Hello St. Columba’s Family,

Thank you to all those who contributed to the listening sessions about our proposed 2024 budget. The attendance, input, and prayers are all appreciated, and your feedback was present during the Bishop’s Committee budget meetings.

To that end and in the continued spirit of transparency, your Bishop Committee approved the 2024 budget. A notable change involves reducing Mother Meghan’s hours to 80% time. With this reduction in her hours, along with other budget adjustments, we project a $53,000 deficit that will be covered by the Rainy-Day Fund. This was not a decision we came to lightly and approving this change to Mother Meghan’s time brings no joy, in many ways it felt like admitting defeat. This decision boiled down to the Bishop’s Committee attempt to balance the following factors:

• Stewardship of the St. Columba’s congregation
• Stewardship of our vicar Mother Meghan and her family
• Stewardship of our Rainy-Day Fund
• The unfortunate reality of economics and inflation

We know that there will be hurt, anger, fears, doubts, and questions about this decision (many shared by the Bishop’s Committee). We on the Bishop’s Committee want to emphasize that we are here to listen to and address your concerns. We will be represented at the Annual Meeting on February 4^th where the 2024 budget will be front and center and are willing to discuss this leading up to that meeting. The primary reasons for approving this budget are as follows:

• A portion of Mother Meghan’s office work and non-pastoral care will be performed by other paid staff.
• Mother Meghan proposed this change so that St. Columba can maintain other important ministries without her family being negatively impacted. 
• We felt it disingenuous to you, the congregation, to approve a budget with Mother Meghan at full time with a very real risk that her hours might need to be reduced during the year. Had we chosen to keep her hours at full time and a reduction was required later in the year, it would need to be greater than the current 20% and would impact Mother Meghan’s eligibility for student loan forgiveness.
• The Rainy-Day Fund was created to deal with the emergency needs of our congregation. The Rainy-Day Fund has a current balance of $140,000 due in large part to a single bequest.  The reduction of Mother Meghan’s hours to 80% reduces the budget deficit (and requirement from the fund) from approximately $80,000 to $53,000.
• The boon of government assistance during the pandemic era is gone, though inflation and wage stagnation are ever present. St. Columba’s is not the only church/organization/non-profit suffering from this financial squeeze, and we do not expect to resolve the resources needed to support our ministries in a calendar year.
• We felt it unfair to ask you, our congregation, to open your pockets wider to prevent a reduction in hours.

While this is not the budget news the Bishop’s Committee wished to share and not the news you may want to hear; it is not without hope or optimism. This last year St. Columba’s has seen a huge transition, with Mother Meghan becoming our vicar after the departure of Mother Alissa. Incredibly, and against most norms, our church has not just weathered this transition, we have continued to flourish. New ministries have started to sprout at St. Columba’s with the addition of the Robotics Club (led by Craig DeVine), One Parish One Prisoner, and the Feminism for Men class (led by Mike Handy and Luke Abernathy). St. Columba’s is a beautiful place that thrives in the ways that matter. If care, love, acceptance, tolerance, and community could pay the bills, we would never have to worry. 

This letter is more than just a public announcement of unfavorable information, it is also a call for help.  Mother Meghan and the Bishop’s Committee cannot shoulder this alone, and many hands make light work. The 2024 Bishop’s Committee will continue to face this struggle head on and will work to find ways to work towards reducing and/or eliminating our deficit. It is easy to focus on the treasure in our world when time and talent are often richer and more valuable by all other measures. On the road ahead we will encounter struggles and hardships, but we look forward to going through them with you and growing together as the body of Christ.

In God’s service and yours,

The St Columba’s Bishops Committee

Carmen Olfert-Senior Warden 

Jean-Paul Yafali- Junior Warden

Helen Bell

Rod Blalock

Kim Bobbitt

Micah Kurtz

Stephen Olfert

Dean Mielke-Treasurer 

Susan Wilkes-Secretary