Parish of Mary, Mother of the Church

St. Mary’s Church 

Parish Office

40 Academy Street

Lee, Massachusetts 01238-1602

Telephone: (413) 243-0275 + Fax: (413) 243-1926 + www.StMaryLOS.com

January 2014

Dear Parishioners,

                               First and foremost, on behalf of the Pastoral Council and the Administration & Finance Council, we wish to thank you for your support of your parish.  All of us are called to stewardship of our parish community in terms of time, talent, and treasure; we cannot thrive as a faith community without a commitment to all three of these aspects of stewardship.

Below is our financial report representing income and expenses for the past year and a half.  Please keep in mind when reading it that it does represent the past 18 months, and not just the past 12 months.

There are a few points we wish to make: First, a number of years ago, St. Mary’s Church stopped supporting St. Mary’s School, which comes in the form of a subsidy for each student from St. Mary’s Parish attending the school;  a subsidy paid by all parishes for their parishioners attending a Catholic school.  This placed a huge financial burden on the school. In April of 2011, at the beginning of the current pastorate, the Administration & Finance Council made a goal to restore support to St. Mary’s School. We started with a partial fulfillment of the subsidy and, this past year, continued with the full subsidy. This represents the deficit that we see in the report. Currently, St. Mary’s Parish pays St. Mary’s School $5,975.00 per month in support; 19% of our current income goes to the school.

In addition to this, 47% of our income supports maintenance and administration staff. Also our Fuel Collection pays for about 54% of our fuel. Springfield Diocesan charges for cathedraticum, education, and property insurance are also a significant expense each year.

In the past three years, we have worked hard to minimize expenses. At the same time, we are aware that there are a number of issues that need to be addressed in our facilities, for which we do not have ample funds. In the coming weeks, we will be addressing these needs as well and how we, as a community of faith, can address these needs together while, at the same time, ensure the future of our parish for future generations.

Again, we thank you for your answer to the call of stewardship.

Sincerely Yours,

Fr. Jack Sheaffer, Pastor

Mr. John Philpott, Chair, Administration & Finance Council

Mr. Charles Houff, Chair, Pastoral Council