Give and pledge

2025 PLEDGE CAMPAIGN 

Dear Friends in Christ: 

Here in the waning days of 2024, we at St. James can look forward to 2025: calling a new rector, celebrating St. James 150th anniversary, and continuing to welcome new members to our parish family. To make the call for a new rector requires an honest financial appraisal of our Parish. We need to ensure the stability and continuity of our finances. Your pledge, no matter the amount, will help the vestry plan the details of our call to a new priest, as well as continue parish activities and expand our mission and outreach to the community.  

We know (based on our financial history) that priest compensation and health care will be about 45% of the total 2025 budget. Your pledge will help the vestry craft a compensation package for our new priest that is attractive as well as financially supportable in 2025 and beyond. In addition, our parish daily and weekly activities are the cornerstone and foundation of our larger missions, and these are funded by the contributions that you pledge every year. Staff salaries, maintenance of our campus, and production of service bulletins are operational expenses that provide the base for our worship together and our outreach to our online community. Your vestry and committee chairs continue their efforts to control our operating costs, but costs continue to increase. 

A pledge card for 2025 is enclosed. Please join the people of St. James in planting seeds for today and tomorrow by making a financial pledge by November 3, 2024. Recognizing a church cannot survive without the time and talent of parishioners, please consider filling out the blank on the pledge card to share your time and skills with St. James. The Stewardship Committee would also like you to consider pledging and giving electronically, through the secure St. James’ website. For those of you who have not pledged before, please consider doing so! Pledging allows the rector and vestry to determine our resources and needs to support our parish mission and goals.  

Yours in Christ, 

The Stewardship Committee 

Mary Ganier and Sig Johansen