The Firehouse

Songs of Peace

Check out the brief slideshow of our August 6 coffeehouse in the player on the sidebar to the right. You can click on the player to zoom the size of the slideshow.

Parish Priest's Musings: The TU Edition

Parishioners who were disappointed that the Parish Priest's Musings were not in this week's parish bulletin are not to worry. Our parish priest, John D. Kiriwin, took his Musings on the road this week, sharing his thoughts on the future of the Church and his own retirement in the Faces of Faith feature of the Saturday, December 10, edition of the Times Union. If you didn't get the scoop, you can read all about it by clicking on the following link:
Parish Priest's Musings: The TU Edition

Parish Priest's Musings

Mary, the Mother of Jesus the Christ is surrounded by men this week in the church's calendar of saints, with the feast of her Immaculate Conception on Thursday, Dcember 8. On Tuesday and Wednesday we hail the bishops Nicholas of Myra and Ambrose of Milan, while on Friday we honor the hermit Juan Diego of the Americas.

Let us pray this week for bishops that they might be good listeners and leaders, and that hermits also be good listeners of God and generous in sharing their good news.

We pray that Mary, as patroness of our diocesan church, will continue to serve as a model for our birthing the divine in our lives.

Parish Priest's Musings

There are a few copies of the Advent "Blue Book" available in the church foyer. They will carry us from now through the Feast of Christmas,

This week we celebrate the week of women in the Church, and fittingly so, as we begin our period of watching and waiting. Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the death of Dorothy Day and Friday is the 25th anniversary of the death of four women missionaries: Jean Donovan and Sisters Maura Clark, Ita Ford, and Dorothy Kazel, who were murdered while serving the poor people in El Salvador.

A week ago Sunday we concluded our recent discussion of "Tomorrow's Catholic." It was the sense of the group that we should pick it up after the first of the year. We will begin another four Sunday night series, January 15. If you were not able to join us for the first series, know that you are welcome. Please check the book sign-up in the church foyer ASAP so you will be ready to participate.

The New Year

Next weekend, the First Sunday of Advent begins our journey of watchful waiting with joyful hope. "The Little Blue Book" is available in the Lawlor Foyer in church to accompany your Advent journey of faith. Please take one per family.

Parish Priest's Musings

The parish community will gather this Wednesday evening, November 24, at 7:00 pm, to thank God for the gifts we have received as a country of God's vast universe, and for the gift of Jesus the Christ in our midst, in Word, in Sacrament, in one another. please enrich us with your presence, as we break bread and share cup at out Table.

The Future of St. John's/St. Ann's Parish

This past weekend, a written report on the Parish’s current finances was included as an insert in the bulletin. Bruce Doud presented a review of the issues involved at the weekend Masses. I hope that everyone studies the report carefully. I know that Bruce would welcome any questions or comments on it. 

We should thank Father Kirwin for the proactive approach in making this information available to parishioners. Unfortunately, this is not the normal practice in most of the other institutions that make up the Catholic Church.

The report clearly shows that the parish will be in a deficit situation unless there is a significant increase in the support it receives from parishioners. No institution can survive if it cannot meet its financial obligations. If we expect St. John’s/St. Ann’s to be here in the future, we must support it. This support must be realistic in terms of the cost of operating in today’s economy when it costs $18.00 per hour to have the Church cleaned and over $100 to have a plumber come and fix a leak. In view of these prices, putting a few dollars a week in the collection basket is not sufficient.

Another method of assuring the Parish will continue to exist is to become active in its management. Again, to Father Kirwin’s credit, he has over the past several years turned over much of the governance of the parish to its various lay ministries. For example, the Facilities Committee has directed the major changes that are taking place with the physical plan of the Parish. This process can only work if you, the parishioners of St. John’s/St. Ann’s, are willing to participate in the Parish Ministries and become active, dedicated volunteers in implementing recommended programs. If you see something that needs to be done, do not say “they” should change this or fix that, but take the leadership needed to see that it gets done. The Parish ministries are self selecting and all you have to do is show up at a meeting to become a member and participate in Parish’s decision making and volunteer to do something that will benefit the Parish. The more volunteers involved, the less the cost to the parish for getting things done.

Leo Hetling

 

Our Financial Challenge

Bruce Doud delivered the bracing news at the masses this weekend. John Kirwin, our parish priest, underscored the message in his letter included with the Annual Parish Financial Report in the Bulletin -- we need to take our generosity to a new level of support. The parish and the Center are both running defictis. Last year the Center's revenues dropped $8,000, while costs rose subtantially. Those cost increases were driven primarily by a lack of surplus food. The Center's staff and volunteers are actively searching for new sources of income and have pledged to "reduce expenditures to operate within this year's budget."

With escalating energy costs in general, the addition of the heating and cooling costs for the Firehouse, and the ever present needed repairs in our old buildings, Father Kirwin informed the parish community that it was "imperative" to ask for an increase in offertory contributions of at least 20 percent. "We must develop responsible fiscal stewardship," he wrote, "whereby each parishioner gives their fair share that we might properly sustain our spiritual and physical vision."

Well Done, Pat

Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord and keep pushing and pulling for those of us you've left behind.  Peace and thanks for so generously sharing your journey with all of us,  jdk, the p.p.

Pat Doherty, 82

We will celebrate a Mass of Christian Burial for our beloved Pat Doherty in church on Friday morning at 10:30. Relatives and friends are invited and may call at the church on Friday from 9:30 to 10:30. Pat's obituary appears in today's Times Union:

Doherty, Patricia M.