Dear SJF/OLC Pastorate Friends,
As many of you heard, my dad, Walter Hook, passed away on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022 after a brief illness. He was 91 years old and had been with my sister on vacation in Florida when he took ill. We were able to hire a medical transport to return him to Baltimore so his family was able to see him before he passed. I would like to thank everyone for your prayers and your words of condolence to me and my family during this difficult time. I would also like to thank Fr. Mike Triplett and Fr. Chris Dudek for covering my Masses for me at St Jane’s last week. I am very sorry that I was not with you but know both parishes are in my daily thoughts and prayers.
This weekend is Commitment Weekend for Our Path Forward, our annual Stewardship program. As
always, I am extremely grateful for your generous support of our pastorate parishes. I wanted to give you a brief update on our actual Offertory Income contributions for the first quarter of this current fiscal year (July 1–Sept. 30, 2022). Total Offertory Income at St Jane Frances is DOWN 10.8% (or $19,851) over the same period last year (from $183,698 in 2021 to $163,847 in 2022). Total Offertory Income for Our Lady of the Chesapeake is UP 4.0% (or $6,759) over the same period last year (from $167,314 in 2021 to $174,073 in 2022). We would be unable to offer the programs and services we do without your support – both volunteering of your time as well as your financial contributions, so thank you!
This weekend, you will find in the pews the 2022 Our Path Forward information and commitment card.
Hopefully you have taken some time this past week to prayerfully consider how your commitment to our parish’s offertory income can empower a positive transformation in our pastorate community of faith and fulfill our call to extend Christ’s light into the world. You are asked to complete the commitment card, detach it, and return it to the parish through the offertory collection basket. You may also take the commitment card home and return it next weekend.
Both OLC and St Jane Frances offer online giving options that help make your offertory commitment
more regular while still offering you the flexibility to made changes as needed. (I am signed up to give my donations online at both parishes, and I love the ease and flexibility.) To set up online giving for either parish or to update your current level of online giving, go to www.opfaob.com and select your parish. Offertory gifts to St. Jane Frances are called “Parish Care Pledge” and offertory gifts to OLC are called “Stewardship Commitment.” Thank you for your gifts to our pastorate parishes!
Thank you for keeping us in your daily prayers as we certainly do for each of you!
God Bless,
Father Steve
