What are we grateful for?
The St. Elisabeth’s community enjoys abundant blessings—a beautiful and engaging place to live, satisfying ways to provide for our families, opportunities for continued personal, professional and spiritual growth, a welcoming and vibrant faith community. God’s gifts in our lives are evident at every turn.
God is calling St. Elisabeth’s
- To Journey into new opportunities and build on our strengths during this year of transition when we will be Calling a New Rector
- To Build a Community of Faith within our red doors through interactive Sunday worship and extraordinary music that engages all generations; worship, reflection and shared meals during special occasions in the Church Year; providing space for dialogue and focus groups that deepen and broaden our interfaith, anti-racism, multicultural ministries and welcome and engage all people; spiritual formation opportunities and seasonal forums, Sunday School; Spiritual Direction, Book Group, an inviting Labyrinth and place for meditation; social/fellowship events such as parish picnics, tailgate parties, pumpkin carving, Advent wreath making, concerts and spontaneous gatherings.
- To Radiate God’s Love within and beyond
our Red Doors bybuilding community as we prepare lunches and
prepare and serve dinner for the Evanston Interfaith Soup Kitchen;
(Creating and Hosting an LGBTQ Pride Fest – celebrating the diversity of God’s creation with groups who have been oppressed; Preparing and donating Christmas presents and meals for families served by ReVive; Co-hosting with St. Augustine’s Wilmette temporarily homeless children and families served by Family Promise; providing a home for Glencoe Montessori School, Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, 12-Step Programs; Offering a Pet Blessing Service; providing outdoor space where people can play, pause to meditate and reflect, sit and read.
- To Ensure a Strong Foundation for the Future by preserving and updating our property as a center for gathering our community, welcoming friends and strangers, and moving beyond our red doors to radiate God’s love in the wider community; ensuring that our buildings and grounds are attractive and well maintained, reflecting our desire to be a hospitable and inviting place for all.
Stewardship
A steward is responsible for the oversight and protection of something worth caring for and preserving. It means caring for your body, your relationships, your work, your play, your community, your environment, your heart and mind and soul—not as rights or guarantees owed you—but as gifts given freely to you by a generous God.
To be a steward of St. Elisabeth’s means making a personal thanksgiving offering to God in the form of a recorded financial pledge to the work of God through this church. It means taking the journey into generosity as the path to spiritual maturity. It means choosing to live with the open hands of gratitude.
Where does the money come from?
St. Elisabeth’s relies on its membership for all financial support. There are no external sources of funding.
Where does the money go?
What are the goals of the 2020 Stewardship Campaign?
For the last few years, St. Elisabeth’s has been working toward becoming fiscally self-sufficient, each year raising all of the funds that it needs to be self-supporting. Relying on an endowment to “fill the gaps” in the budget is no longer an option.
The vestry has established a goal for the Stewardship Campaign of $300,000, the operating budget of the parish. This translates into an average pledge of $6000 for each family or pledging unit in our church community.
What is proportional giving?
Proportional giving is simply committing to give a specific percentage of your annual income to the work of your church. The Episcopal Church has the wonderful language of “striving to tithe,” or moving incrementally toward the 10% Biblical standard of giving.
We ask respectfully that you take this year’s annual campaign as seriously as we all take God’s call to demonstrate his love in our actions.
Determining what to pledge
There is no ”correct” way to come up with a pledge amount for you and for your family. However, there are some questions to ask yourself as you consider the amount that feels right:
- What is my current pledge as
a percentage of my income?
- Does this reflect God’s generosity in my life?
- Does this reflect the importance of St. Elisabeth’s in my life?
- What did I pledge in 2019?
- How might I consider “striving to tithe” by increasing this amount by one percent of my annual income?
- Do I feel good about this pledge commitment?
Four Easy Ways to Fulfill your Pledge
- Check: Simply place your check in the offering plate or in one of the envelopes that the church provides and pay weekly or monthly, your choice.
- Online Donation: LINK HERE
- Credit Card through Online Donation: LINK HERE
- Appreciated Stock Transfer: This is a great way to fulfill your pledge, especially if you have held the stock for more than a year. Contact the church office, and we will send you details of how to pay your pledge this way.
Thank You!