leading progressive voice for the full inclusion of lesbian and gay people in the Anglican communion.
But right now, more than ever, the Cathedral needs your support. The Cathedral’s budget was reduced for 2012, meaning that this community is about to lose its curacy position.
Vancouver, and the world, need Christ Church Cathedral and its visionary leaders. Will you support the Cathedral with an increased monthly gift – which provides the Cathedral with ongoing, reliable funding?
