Capital Campaign

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Praise God for continuing to work mightily in our midst as we grow in Him and in His grace! If you didn’t get a chance to attend our encouraging quarterly Parish update meeting last Sunday, you can watch a recording here, and the handouts are available on the church website Parish Hall Campaign page. Reports included finances overall and capital campaign, progress on the new Parish Hall, making the best use of our current buildings, and highlights of our current ministries including foreign and local missions, children’s education, and neighborhood fellowship groups. 

Please let any member of the Vestry know if you have questions or ideas on how we can better serve the Lord with you.

Your Senior Warden,
Steve Mouton

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I would like to take this opportunity to  provide a brief update to the information that was communicated during the parish update on July 21st. By the grace of God and your generosity, as it stands today, the Capital Campaign for the new Parish Hall has received $478,488 in total pledges over three years, with $167,609 of that number having already been donated. We are in the process of exploring potential financing options, including the REC-backed Looney-Hoffman Fund. The Vestry, Building, and Capital Campaign Committees are committed to ensuring strong communication with the congregation remains top of mind, so in between quarterly updates, please reach out with any questions or concerns as we continue on this journey.

Yours In Christ,

Jack Curtis
Treasurer/Capital Campaign Committee Chairman

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Praise God for continuing to work mightily in our midst as we grow in Him and in His grace! Among those who are joining us, we are blessed to welcome our new Assistant Minster, Father Eric Parker, and his family beginning in August. In our last meeting, the Vestry took stock of our growth and discussed how to provide the needed space for the nursery and an additional Sunday School class beginning in the fall, as well as better use of the space on the balcony for our corporate worship. We’ll keep you informed as we work to address these immediate needs.

We also were encouraged to hear of the overwhelming success of the capital campaign for the new parish hall, and thank God for your sacrificial giving and pledges to provide a space for growing in our parish life and outreach to our community. Please plan to attend our Parish meeting this Sunday from 9:15 – 10:00 where we’ll receive a quarterly financial update from Treasurer Jack Curtis and hear the results of the capital campaign. I’ll also provide a brief update on where we stand on the parish hall, and thank you all for your helpful feedback on its concept design. I hope to see you there!

For more information on the Vestry meetings, please see the minutes posted in a binder in the cottage. And as always, please let any member of the Vestry know how we can better serve the Lord with you.

Your Senior Warden,
Steve Mouton

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Praise God for His mighty working in our midst. We are blessed to have had 20 confirmations of all ages and 2 individuals received during our Bishop’s recent visit, with four weddings planned for this summer!

As noted in our Annual Parish Meeting last Sunday, we thank outgoing Vestry members Susan Herbert, Mary Jo Rigby, and Kelly Smith-Moore as they complete their three-year terms, and welcome newly elected Vestry members Bob Dryden, Bob Eliot, and Kelly-Smith Moore who is returning for a second term. In the meeting we also received encouraging reports from from Fr. Jonathan and our Treasurer, Sean Reeves. The new Vestry will elect all of its officers for one-year terms when we next meet on June 1.

Now that the Capital Campaign for the proposed Parish Hall has begun, please check out the capital campaign page on the church website for more information, including FAQs. 

As always, please let any member of the Vestry know how we can better serve the Lord with you.

Your Senior Warden,
Steve Mouton

The Vestry, Capital Campaign, and Building Committees are blessed to continue the efforts to make the proposed Rev. Elijah B. White III Parish Hall a reality for our parish family. This is a friendly reminder that our ability to determine the next steps is incumbent on the feedback received from the congregation, so please provide your pledge forms as soon as you are able, no later than July 1. Thus far, we have already received $300K in pledges – Praise the Lord! 

If you have any specific questions or comments, please reach out and email them to: [email protected] .

Launch of Capital Funds Campaign and Parish Hall Meeting – Sunday, April 28th 

An all-parish meeting will take place during the Sunday School hour beginning at 9:15 a.m. where the Capital Campaign Committee will officially be kicking off the pledge campaign for the proposed parish hall. A question and answer session will follow the presentation. We want to encourage all of our members to attend if possible. Priority will be given to those who have mailed in their questions prior to Sunday at the following address: [email protected].

This meeting will be live-streamed on our YouTube Channel. For more information about live-streaming, please visit our website oursaviouroatlands.org

Please be in prayer as we move forward and seek the Lord’s guidance.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Last Sunday the Vestry hosted a special Parish Meeting to present our proposal for a new Parish Hall. Here’s an overview of key points, in case you couldn’t be there.

The purpose of the meeting was two-fold. First, to share the proposal we’ve developed since 2022 with input from the Building and Capital Campaign committees. And second, to initiate a period of communications with all the congregation on the proposal before any decision is made to build.

In the presentation we reflected on our spiritual challenge, the importance of our Parish life, and our remarkable growth—giving has nearly doubled our income for the past two years, and the average Sunday attendance has nearly tripled since 2020. Notably, we have 42 children who are under the age of 13, and there are 19 children who are five years old and younger. Last year we celebrated two weddings, and this year we anticipate four!

Next, we received a presentation of the proposed new multi-purpose Parish Hall, estimated to cost $1.5 million to build, with explanations and Q&A on the concept design with our architect Karl Riedel and members of the Vestry and committees. We wrapped up with a tentative overall timeline and encouraging news from the Capital Campaign committee—we have already received donations and pledges for the building totaling more than $260k and the campaign to raise finances doesn’t begin until April 28th. Plus, we have a healthy amount in our general operating fund through your generous giving and our collective stewardship.

The concept design for the new building is not yet finalized—we welcome your input and recommendations for improvements. Please contact your Vestry members or members of the supporting committees or submit questions or comments to [email protected]. We have two more Parish Meetings scheduled: one on April 14th at 9:15 am which will include a Q&A session, and one on April 28th focused on finances and the kick-off of the capital campaign.

Although the Vestry unanimously supports the proposal and has given or pledged funds for its construction, no decision has yet been made to build. That will involve prayer, support from the Parish in the coming days, and a successful capital campaign to finance the construction.

As always, please let any member of the Vestry know how we can better serve the Lord with you.

Your Senior Warden,
Steve Mouton

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The Vestry met last week and I wanted to share three key takeaways with you. 

We will hold a special Parish Meeting on March 17 during the 9:15 Sunday School hour to share with you what the Vestry and the building and capital campaign committees have been doing toward our goal to build a new Parish Hall. We hope you can be there to learn about this exciting development, and we appreciate your patience as we work to provide more room for our growing Parish life. 

Secondly, to help improve our communications—especially on Parish finances—we’ve asked Treasurer Sean Reeves to provide a short financial update each quarter of the year at the beginning of the 9:15 Sunday School hour. We will announce these updates in advance and encourage everyone from both services to be there to be better informed about the Vestry’s stewardship of our finances while reflecting on God’s provision through your faithful giving.

Thirdly, the Vestry considered minor revisions of our existing bylaws recommended by our Bylaws Committee to better align with the recently published Diocese model bylaws. After discussion, the Vestry decided to table the revisions and continue using our existing bylaws. 

For more details on our monthly Vestry meetings, I encourage you to review the minutes regularly posted in the Cottage and now also in the Narthex. Please let any member of the Vestry know how we can better serve the Lord with you.

Your Senior Warden,
Steve Mouton