Annual Performance Report Mar 14, 2025

Second Sunday of Lent

Annual Performance Report

Dear Parish Family,

Gratitude and Stewardship: With hearts full of gratitude, please join me in celebrating our parish’s
sacrificial giving. Our faithfulness (I, too, give sacrificially) in sharing the gifts God has entrusted to us, is
a profound witness to the Gospel. In our Catholic tradition, we recognize that all we have—our time,
talents, and resources—comes from God; this is a key principle in Scripture. In the book of Genesis, God
favoured Abel’s offering of the best of his flock, while Cain offered what remained of his crops and God
found this lacking (4:2-5). St Paul, too, encourages us to put aside a portion of our income that we have
earned/received each week (1 Cor 16:2). The season of Lent is a fitting time to reflect on and discuss
sacrificial giving. These forty days offer an opportunity to examine our giving as a response to God’s
boundless love and grace.

Financial Transparency and Accountability: Transparency is essential in building trust within our parish
family. This document outlines our parish’s annual financial stewardship, ensuring you understand how
your giving sustains our parish. Your sacrificial giving directly and positively impacts our ministries,
staff, and volunteers, enabling us to grow in our mission to actively accompany people to encounter
Jesus.

Meeting the Growing Needs of Our Parish: With the loss of Fr. Francis, our available ministry hours
have decreased significantly, making a co-responsible approach to our mission even more vital. To assist
this season of growth and change, we are in the process of installing each Mass Centre’s new volunteer
Pastoral Leader and Leadership Team. While this is very good news, and this will take some time, these
volunteers will need a significant amount of pastoral and leadership-focused support. I would like to
hire someone to provide this support, but this will require a significant growth in income. As Jesus’
ministry was funded by the generosity of others—Luke’s Gospel tells us that wealthy women provided
for Him and His disciples (Luke 8:3) —I invite you to partner with our parish in this Year of Engagement
by doing the same, and to ensure our parish continues growing as a beacon of faith, hope, and charity.

How You Can Participate: I invite you to respond in two different ways:

• Become an ‘identified giver.’ While your sacrificial giving remains absolutely confidential,
intentionally identifying the amount, percentage and frequency you give allows us as a parish to
plan responsibly and budget wisely. Intentionally engaging in giving, invites God’s presence into
your finances and is perhaps the most active response to God’s invitation to steward what He has
given. The best way to become an identified giver is to give by direct debit. Please prayerfully
consider completing a direct debit request form (attached to this document) and return it to the
parish office.

• Prayerfully consider becoming a percentage giver. Offering God a weekly percentage of our
income is an act of faith and trust in His provision. Normalising discussion around percentage
giving means that we have the same level of responsibility – no matter whether our income is small
or large. Everyone is equally co-responsible when we talk about percentage giving because dollar
amounts are unequal. God is more pleased with a person or household, for example, whose annual
income is $50,000 and who gives $5000 each year (10%), than a person/household whose income is
$1million per year and who gives $10,000 per year (1%). Friends, this is not fund-raising, but
faith-raising. On the back page of this document, you will find a basic guide for percentage giving
with some examples.

Thank you for your generosity, faith, and commitment to the mission Jesus has given us. May God bless
us all abundantly as we continue to give joyfully in His most Holy name. Amen.

With prayers of thanksgiving,
Fr Josh
Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Parish