Dear St. Matthew Parish Family,

Like St. Paul, “I give thanks to my God at every remembrance of you” (Philippians 1:3). For the past three months since I arrived here, I have been greatly moved by your spirit of generosity of resources and availability of time. It is due to your generous contributions that we are able to accomplish all that we do as a parish.

I want to say thank you for your generous and consistent contributions to the offertory. This is our main source of income and through your generosity we have been able to pay all of our bills, pay our staff and continue to run our various parish programs. It is also thanks to the offertory that we have set up a recurring payment to pay off our parish loan.

I want to express immense thanks for your outstanding support to our St. Vincent de Paul Society. Since the pandemic, our parish tithing has been given only to them. With your generosity they continue to reach out to many during these challenging times of the pandemic who are in need of food, housing, and very basic life necessities. So, thank you!

As we look at the financial position of the parish, we notice a deficit which is largely due to our high expense in replacing our new parish HVAC system. This huge system was constructed and tailored for the Church building, and I am glad it is working well.

Our mission as Jesus sends us forth at the end of Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 28:19-20) is to make disciples of all nations. There are many ways we can contribute to this mission. Not all can preach like Paul, not all can lead like Peter, but many of you like the holy women who provided for Jesus and the apostles (Luke 8:1-3) have continued to make this mission realizable and fruitful. May the Good Lord whose work you have taken to heart, bless abundantly your own endeavors!

Gratefully yours,

Fr. Valery Akoh
Parish Administrator