April 29, 2006
My Dear Parishioners,
Over the past few years, some of you have stopped me in the back of church or called the Parish Office to suggest that I find a way for parishioners to contribute to the parish electronically. Many of you already pay your household bills electronically. About one third of you who contribute to the Diocesan Development Fund (DDF) use the electronic option of making your pledges. The parish staff has forwarded many voice mails and emails to me—all requesting electronic contributions.
I asked Deacon Millard Kizzia, our parish finance director, to see what other parishes in Tulsa are doing. Deacon Millard did the research. He contacted our bank and set up the accounts to allow for electronic contributions. It took about a year to complete all of the paperwork and to make the preparations for this program to begin. Deacon Millard was very diligent to make sure that our program will be easy to use and safe to use.
We launched the program in late February. As of today, there are less than a dozen of you who are participating. It is mildly amusing that we had more requests for electronic contributions than we have participants.
Some of you do not wish to participate because you are uncomfortable with the idea of electronic contributions. I can promise you that it is very safe—safer, probably, than carrying a check in your pocket.
Others have made the valid point that there is something special about placing your Sunday offering in the collection basket at church. Offering your gifts to God in His Cathedral is important. If you choose to use the electronic contribution program, you will have to become comfortable knowing that you are still, of course, making your offering to God, although it happens automatically within your bank rather than at church.
I encourage all of you to consider using our new system. I know that our money counters—those men and women who count our Sunday collection each week—will be grateful.
In the Risen Lord,
Msgr. Gregory A. Gier
Rector