ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY CATHOLIC COMMUNITY
2640 E. Orange Grove Blvd.
Pasadena, Ca. 91107.
Ph. 626-792-1343
Dear Parishioners,
“Grace to you and peace from God, Our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 1:5)
It has been a surprising eighteen months, since our church doors were closed due to the pandemic. By the grace of God, we are alive to talk about it. As St. Paul would put it, “First, I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for you, because of your faith.” (Rom 1:8)
You have shown the depth of your faith in God by your unwavering participation in our online Masses. As we learn how to manage and improve the live-streaming Masses, you were there with us. You participated in our outdoor Masses, celebrated various sacraments as well as our first Friday Adorations outside. Your participation in our “drive by” style reception of Holy Communion is another demonstration of your faith in what matters to us as a Catholic community. Thank you for your faith in our community which you exemplified by your continuing financial support. You supported the parish financially through various means. For the last three years we have not had a financial discussion. To understand this report, I have included two bar charts to help explain our financial story. Our financial year runs from July 1st to June 30th. It has been a wonderful three years and I am most grateful for your support.
Chart 1 tells the whole story. I have been working with what I was given. As you can see, the income in the last three years has been declining, and we have been cutting expenses to meet this decline in income. There is so much we can cut before it begins to impact services.
Financially, our income was impacted by Covid-19 as chart 2 shows. I thank God we were able to end the year positively, as you can see in bar chart 2. I need to briefly explain a few differences between chart 1 & 2. In 2018/2019 fiscal year, we set aside $225,000 for our deferred maintenance and future needs. For book purposes, when funds are sent to our investment account in the Archdiocese, it is considered an expense. Therefore, our true expense for 2018/2019 fiscal year is the expense amount in chart 2 which is $997,334. It excludes the $225,000 funds invested. The same holds true for the 2020/2021 fiscal year. We set aside $300,000 for our deferred maintenance and future needs. Again, the actual expense would be $766,450:00, minus the funds sent to our investment account.
LOOKING AT 2021 AND 2022 FISCAL YEAR
As we begin this 2021/2022 fiscal year, we do so with a guarded sense of the familiar and with a greater optimism for the days ahead. Yes, the strains of Covid-19 remain, yet each day brings the renewed promise of hope for our Parish community. It is true that we were able to reduce our expenses during Covid-19, however some of those expenses will return. Those expenses are now needed. For example, during the pandemic, we celebrated Masses online and in the parking lot, hence we did not have to spend as much as we use to on electricity and air conditioning. Now that we are back into the church, that expense is back. During the pandemic, we had only three Masses. That meant less expenditures on music, auxiliary priests and cleaning the church. Now those expenses are back. This means that expenses in the 2021/2022 financial year will be higher than in the previous 2020/2021 fiscal year. I pray that you will help us to meet our expenses. I pray you reconsider your budgeted donations and perhaps consider giving more.
CAPITAL PROJECTS
Covid or no Covid, we will continue to improve and maintain our Parish buildings and enhance our liturgical experience. Since we no longer have worship aids in the church and parishioners like to follow the readings and sing along with the cantor, we are going to install a projector system in the church to project the songs and the readings and other relevant information on a screen. We are currently obtaining competitive bids for this project. The feedback from the sound system has being a perennial problem. We hope we can do something this year about it. I have a proposal from a sound engineering company. Lastly, if you remember, we got the result of our feasibility study on Friday, March 13, 2020, and we had planned on publishing the results the weekend of March 22nd, 2020. However, Parishes were closed the prior weekend. We need to revisit the project, but it is difficult to find out the right time to resume the capital campaign. I think this year may be the right time. These are the three things, we hope to accomplish this fiscal year.
OFFICE HOURS
This is something new. The office is now open for four hours on Sundays. Since
parishioners are here for Masses on Sundays, they can take that opportunity to stop by the office and make requests for Mass intentions and handle other business matters. For the summer, the office will be opened from Sunday to Thursday.
If you have any question or concern, please email at Pamin@abvmpasadena.org or call me at 626-792-1343.
Sincerely,
Fr. Michael Ume
Pastor