One of the first things that I want to explore with the Parish Leadership, i.e. the Pastoral Council, is what they see as the purpose of our Church endowment.  It is good planning to have a reserve fund for the future.  I have been told that the endowment was created during our 125 ^th anniversary to ensure a Catholic presence on Tybee for the next 125 years.  But to me that seems rather broad.  I think it would help to better define its purpose.  I mean we could use it to maintain a nice Church building for the next 125 years but what good would a building be, if there were not a faith community with a sense of mission using that building.  Without intentional disciples using the Church for the glory of God, the building would simply become a museum.
My mission is to provide our parishioners with the spiritual enrichment and growth to discover God's presence and love in their lives.  I hesitate to share the following because I haven’t heard you hopes and dreams for our faith community yet.  I want to listen to your sense of how God is present with us and what you think might be his will for our faith community.  But let me prime the pump with a few ideas:  

• St. Michael needs involved disciples and I think we are well on our way to having at least 75% of our parish involved in some form of ministry activity.  Part of that ministry activity is always going to be a ministry of hospitality to all the visitors to Tybee.  I have found you to be very welcoming but we can always do better.
• I’d like to see us be good stewards of the resources that God has entrusted to us.  In terms of stewardship of treasure, I think in general there should be only one offertory collection.  Second collections should be taken up for only a few special National Collections, the Mission Co-op, Disaster Relief and perhaps one other charity outside of our parish community.  Everything we need to maintain our buildings and fund our programming should come out of the one offertory collection.
• Gratefully aware that God has blessed us, I’d like to see our faith community designate a percentage of our offertory to charity.  This added to what the Thrift Shop contributes to our Charity Fund should have a board of parishioners who would be responsible for dispensing the monies.  As part of the dispensing, I’d love to see us adopt a Catholic parish or ministry of low resources in a third world country to help in their mission.
• I’d hope the Parishioners of St. Michael would support me in my ministry to priests and our faith community becomes a place of Fraternity for Priests who need a little spiritual, physical, or emotional rest and relaxation
• Whether on our own or with the other Tybee Churches I hope to develop a Spiritual Institute where people of all ages and faiths can come to St. Michael and be drawn deeper into the Mystery of God’s love.

These are just a few of my dreams for us. And what are your dreams for our faith community?   With God’s grace and guidance, I have no doubt that we can accomplish great things as we move forward and ensure a vibrant Catholic presence here on Tybee for years to come.
P.S. On Wednesday I am headed out of town for a quick trip to promote the Jesus Caritas Fraternity to Seminary Spiritual Directors.  My friend, Fr. Michael Hull, will celebrate Mass on Thursday morning and hopefully I’ll be back in town to celebrate the vigil Mass on Saturday.
Fr. Jerry