Dear Parishioners, Glory to the Lord:
In recent years we have witnessed and participated in major events in our community in Calgary; The purchase of the new land, construction of our Church and the completion of the landscape surrounding the Church. We believe that each of you is proud of what has been accomplished. In the near future, God willing, we are planning to fresco paint the Church and build a new building south of the parking lot. The type and purpose of the building will depend on the decision you all make at a special General Assembly to be held at an undetermined date, as well as the financial ability of the Church.
As you all know, all the work that has been completed so far has cost us about 5.5 million dollars. Naturally, this means that the Church accounts have been largely depleted. The costs of maintaining our property have doubled in comparison to our old church and revenues, excluding the Building Fund, have remained the same. This is the additional burden to our accounts and it will be very difficult to remain afloat financially. To share some details, our total yearly operational costs in the old church were approximately $100,000. In contrast, our new church costs are somewhere in the vicinity of $200,000 when factoring in loan repayment. The church would like to appeal to you for help in repaying this loan, which totals $550,000.
There are several options you could choose if you decide to contribute:
- A regular monthly contribution of your choice, symbolically named “Dollar a Day”
($30.00 or more a month), which can be done by post-dated cheques or via PayPal
- A special one-time donation of ($365.00 or more)
- Some other way which suits you ($365 or more)
The campaign officially starts on January 1. 2015 year of Our Lord.
All contributions will be duly filed and at the end of the year official tax receipt will be issued. After receipt of at least $365 in payment, every contributor will automatically receive the rights enjoyed by members of our Church Congregation:
- Rent of the church premises (member-$600/non-member-$1,000)
- Wedding services (member-$200/non-member-$400)
- Funeral services (member-$200/non-member-$400)
Those who wish to become members entitled to vote at the General Meeting and the ability to be elected to the Board of Directors would also need to fill out the attached application and present it to the Board of Directors. The Board will consider such requests at its first session after the receipt.
The members of the Board, along with our priest, will be the first to contribute and participate in this appeal. We consider it an honour and our duty to our magnificent Church to help maintain the entire property in a way which is befitting to community such as ours.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for all the selfless help which you have bestowed upon our community in the past few years, it has helped our Church tremendously and made everything we’ve achieved so far possible. We believe that our new Church is reflective of the serious, dedicated and honourable community we are.
We believe that the future decades and centuries will show how important the moment we decided to purchase the land and raise the Church on it truly was. The Church will stand as a physical reminder and witness of our time and will have a positive impact on future generations.
Thank you for participating so far and we hope that you will always feel that the Church and community are yours and a part of your home and family.
The mailing address of the church is:
St. Simeon Serbian Church
16025 243 Avenue East
Foothills, AB, T1S 4C3
Canada
The Board of Directors of Church School Congregation of St. Simeon Mirotocivi
Father Obrad Filipovic
Membership Application Form for our Church Congregation you can find here in Serbian and in English