St. Vladimirians! We had a really wonderful Parish Council meeting yesterday and I want to share a short synopsis with you. As we’ve been telling you for several weeks now, we voted to build the $6MM church and hall project, but the finances to support this are not aligning with that vote to build. This is not a problem per se. The Parish Council is unanimous in our recommendation that we must begin building our new church this year in order to keep our community united and strong. This is often how God’s will is manifest: we try to do something that seems right, but it doesn’t work no matter how we try. Thus, we need to step back, pray, and try another way. Or, as the world might say, fail fast and try again. And yesterday the Parish Council, understanding the financial reality at hand, voted to approve an alternative design for our new parish church which is both beautiful, larger (actually a bit more floor space that the design previously approved), and affordabe. Based on the best estimates we have thus far, this new design would be a bit less than half the cost of the previous design. We have more than 10% of that cost in cash right now. We are excited about the possibilities that the future holds in this regard!
So what is next? Those who are diligent students of the Normal Parish Bylaws will understand that the Parish Council’s vote yesterday is a recommendation to the parish. That is 100% the case and this is exactly what we want from our Parish Council: when the parish votes to undertake such a project we empower the Parish Council to execute it, and if the thing turns out to be impossible, to recommend to the parish how to do it better. I am sincerely thankful to the Parish Council for this active oversight on their part! The next steps are the following:
1. This week we will send out financial information comparing the original project and the project the Parish Council is recommending. You will receive an email alerting you how to find this information and we will post this on all our social media channels.
2. This week, in addition to the financial information, architectural drawings will be shared as well. We likely will not have renderings of the new project (pretty pictures in essence) to share with you this week. We hope to have some before the annual meeting and we will share them when we get them.
3. This subject will be added to the annual meeting agenda. We will present the new project to the parish at the annual meeting, there will be a discussion where all your questions can be answered, and we will take a vote as a parish to accept the Parish Council’s unanimous recommendation or to reject it. I’ll be honest here – I’ve not seen this sort of enthusiasm in the Parish Council for just about anything in many years. :) And we hope that you will join us in that enthusiasm, even as you ask the hard questions about HOW we will do this that we expect and want from our parish family at the annual meeting.
To participate in the annual meeting you need to be a member of the parish. LEARN MORE/BECOME A MEMBER HERE.
More information will be coming soon. Let us pray that we can align our will with God’s will in this regard. If we can do so as a parish family, it means that we will also be doing all this for God’s glory. And THAT is what we are after here. There is no limit to what we can accomplish for God’s glory if we don’t care who gets the credit. If that is our watchword – we are well on our way to success!
Fr. Gregory
