It is time for the parish to plan financially for 2009. The draft budget was created by the finance committee consisting of Brad Rush, Chris Wixom and Carolyn Stevens, and is a tool for the Vestry to use in creating the final budget after 2009 pledges are received. Parishioners are welcome during this time to ask questions or request clarifications about the budget. Mark Boyer has written the following overview from a Vestry member’s perspective on the draft budget:

What is a budget? What does it mean? Why should I care? Is it cast in stone? What next?

At the most basic level, a budget is the manifestation of our commitment. It represents at any given time our collective commitment to paying the costs associated with worshiping in a given space; the costs associated with worship itself; and the costs of serving our community.

So we agree to pay the mortgage, pay the electric, the heat and cooling, the water and sewer, insurance, maintenance, and security; the costs of being here. We also agree to pay the costs of worship, clergy and lay compensation, employee benefits, workers compensation….costs borne by most employers; sacramental wine and hosts. Finally, we also agree to support the mission of St. David’s in the community, locally and globally.

Some of us do this through a faithful commitment to community through tithing 10 percent or more of our incomes to St. David’s irrespective of what is or is not in the budget. Others of us look at the costs of being here, worshiping here, serving here and make a decision to support these efforts to the extent that we can given our other commitments in life; paying our own mortgages and utilities, setting money aside for education, putting food on the table, putting a little something away for the future.

The draft budget for calendar year 2009 represents a conservative approach to planning to meet the costs of being here, worshiping here, and serving here. It is a snapshot of how we are currently using the gifts of God’s bounty. It is also a picture which reflects what the Vestry heard from parishioners as we worked through the Truth or Consequences experience.

We have currently stripped from the budget subsidies for senior luncheons, Wednesday Night Adult Discipleship meals, Sunday Fellowship coffee hour. All festivals or celebrations must carry their own costs. There is no subsidy for the preschool. The draft is bare bones. It covers the costs of one priest, one youth program director, a part time book keeper, and musicians to support the 9:00 and 10:45 a.m. services. It covers a mortgage, recently reduced by our campaign to eliminate our mortgage debt, and other minimal costs associated with being on the St. David’s campus. All community outreach is self sustaining.

And yet, the draft also anticipates the need to financially support general management and administrative needs of the parish which have been to date graciously donated. So, the draft has place holder allocations intended to minimally cover the costs associated with the general manager and administrative support roles.

It is a snapshot manifestation of the commitment we have made to one another as a faithful covenant community.

What is the value of this document? For those who faithfully tithe. It is a picture of what we can do with the gifts we receive. The budget is not the driver. For those who balance their commitment to St. David’s with their commitment to competing priorities, it may serve as a reflection of what we are capable of when we come together to support one another in faithfulness. For others, it may be the catalyst for thinking about how much more we could be, if were just more faithful or more committed.

What is important to take away as you consider our budget for next year is that this is not an exact science. It is not a stagnant process. Budgets change with the will of people to take responsibility for their own futures. Our spending may go up or it may go down. It is always a reflection of our commitment to one another in faithful covenant with one another.

Stewardship month is a time when we can examine our commitment to one another, to community. Is the snapshot of what we are the snapshot of all we can or aspire to be?

View the Parish 2009 Draft Budget.

Request a hard copy from the This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 703-729-0570.