Every year, St. Peter's embarks on a stewardship campaign that aims to help our parishioners reflect on how God is calling them to steward the resources God has entrusted to them. In 2025, our campaign is titled Tell Out My Soul. Longtime Anglicans will recognize this phrase as the title of Hymn 362 from Common Praise – a rousing hymn inspired by the lines of Mary's Song (the Magnificat – Luke 1:46-55). The lines of the hymn praise God extravagantly, and our stewardship of God's resources is meant to be an outpouring of this worship.
Below you will find a reflection on financial giving to the church – an important aspect of stewardship – written by our wardens. It aims to set the tone for our Stewardship Campaign, which will unfold over the months ahead.
Time, Talent, Treasure: The Act of Giving
Our vision of growing the church, of spreading the Gospel in our neighborhood and beyond, takes resources to grow God’s Kingdom. It takes our time, it takes our talents, it takes our muscles and yes, it takes money.
To paraphrase Esther 4:14, perhaps you have been entrusted with the resources you have for such a time as this.
Giving is not easy. We can make all the tools available, such as pledge cards, automatic bank debit and credit cards, but the final decision is yours. It is yours to make from your heart and in the spirit of love. Each of us is encouraged to reflect on how God is calling us to contribute.
Your church, your community, has fiscal challenges. Your clergy and council are therefore challenged to appeal to the church’s membership and community, in the spirit of love and goodwill.
Yes, we know that this challenge causes each of us to confront the conflicting priorities and pressures within our personal lives, of ongoing basic needs and desires to good in the name of God and of Jesus Christ.
“God loves a cheerful giver,” (2 Corinthians 9:7), but nobody said that you have to be happy about it right away. As Sir Winston Churchill said during World War II, “In finance everything that is agreeable is financially unsound, and everything that is financially sound is disagreeable.”
May the Holy Spirit guide you.