| ST. AGNES CATHOLIC CHURCH, A ROMAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITY IN GREEN BAY WI! | ||
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| Saturday March 13, 2010 | ||
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St. Agnes Parish ASPIRE ProgramA St. Agnes Parish Investment Renovation EffortASPIRE UpdateDear St. Agnes Parishioners, In January 2006, Bishop David Zubik announced a fundraising campaign called Advancing the Mission. It was a call to all Catholics in the Diocese to prayerfully consider how God is asking them to renew and grow their Church and to inspire us to a deeper involvement in and commitment to our parish communities and the Church as a whole. In one word- a deeper call to Stewardship. To help this happen, five initiatives were identified. These were:
The late John Paul II called the worldwide church to a “new evangelization”. This would take shape by helping people grow in the Catholic experience and by contacting people, who for one reason or another, have lost contact with the Church. This vision is being realized. Bishop David Ricken announced recently that the Green Bay diocese will be airing television commercials as part of a “Catholics Come Home” program inviting people back to the church. To live our faith we must know our faith, and this is a life-long process. To make life-long catechesis happen, the Diocese understands a commitment must be made to strengthen current religious education programs in Catholic schools and parish religious education programs, and to establish much-needed adult faith formation programs. Our diocese has been blessed over the years with so many wonderful, dedicated priests. The diocesan retirement age for our priests is age 70. Currently we have 15 priests over 70 that have chosen to continue serving. We have 91 priests in retirement. Together we need to ensure that sufficient care will be available now and for generations of priests to come. Since parishes are our spiritual “homes” it makes sense to ensure that our parishes are as vibrant as can be. Through this endeavor, half of all financial gifts raised at each parish would stay within the parish to support the local needs. Each parish was asked to identify its specific need. At St. Agnes, this need was identified as a renovation and addition to our church. We called this ASPIRE; an acronym for “A St. Agnes Parish Investment and Renovation Effort”. Because of the size of our specific parish need we negotiated a fixed contribution we would make to the Diocese and the Advancing the Mission campaign. That commitment has been satisfied thanks to the generosity of our members. Where are we today with ASPIRE?Just like the investment in 1973 the parish made to build its future, so too are we asked to continue God’s journey for the next 40 years at St. Agnes Parish. ASPIRE will address our future needs in the following ways:
What are next steps with ASPIRE?The parish leadership including the Pastor, Deacon, Parish Council and Finance Council believe that the ASPIRE is critical to the future of St. Agnes Parish. Over the next few months, you will see more communication in the forms of parish meetings, mailings and emails. A model of the proposed ASPIRE project has been built and is on display in the back of church. This scaled model will give you a better sense of what ASPIRE will mean to all of us when we come to St. Agnes to worship and pray. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact anyone listed below.
ASPIRE MemorialSt. Agnes Parish gratefully acknowledges a Memorial in the name of Marie Kleinhans for ASPIRE in the amount of $200.00.ASPIRE Presentation from July 16 Meeting The presentation distributed following our all-parish ASPIRE Update meeting at St. Agnes Catholic Church on July 16 is now available here on our website. Please review this presentation carefully for the latest information and progress of our ASPIRE program. The presentation includes a financial update, conceptual designs and drawings of the Church, and information on how you can ASPIRE to advance the mission of St. Agnes Parish. Thank you very much for your consideration and support!
>> July 16 ASPIRE Informational Meeting Presentation ASPIRE Update
ASPIRE Informational Meeting Summary Part 2On Wednesday July 16th there were two meetings to update parishioners on our Advancing the Mission/ASPIRE fundraising campaign. Approximately 40 people attended the morning meeting and 65 people attended the evening meeting.The agenda included a financial update followed by an open discussion and sharing of ideas, concerns, and opinions. This is the second part of our summary. Financial Update To date we have raised a total of $944,688! St. Agnes has fulfilled its commitment to the diocese for the Advancing the Mission part of our campaign. This includes:
That leaves a balance of $499,688 for the ASPIRE project fund. From this point forward, every dollar that is committed to our campaign will stay right here at St. Agnes! Questions, Concerns, and Comments It seems like the project has grown in scope from the original plans of renovating the church and adding a Gathering Space. It now includes a Youth Center in the lower level and new offices attached to the church. Is all this really necessary? This is a great question! How did we get to this point with our plans? As we said in last week’s update, we hired a registered architect and certified liturgical consultant, Dennis Horbinski, to help us with our initial planning. The plans created were a result of a space programming process- a detailed and lengthy exercise of analyzing our current needs and projecting our future needs to support our congregation, our ministries, and our mission. The major components of the project include:
In future updates, we will feature, in depth, each of these areas and share with you how we believe this will be accomplished through our plans. Could we reduce the size of the project? Father Getchel answered this question insightfully and this is our paraphrased summary of his response. "Of course we could, but I would really hate to do that at this time and here is why. We have received many donations from parishioners based on these plans. What strikes me is that there are different components of the plan that appeal to different people. Some people are drawn to the covered entrance, some to the Gathering Space, some to the Youth Center and others to the Eucharistic Reservation Chapel. Some people like the idea of our church and offices being more accessible to people who may be handicapped or those who just have a little trouble getting around. So in my mind, to change the plans at this time would not be fair to some of our donors. I think we need to continue to fund raise for the time being and continue to pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit." Questions and Comments? If you have a particular question or comment you would like to share, we would encourage you to call, write or e-mail the parish office at: St. Agnes Catholic Church 1484 Ninth St. Green Bay, WI 54304 920-494-2534 Email: info@stagnesgreenbay.org Print report | More ASPIRE Informational Meeting SummaryWednesday July 16 there were two meetings to update parishioners on our Advancing the Mission/ASPIRE fundraising campaign. Approximately 40 people attended the morning meeting and 65 people attended the evening meeting.The agenda included a financial update followed by an open discussion and sharing of ideas, concerns, and opinions. Over the course of the next few weeks will summarize the meetings for you. Financial Update To date we have raised a total of $944,688! St. Agnes has fulfilled its commitment to the diocese for the Advancing the Mission part of our campaign. That includes $355,000 in support of the Bishop’s campaign initiatives, $72,000 for the 2008 Bishop’s Appeal, and $18,000 as a partial pre-payment of the 2009 Bishop’s Appeal. That leaves a balance of $499,688 for the ASPIRE project fund. From this point forward, every dollar that is committed to our campaign will stay right here at St. Agnes! Questions, Concerns, and Comments Is the campaign over? If not, when will it end? The campaign is not over and we are not exactly sure when it will end. To date, we have heard from approximately 500 of our 1600 families. We will continue our campaign until we have heard from every one. What is the connection between Advancing the Mission and ASPIRE? This journey started nearly three years ago when the Parish Council commissioned a task force to explore the idea and feasibility of making improvements to our facilities. Parish members were contacted and ideas were solicited. The overwhelming response was that improvements were necessary and a Gathering Space addition should be considered. As a result, the decision was made to hire an architect to produce some preliminary plans incorporating this feedback. These plans would allow us to put together a realistic budget for the proposed improvements and addition. The acronym ASPIRE was coined and stands for: A St. Agnes Parish Investment Renovation Effort. As we were making our plans, the Bishop announced plans for a Diocesan-wide stewardship campaign called Advancing the Mission. The money raised would be used to fund:
This was explained eloquently by Bishop Zubick when he announced the plans: "Since our parishes are our spiritual "homes" it makes sense to ensure that our parishes are as vibrant as can be. That’s why "Vibrant Parish Ministry" is our first initiative. Through this endeavor, half of all financial gifts raised at each parish will stay with a given parish to support the local needs. Each parish will identify its specific needs, which could be anything from creating a new ministry to benefit youth, elderly or poor; reducing debt; strengthening a current ministry; or creating a scholarship fund for elementary, secondary or adult education." The leadership of St. Agnes made the decision to make ASPIRE our "Vibrant Parish Ministry" and that is how these two campaigns were joined as one. So is the Advancing the Mission campaign over? Yes it is. As we stated earlier, our obligation to the diocese has been fulfilled and we will now focus exclusively on ASPIRE. What is our goal for ASPIRE? Our overall goal is $5.75 million. We have raised approximately $1.0 million leaving us a balance of $4.75 million yet to raise for the entire project. When will construction begin? According to diocesan guidelines, no construction could begin until 75% of the funds for the project would be raised. (This would be approximately $3.94M, 75% of $5.25M of estimated construction costs.) Can we afford the debt? The remaining debt would be approximately $1.3M. We believe that given our membership and our history that this is very manageable. The parish has approximately $500,000 in cash reserves as protection. Print report | More St. Agnes Church Conceptual Designs The conceptual designs for St. Agnes Catholic Church were presented at our all-parishioner meeting on Thursday, April 19. The progress of the ASPIRE program was shared, in addition to the conceptual design, and parishioners were given the opportunity to ask questions. We had an excellent turn-out to learn about the exciting transformation ahead for St. Agnes Parish. See the conceptual designs! All-Parishioner Meeting Presentation -- Broadband version: 1.2MB PDF |
Dial-up version: 733kb PDF | Bishop Zubik's Advancing the Mission videoBack to Home page | Send us email! |
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