Saint Andrew’s Net | November 2005 | Vol. XX No. 9 | Page 1

C.S. Lewis once said, “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditures exclude them.”

We are presently entering our stewardship season. I invite you to spend the next two weeks being prayerful about stewardship, and in particular, your pledge. We made great strides last year, and I cannot thank you enough for your generosity. My hope and my dream is that we can continue this trend for the upcoming year. There is much that we can do at Saint Andrew’s, but we need to have a bigger budget. I know that all of us give much to our church, and more importantly, to God, but I ask, “Can we do more?” If you did not pledge last year, I ask, “Can you, now?”

Why do we pledge? I am sure many of us have different answers to that question. For me, the answer lies in a John Wesley quote: “Eternal God, my sovereign Lord, I acknowledge all I am, all I have, is yours. Give me such a sense of your infinite goodness that I may return to you all possible love and obedience.” We are blessed people, and we are called to give out of our obedience. I hope and pray that all of us will be prayerful in this stewardship season.

There are three dates that I hope you will keep in mind during the month of November. Sunday Nov. 6 is All Saints’ Sunday, where we celebrate All Saints Day and remember those who have gone before us; Sunday, Nov. 13 is Saint Andrew’s Day, our patronal feast; and on Sunday, Nov. 20, Bishop Anderson will visiting us and will be doing confirmations on that day. On that Sunday we will be only having one service, at 10 a.m. 

In closing, I would like to say thank you to Debbie Foret and her committee for their incredible ministry in putting together such a wonderful evening at Antenello’s. I would like to also thank all of you who gave so generously at that “Mi Amore, Saint Andrew’s” dinner. God bless you all.

God’s Peace,

Peter