diocesan_appeal

You have probably received by now the letter from our Bishop
regarding the 2009 Annual Diocesan Appeal.
Please read this over prayerfully and bring your
ADA pledge envelope to church next weekend.

In the weeks preceding the Annual Diocesan Appeal Commitment Sunday, we encourage our families to take a Stewardship Review with their own family. What blessings has God bestowed on our fmaily this past year? Have we been returning the first fruits of our labor back to the Lord? Do we budget God first? We have asked that our people try the St. Paul the Apostle Three-Way Giving Plan. If you have been working towards the Biblical Tithe, this would mean a gift of 5% of your income would go to your church and the other 5% would go to other charities. We have asked that you consider among your other charities 1% of your income to our parish's diocesan needs (the Annual Diocesan Appeal) and 2% of your income to our parish's educational ministries. On your church envelope, you will see the Church square for your church contribution and the School square for your gift to our Educational Ministries. Your gift to the Annual Diocesan Appeal is done by subscritption on the last weekend in September. (You can use the easy pay plan for you Annual Diocesan Appeal gift with five-pay periods.)

We can also divide you gift according to the Three-Way Giving Plan through our Electronic Transfer Church contributions. Your gifts to the Annual Diocesan Appeal and gifts directly to our Educational Ministries are not taxed by the Dioceese in figuring our parishes. Our parish has the highest goal among all the other parishes in our Diocese for the Annual Diocesan Appeal ($136,610.00); (16.18% of the Diocesan Goal Base.) Your direcet gift to our Educational Ministries has enable us to dreatically reduce our parish's subsidies to St. Paul the Apostle School and Assumption High School.

One easy way of budgeting God in first is through our Electronic Transfer Church contributions. If you need a new application to revise your current transfer, check with the Parish Business Office. This year, you can also pay with the use of your credit card. Some will experience a salary increase and therefor will be able to increase their gifts; others will find that their income has gone down, so their proportional gift to the church would also go down. We understand these difficult econmic times. Please remember that through our own parish tithing of our Church envelopes, all Diocesan collections are now being by our St. Paul the Apostle Charity Fund. How much will you share with the Lord this coming year starting in October?

Our next picture taking for our Centennial Parish Directory will be in the first three weeks of October, Tuesdays-Fridays, 2:30-9:30 P.M. and on Saturdays, 10:00 A.M.-3:00 P.M. We are now signing up in the Gathering Space after Masses a n d on our Parish Web S i t e (www.stpaulcatholicdavenport.org).

St. Paul the Apostle School remains the largest Catholic elementary school in the Iowa Quad Cities boasting 534 students (preschool through Eighth Grade). We welcome our new Principal, Mrs. Julie Delaney.

The water color prints of our church by Tim Solbrig sell for $7.50 (11x14”) and $20.00 (18x24”)

Parish Centennial Memorabilia

We still will be offering various memorabilia for our Parish Centennial at the Altar and Rosary Society Bazaar on Sunday, November 21 and 22. They also are available at the Church Office during office hours. The pewter ornaments that can be used on your Christmas tree or placed on your bookshelf with a nice holder have been very popular. They sell for $18.00 and the stands sell for $2.00. We have commissioned a water color of our church by Bettendorf Art Teacher, Tim Solbrig. The 18x24” print sells for $20.00 and the 11x14” print sells for $7.50. We still have a few of the very popular “Praying with St. Paul” from Magnificat that retails for $12.00 and we have been selling for $6.00.

Our Centennial Parish Pictorial Directory which will come at the end of our Centennial Year this December will be a treasure that you will want to keep. Picture taking will take place in October, 2009. Get your picture taken, receive an 8x10 portrait and get the special Centennial edition of our Parish Pictorial Directory free of charge.

The “Praying with St. Paul” book is specially priced at $6.00

The pewter ornament sells for $18.00 and stand sells for $2.00