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January 6, 2023My primary goal at the Parish Town Hall Meeting this Sunday is to listen to you. I’m moving towards retirement, so in some ways I don’t have “a dog in the hunt.” I need to hear what is important to you as a member of our faith community. I’ll leave the Building and Grounds Committee and the Finance Council to take the lead on explaining where we stand on building a columbarium and how such a project will impact parish finances.
There doesn’t seem to be much opposition to the idea of a columbarium being added to the Grotto area. No one has spoken against it to me, and several parishioners have told me they are in favor of it. There was great disappointment, when in the Winter of 2018, on the eve of Phil Stevenson’s funeral, Bishop Hartmayer told us that we could not use the Memorial Garden to bury cremated remains. There’s been a desire for a resolution of this issue ever since. In fact, we are already holding the cremated remains of four people in a secure place in Church with the hope that they will be able to be inurned in a columbarium next to St. Michael Church. After hearing some of the details of the plan, I’d be surprised if we couldn’t reach agreement on moving forward, but it is a rather expensive undertaking, so I think we do well to talk it out.
Both at Memorial Park and All Saints Episcopal there are options for the burial of cremains,
but the burial sites are unmarked, and Catholic theology is uneasy with such a practice since we believe that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and one day our soul will be reunited with our resurrected body. If a Catholic chooses cremation, the Church requires reverent disposition of the ashes. The Vatican says the ashes must be treated in the same way a body would be. The ashes are to be kept in a sacred place, the Church says, not in one's home, scattered, or divided among family members. A columbarium provides a sacred place next to our Church for the inurnment of one’s ashes.
If we do decide to move forward, perhaps the more difficult discussion will be around the financing of the project. The building of 108 niches (each niche holds two urns) will cost anywhere from $175,000 to $225,000. At the Town Hall meeting I’ll ask the Finance Council to give an overview of our financial situation. I believe we have enough funds to cover the costs of construction. Since the columbarium is an improvement of the parish grounds, I’d like to see the faith community subsidize part of the project so that each niche would sell for between $1,500 and $2,500. Of course, we won’t be deciding on exact figures at the meeting.
What I hope we can decide on is a rewrite of our Endowment document. There is a very strong sentiment among a few of the parish leaders that all the gains from the endowment should be reinvested in the endowment. I get that. At a young age, my father, Daniel J Ragan, CPA, taught me how money grows (the rule of 72). But no one has ever been able to explain to me the ultimate “why” of the endowment. It is a wonderful legacy that Fr. Tom Peyton left to this faith community, but in my opinion, it needs to be more clearly defined. The stated purpose of the Endowment is so broad, “keeping a Catholic Church on Tybee for the next 125 years,” that one can make a case for just about any expenditure. I believe we can avoid conflict in the future, if in managing the funds of the Endowment, we had a clearer definition of how the funds might be used. Otherwise, we are setting our parish up for difficulties down the road.
The Spirituality of Stewardship is important to the future of any parish. Giving back to God for the many blessings that God has bestowed on us is foundational to any vibrant faith community. I think I’ve failed in my duties as pastor to adequately teach this principal. And yet, I think in the past five and a half years through the sharing of your time, talent, and treasure, we have been able to do so many wonderful things. One of them was the addition of the front plaza, which was partially funded from some of the gains to the Endowment. I would say this was a good use of parish resources, but again I think it is time to get a clearer definition of the purpose of the Endowment.
Taking the Gospel Home: How are you like the magi? Do you have "stars" in your life that lead you on the right path to Jesus? Who or what are they?
