THE PARISH COUNCIL AND STEWARDSHIP COMMITTEE
By Tom Joseph
Throughout the 75 years of St. George’s existence, God has given us the men and women who have risen to the challenge of securing the continuity of this, His Church.
Continuity is an absolute essential of a religious, loving parish. It is the foundation upon which disagreement among us is not allowed to become division. It is the assurance that what we decided to do for our church 10, 20 or 30 years ago is done...or is being done... or is planned on being done.
Continuity is essential to the feeling our parishioners must have as they give of their time, talent and treasure. What would it mean to us if we believed that with each departing pastor our goals left with him? We have a right, indeed, we are entitled to such a right, to expect to maintain the continuity of St. George Maronite Catholic Church for our future and the future of those coming after us.
Fixed with the responsibility of ensuring this right for us is our Parish Council.
The Parish Council today consists of nine members including a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. Originally, it consisted of four members, then 12 members and now nine members, six elected and three appointed by the pastor. In 1997, a Stewardship Committee was created by the Eparchy for each Maronite parish. The reasoning is that financial matters require substantial focus and detracted somewhat from the spiritual responsibilities of the council. Therefore, at the present time, we the members of the St. George council have four of us working full time to ensure the financial health of our church and nine of us working full time to ensure the spiritual health of our congregation. Neither the Parish Council nor the Stewardship Committee has authority higher than our pastor.
Many of us are not familiar with some important decisions that the parish councils have made which history has shown were crucial to the continuity of our church. In the late 1800’s, Lebanese immigrants began to arrive in the San Antonio area. They established a colony primarily on the near west side, and on the near north side of the city. It was a handful of these immigrants who prevailed upon a traveling Maronite priest to stay and administer to them in the Maronite Rite. So dedicated were these individuals that they financed the salary and first church expenses from their own monies with one family giving $10,000 toward the initial beginnings.
Shortly thereafter, a depression greeted this new church in this new land. Our records show no default of any financial obligations and yet it is interesting to note that the construction of a church and rectory was started and completed in such dire economic times.
Our church facility was taken by the power of eminent domain in the late 1940’s and it appeared that it might be a death knoll for this small community of Maronites. Had not the trustees of our church remained committed to our church’s continuity, there would be no church today.
The church survived!
At this time, the trustees were struggling to keep the church alive. It was the trustees who from their own funds were paying for food for our pastor, utility bills and expenses of running the church. No record exists, written or verbal, that these persons ever requested reimbursement for these payments. It was common knowledge at the time that this was done out of love for our church and a dedication, fierce in its manifestation, that this church will continue. Certainly, the trustees had obligations to their families and businesses in ,hat were stressful financial times, which they deferred for the sake of our church and its future. Failure was not an option then, nor, as time has shown, has it ever been.