Dear Friends in Christ:

Thank you for the many gifts you have shared with the community of St. Francis Episcopal Church. Recently, you received your Second Quarter 2015 Statement of Financial Stewardship. We would like to share examples of the blessings that your mission-driven stewardship have provided within St. Francis and to our mission to the large.

In addition to our ongoing Community Mission Support of Dismas Farm, the Mustard Seed, Central Mass Housing Alliances' Hope for Housing and other local ministries, your support has provided for Tom and Dianne Wilson, our Missionaries in El Maizal, El Salvador.

Within our Parish, we are pleased to have welcomed Matthew Haynes as our Youth Minister. We've hired a Nursery Worker for the Sunday 10 AM Service to supplement our volunteers.   This allows parents and grandparents to participate in our Corporate Worship knowing that our children will be with caring individuals that they will see week upon week. The Men's Ministry has continued to put their time and talents to provide "handy man assistance" to those within the Parish and Community who otherwise could not have afforded it.

Your financial Stewardship helped us to contend with a particularly challenging winter, keeping the grounds plowed and shoveled, salted and sanded. We also have had to do upgrades to the electrical system to meet newer safety standards.

At St. Francis, we have been blessed with an abundance of gifts and talents. As Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori has stated, "The fundamental reason for all acts of stewardship is...gratitude for theabundance we have been given."  

With gratitude for the gifts you have shared,

St. Francis Stewardship Team