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From Our Parish Advisory Council

At Father Jack's request, Mrs. Kim Jordan spoke to our parishioners at the October 2nd and 3rd, 2004 weekend Masses.  So many parishioners requested copies of her talk that we decided to publish it in the weekly bulletin and also on our parish website.

Good Morning.

As Father Jack has told you, my name is Kim Jordan.  I am a member of the St. John Parish Family and am honored to be on the Pastoral Advisory Council.

I am also a new Catholic.  Through the RCIA program at St. John, I converted to Catholicism in 2002.

The reason I am speaking to you this morning is because, like you, I have a vested interest in the future of this community.  At the beginning of our parish's fiscal year, Fr. Jack talked to us about the financial difficulty we are currently facing.  Unfortunately, there was little response to Father's request for an increase in our financial stewardship.  At that time, Father Jack stated the fact that we needed to increase our weekly donations to $5,500.  This has not happened.

I thought Father was very clear when he spoke about justice to our excellent staff.  I know that all of us believe in a just and living wage for those who work.  Further, he told us about the many costs we incur over which there is little to no control.  Electricity costs what it costs.  Heating fuel costs what it costs - as does property insurance, postage and so on.

In those areas of the parish budget where the staff can exercise control — books, telephone, maintenance, and so on — costs are down substantially.  But these cuts alone are not enough to make up for the budget deficits.

What is sad, but unfortunately true, is that there is no where to look for help in these matters.  We, the parishioners, have the financial burden of keeping our parish alive.  The Archdiocese of Chicago has its own problems and is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.  Their answer to their budget crisis is to close parishes.  They would not think twice about closing St. John if we cannot be self-supporting.

Some of you might be thinking, we do not really have a problem because we have $120,000 in savings.  But look at it this way, if we tap the savings account for $30,000 a year to meet a deficit, the savings that were hard earned over our 100 year history becomes nothing but a four year band-aid.  I am sure that I am not alone when I tell you that I do not want to see that happen.

I would like to tell you my story.  After a personal spiritual search that lasted all of my adult life, I finally came to realize that the Catholic faith was what I had bee searching for.  My husband — who had been raised Catholic but was non-practicing for many years — and I decided together to contact one of the local Catholic Churches, seeking instruction for me and for our then 17-year-old son, as well as reinstatement to the Church for Mike.  I made the call.

I am sorry to say that the reception I received at that parish was less than cordial.  After explaining my situation to the church secretary, I was essentially given the brush-off.  She took my name, address and phone number and advised me that I would receive written materials concerning RCIA in the mail.  I am still waiting for that letter.

I waited for a time before contacting another church.  This time, I was told that my situation was too complicated and they would not be able to assist me.

I told my husband that I would make one more call before I concluded that God did not really want me to be a Catholic.  Luckily, my third call was to St.  John's, where I was immediately put through to Jamae Myers.  We had a wonderful conversation, we laughed a lot and I felt welcomed.  Before I hung up, I had an appointment to meet with her about RCIA.

When I came in the next week, I met Father Jack and the rest of the staff.  Paperwork was started for my annulment, I had all the information I needed about RCIA and I was ready to officially begin the conversion process.

I was in RCIA with my husband and our son for one year.  I made my Profession of Faith at Easter Vigil 2003, received Holy Eucharist and was confirmed.  My son was welcomed into the Faith and made his Sacraments and my husband, Mike, was welcomed back into the Faith and received Holy Communion that night.  Father Jack blessed our marriage the following month.

As you can tell from my story, I do have a vested interest in the future of this particular Catholic church, St. John.  The warmth of the people of our parish, the feeling of family, the integrity of our Parish staff combine to make worshiping at St. John Church a singularly wonderful experience.

We have the Sacraments available to us and twenty-three ministries and organizations available to us where we can use our talents and our gifts to serve the Lord.  We have educational programs such as the CCD and the RCIA that are extraordinary.  We are given many opportunities for spiritual growth — from the morning Rosary Group to the Monday evening Eucharistic Adoration.  This parish is a source of solace to the community in times of trouble.  Through our food programs and Christmas Giving Tree programs, we have an opportunity to help families afflicted with divorce, job lay-offs, sickness and so on.

We are a beacon of hope to our surrounding community, with so many positive possibilities at our doorstep…  with new homes being built in Glenwood, the promise of railroad commuter service to the Loop, maybe a casino and an airport bringing the possibility of new jobs, and with property values on the rise.  Glenwood and the surrounding communities seem to be the place to be.  All of these things will have a positive impact on our parish.

But, in order to take advantage of all these opportunities, we must keep our doors open now.  And, here is what we must do immediately to ensure that happens:

First, each of us must reconsider the amount of money we are putting in our Sunday envelope.  If we are not using a Sunday envelope, we must begin.  The Sunday envelope collection is the mainstay of every parish.  We must do better.  We are not talking about huge increases in you giving.  If you increased your donation each week by the cost of one Starbucks coffee or one movie ticket or one gallon of milk, we would no longer have a financial problem at St. John.

The second thing we must do is to support the fund raisers the parish might have.  We all expect to receive our "turkey shoot" tickets sometime in late October or early November.  Each family receives six tickets.  These tickets sell of $10 apiece or three for $25, or 6 for $50.  Either buy or sell all six of your tickets.  Last year, the parish made $6,000 on the turkey shoot.  If all of us buy our tickets or sell them to our friends, we can double the profit on this fund raiser.

Third, and this is the hardest one, it is time for all of us to become a force in our community to encourage and invite the non-attending and non-contributing members of our community to return to the practice of their faith.  We cannot afford to be silent about the good that we can accomplish if we truly behave like the Body of Christ that we profess to be.

To conclude, when I started college many years ago, all of the incoming students were gathered together in the auditorium.  The speaker told each one of us to look to our left and to our right.  After we did this curious exercise, he then informed us that the chances were great that, at the end of four years, at least one of those people would not be sitting there.  I ask you this morning/afternoon, to look not only to your right and to your left but above you, beneath you, in front of you and all around you and imagine what your life would be like if St. John Church did not exist.  The decision is completely up to us.  The Stewardship Committee, the Parish Council, the Parish staff and our pastor, Father Jack, are all convinced that by making a few positive changes now, we can safeguard our church; but, we need to adjust our contributions now.  Thank you.