At the recent November meeting, Vestry continued to discuss how we can best fulfill our church goals of solid administration, meaningful worship, enlightening Christian education, healthy fellowship and evangelism that shares the Gospel in word and deed. To be a healthy church we need to thrive in all these areas.
As usual, the Treasurer provided a financial report . The 2018 budget will present challenges but with good stewardship and a solid finish for 2017 we can be successful. The Christmas auction and year end gifts are vital in the life of our church.
As I reported in November, Trinity has decided to transition the endowment to the financial management of the Trustees of the Funds (TOTF). The Trustees of the Funds is a related organization of the Diocese of Virginia and provides its services to Episcopal churches and entities in all three of the dioceses within Virginia. Overseen by an elected board of trustees, TOTF currently serves nearly 150 churches and organizations with the management of almost $140 million in assets. The Trustees will manage our endowment in trust for us and Trinity will retain the same legal control over the endowment that it has today. Vestry and appropriate committees will continue to monitor the endowment’s performance. This was a significant decision and one that was undertaken after a great deal of due diligence and consideration by both the Endowment Committee and the Finance Committee. The chief executive officer of the Trustees of the Funds, Mike Kerr, will be at Trinity at 9:30 on December 10, 2017 to make a presentation and answer any questions you may have. I urge you to attend. It remains important that we continue to increase the size of our endowment for the long term maintenance of our campus and the fulfillment of our mission.
The Christmas season is always a wonderful time in the life of our congregation. It is also a season that can bring many visitors to Trinity. Vestry has been discussing steps we can take to make visitors feel even more welcome when they arrive on our campus and walk through our doors. Let’s all make a special effort to warmly greet the visitors that will be among us as we worship during the Christmas season.
In faith,
Matt Blunt
Senior Warden