A Letter from Fr. Perry Pauley

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

You might have noticed a new fixture in our parking lot last month. It is a section of curb painted in safety orange and covered with a traffic barricade. The concrete below the barricade has crumbled and a large piece of rebar is now exposed. According to the stamp in the concrete, the sidewalks around the church were poured in 1958 by the Arizona Sand and Rock Company. For 65 years, they have been there week in and week out – literally the foundation beneath our feet. After decades in our extreme environment, the weak points are starting to show some wear and they need our help, a little bit of TLC from those of us who call this place home.

 

I think our sidewalks are perhaps a good metaphor for where we are as a parish. We have been here in the heart of North Central Phoenix for 75 years, and in just a few months, we will formally celebrate our 70th anniversary of being recognized as an independent parish with a candlelight Evensong. The core of who we are and what we do has not changed and our foundation after all these years remains strong. But some weak spots that are emerging, places where years or decades of deferred maintenance is causing things to crumble.

 

Here are some examples of the kinds of things we’re looking at:

* Facilities: Our facilities are showing their age and maintenance is an ongoing challenge. This past year, we’ve replaced four heating or air conditioning systems—all of them decades old—and more will need to be replaced in the years to come. We’ve also had to make repairs to broken water pipes, remove dead trees, and upgrade our fire safety equipment. These are all areas where we’ve allowed our maintenance to lapse and we are playing catch up right now.

 

* Formation and Education: If you look around, you’ll notice that the composition of the congregation at All Saints’ is starting to look a little different. More young adults and young families are visiting our church…and they’re coming back! Children, youth, and young adults are looking for a place to belong, a place where they can learn and build community. Offering the kinds of programs needed to have successful ministries for young people takes an investment in the future from the whole community. And we are looking to expand our Sunday afternoon formation opportunities with more guest speakers and more social events (receptions) on a regular basis. Guest speakers like to be paid!

 

* Outreach: Many of our outreach programs went on hiatus during the pandemic, but they are coming back and looking to (re)build for the future. Deepening our work with Nourish Phoenix and the Prison Ministry is a good start, but there are opportunities for us to become involved with other community groups doing good work in our neighborhood and across our city.

 

* Salaries: They say the first rule of fundraising is not to talk about salaries, but here’s the truth: When you give to All Saints’, you’re financially supporting people you know and love, and they are the best and hardest-working staff in the Episcopal Church. Period. Annual cost of living increases are not part of the employment package offered the staff at All Saints’, and the reality is that several staff members have worked for years with only a modest pay increase along the way. We all love and appreciate the hard work our staff does on a weekly basis, and we need their presence and assistance to perform our ministries in and outside the church. We should pay them fairly.

 

* Music and the Arts: The choir is growing both musically and numerically, there are more kids in choristers now than we’ve had in almost a decade, and our visual arts displays are returning to the galleries in the Barbara rooms. And we are just getting started. We want to host more concerts and showcase more artists and bring opportunities for our community to explore its creative side. 

We’ve had a few reminders this year that things cannot operate indefinitely without proper maintenance and attention. The boiler failed rather spectacularly at the first of the year. Two major trees died and one fell over, blocking the sidewalk in the Close. Two of our air conditioners failed in the late part of summer. And now, chunks are missing from the curbs in the parking lot. My friends, if a crumbling sidewalk can teach us anything about where we are as a parish, I would argue that it is this: It is time for us to get our house in order. For too long, we have band-aided broken and outdated infrastructure, cobbled together lesson plans and social activities based on how close they are to free, underfunded our outreach projects, and underpaid our staff or tried to do without necessary staff positions.

 

And my guess is this: Most of us who are here week after week ever think about how slim our financial resources actually are. We walk into the narthex and the lights are on, the bulletins are freshly printed, and the organ is already making beautiful music. We grab a couple donut holes and a cup of coffee and don’t think about the fact that all those things we’ve come to enjoy and expect cost money.

 

As you’re considering what you can give to support All Saints’ next year, here are a couple ways to contextualize your gift. If you would like to think of your gift in terms of a specific budget line item, here is what some of the biggest expenses in our budget cost. An annual pledge of $75,000 ($6,250/month) would cover a staff member’s salary (including all benefits) for the entire year. An annual pledge of $30,000 ($2,500/month) would underwrite the music program and cover the cost of music and paid singers for the entire year. An annual pledge of $7,500 ($625/month) would give us the resources to fund and grow our formation programs for members of all ages.

 

You might look at those numbers and think that there is no way you can give at that level, and that is fine – this next way to think about what you’re able to give applies to you. The number that we need to reach every month to break even and keep everything moving forward is about $85,000. That translates to about $185 per parishioner per month ($2,220 per year). I know seeing that number in writing is likely to produce a variety of responses. Some will look at that number and think to themselves that they can commit to that and then some. Others might feel like they can stretch and at least get close to that number, and some will say that there is no way that their financial situation will allow that right now. Wherever you fall along that continuum, know this: the attitude with which you give is far more important than the amount because we do this as a family. If you’re only able to pledge $10 or $20 a month right now, that is fine – every pledge makes a difference. What we ask is your participation in our family and its financial resources to conduct our ministry to the parish and the world.

 

Thank you for your faithfulness in support of All Saints’ and may God bless you as you commit to helping us grow God’s Kingdom here in North Central Phoenix.

 

 

Peace,

Perry+

 

 

Click here for a 2024 pledge card

to give your financial support for the mission and ministries we are called to do through this holy place. 

Please mail this form to All Saints' at 6300 North Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85012, 

put in the offering plate at any service, bring it to the Church Office, 

or email to Christina Berlinger, our Director of Finance at

cberlinger@allsaintsoncentral.org


or Click here to manage your pledge online with your REALM account



Use Tax Deferred Accounts

for Your Pledge to All Saints’

 

Pay the remainder of your 2023 pledge using tax savings strategies.

 

Retirement Accounts

 

If you have attained the age of 70 ½ when you must take a required minimum distribution (aka, RMD, in investor lingo) from your taxable retirement account(s), you may be able to benefit financially in two ways. You will not have to pay tax on the distribution as taxable income and you may avoid a Medicare-indexed surcharge if your income is higher than the maximum allowed.

 

If you would like to designate All Saints’ Episcopal Church as the recipient (or partial recipient) of this year’s RMD you should contact your financial advisor or the company that holds your retirement investments (such as Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Vanguard – there are many others). Then make a request to have the amount transferred directly from your account to All Saints’ via check. You will be required to provide the All Saints’ tax ID number which is 86-0133389 so they know funds are going to a tax-exempt organization. It is helpful to the church office if we know to look for a check issued on your behalf and to which pledge year it should be applied. We will notify you when it has arrived. You may want to set this up in November or early December so that checks are dated and mailed in a timely manner and received by December 31 because investment companies often get swamped with year-end requests.

 

When you turn age 70 ½, the IRS requires you to take a distribution or pay a 50 percent penalty of the RMD amount. Wouldn’t you prefer to decide how your retirement funds are used than leaving it to the IRS?

 

Gifts of Stock, Bonds or Mutual Funds

 

A second option for giving to All Saints’ is through a gift of individual company stock, bond, mutual fund or other investment that you may have bought or inherited and has increased in value through the years. When donated, you will receive credit in your giving statement for the current market value at the time the stock is transferred to All Saints’. Please contact the church office for the information you will need to give to your financial organization to effect the transfer. It takes three business days from the time the trade is initiated until it shows up in our account.

 

If you have questions, please call or email Christina Berlinger at cberlinger@allsaintsoncentral.org