2024: New Year. New HT.
Annual stewardship campaign
Happy New Year from Holy Trinity! We are excited to see where God is leading us in 2024, but we know and trust that it will be an incredible year. We need your help to make that a reality!
2023 was an incredible year:
We welcomed a ton of new families and saw increased use of our PrayGround
We became a hub for town-wide activities and local groups to benefit our community
We completed projects to enhance our streaming capabilities and update the building
We added a new parish administrator
We saw growth in our children’s Sunday School
We continued to offer consistent, robust, and high-quality worship
We expect 2024 to be even better!
If you’re new to Holy Trinity, “stewardship” might sound like another one of those special, Episcopal terms for otherwise normal things—like narthex, sexton, and undercroft! You would be correct— “stewardship” is how we talk about our annual giving campaign/pledge drive for our annual budget. We use the term “stewardship” because our annual campaign is about more than money—it’s about the way we (1) take care of our church, (2) take care of our members, (3) take care of our community, and (4) how we remember where our gifts and blessings come—from God!
Everything we have comes from God, the “giver of all good gifts,” as St. James says. Stewardship is a chance to give back—giving generously and faithfully as we have received. The church’s long-standing tradition is that a tithe of 10% of annual gross earnings is the standard for pledging during stewardship. However, if this is a new concept for you, that might seem insurmountable. This year, we’re offering a new way to think about pledging that might be more helpful!
If we divide our projected budget for 2024 ($200,000) among the families that give/pledge to Holy Trinity regularly, the amount comes to $3,000 per household. This is our “equal share” pledging goal. We are challenging everyone, as they are able, to commit to the “equal share” pledge goal of $3,000 or to make a commitment to work towards it in the upcoming year.
As much as “stewardship” is about budgets, it’s really about the collective gifts and talents that the congregation has. Stewardship is a reminder that, first and foremost, we need YOU to make our dreams for 2024 a reality! We need your participation, gifts, talents, hopes, and dreams to help Holy Trinity embody—to the fullest extent possible—the image of the Body of Christ in all its beautiful talent and diversity. You and your family are the most essential part of Holy Trinity; we would not exist without you!
This letter includes two things: (1) a pledge card for 2024 and (2) a “Time and Talents” list for each member of your family. I’m inviting you—in any way you can—to make a commitment to Holy Trinity of your money, your gifts/talents, or both! How might you support Holy Trinity in the upcoming year? Maybe it’s with a pledge. Maybe it’s singing in the choir or reading during the service. No matter what that looks like—THANK YOU! You and your family are an integral part of Holy Trinity. Thank you for making a commitment to Holy Trinity in 2024.
If you have any questions about stewardship, your gifts, and talents, the 2024 pledge campaign, or would like to discuss ways that you’d like to be more involved and use your talents at Holy Trinity, please call or text me on my personal cell number at any time, 856.366.4171 or email me at rector@holytrinitywenonah.org.
Join us for our “New Year, New HT” celebration after our 10 AM service on January 17, 2024. We hope to see you there!
Thank you for being a part of Holy Trinity. We can’t wait to see what the new year brings!