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From the Pastor: Thank You, APA Donors!
As you know, last year, near the end of the year, we finally reached our goal for the Annual Pastoral Appeal. (Goal: $42,058; Pledged: $48,170; Paid: $44,945) This is the annual funding drive for the Diocese of St. Petersburg, of which Epiphany of Our Lord parish is one of 83 parishes/missions. For the year 2017, the Diocese needed $11,842,751.00 to cover its budget. Since “the Diocese” is not a parish, there are no Sunday Masses at “the Diocese” and, therefore, no collections, which means no direct income. So each parish and mission (like St. Joseph Vietnamese Mission, which meets here but is its own entity and has its own APA assessment) is assessed a percentage of the diocesan budget so that “the Diocese” can pay its bills. This APA assessment (or “goal” as they prefer to call it) for Epiphany would have been $142,683 if the total was simply divided by 83 and each parish/mission paid the same amount. But some parishes are much larger than others and would normally have much greater income than the small ones, so an even split would overly burden the least “wealthy” parishes. So instead of just an even division, the Diocese looks instead at the total income every parish/mission had the previous year and takes from each entity that percentage of their income which corresponds to the diocesan budget. If the Diocese budget goes down and the total parish/mission income goes up, everyone’s APA assessment goes down. That never happens. If the Diocese budget goes up and everyone’s income goes down, everyone’s APA increases. That could happen and seems to be the current trend across the Diocese. Though individual parish numbers vary, the number of total parishioners in the Diocese is going down--so the collections are going down--while prices of running everything are rising. So the Diocese keeps its budget as close to the same as possible but still needs to raise it a little bit while most parishes see their income slip. So those down-trending parishes will see their 2018 APA decrease along with their income, which is only fair. But extra money is required to keep the Diocese running. So who pays the extra? The parishes which are staying the same or which are increasing in population and collections. Like us. What a great problem to have! The new diocesan budget is set for $11,890,369.00, a very small increase. Epiphany’s portion has increased to $50,105.00 even though we didn’t have a correspondingly large increase in our income. At this time, I would like to thank all of you who donated to the APA last year. Below you will find a list of all 68 families/individuals who donated, listed in alphabetical order. There are still approximately $3200 worth of outstanding pledges to the APA, but almost everyone who pledged was able to make good on it. I publish this following list as a sign of my appreciation to all who helped us out but also as a means of you checking to see if your name is listed. Many of you are still not yet registered at Epiphany and there would be a possibility that your donation went, incorrectly, to your previous parish. If you made a donation and don’t see your name, please call the office so that we can get it straightened out! And please don’t search through the names looking to denigrate anyone whose name is not listed, for not only is this un-Christian, it could also be that the person you scorn could have given anonymously. So here is the list. Thank you again! Abrahamian, Peter; Adams, Charles and Diana; Albok, Dolores; Alvarez, Piedad Alicia; Anderson, Elizabeth J.; Anonymous, Epiphany of Our Lord; Baker, Thomas and Mary Ann; Baquerizo, Daniel and Jessica; Barber, Claudia; Barlow, Sheila; Beaman, Thomas and Diane; Bergmann, Anders and Katherine; Bravo, Magda; Bricker, June; Cantu, David and Jean; Cerasuolo, John; Choi, Helen; Christiani, David and Pamela; Christmas, Richard and Clare; Clauss, Robert and Mariann; Crank, Cynthia; DiMarco, Frank and Pauline; Draude, Tom and Sandi; Farley, Paul and Margaret; Folkerts, Alexander; Franceschini, Mark and Jeanette; Frank, Joseph; Garcia-Provenzano, Angela; Gervais, Marland and Jean; Gornowicz, Bertha; Hahn, Judith; Hernandez, Kevin and Cheryl; Jones, Linda; Jurado, Gloria; Knipper, Rita and John; LaFountain, Pat; Lauren, Steven and Deborah; Lynch, Peter and Elizabeth; Madden, Helen Ennis; Martin, Frank A and Ann B; McMillion, Lorraine; Miller, Clara; Nathe, Knute and Emma; Nguyen, Phu Dinh; Niklas, Joy; Noronha, Vernon and Emilia; Owens, Richard and Deborah; Palka, Carole; Palka, Edwin Rev.; Pete, Audie and Lee; Pham, Tien Thu; Prince, Michael and Amanda; Raulerson, James; Reade, David; Rodriguez, Addison and Anna; Ryan, Marc and Donna; Sands-Cox, Dorothy; Schell, Michael and Noreen; Scussel, John and Bonnie; Simone, Gino and Patti; Thomas, Everett A and Elnora; Vega, Raymond; Weathers, Christopher and Lillianna; Wehle, Sandra; Whiskeyman, Andrew and Jennifer. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka Comments are closed.
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