Dear St. Elijah Parishioners,

I hope all is well and that your Lenten season is off to a blessed start.  Before I share with you what is happening in the life of the church, I wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Great Lent started on February 27th.  With the start of Lent, there are many services that will be held throughout the week.  Please consult your church bulletin or call the church office for times. Presanctified Liturgy will be held on Wednesday’s and will rotate between St. Elijah and St. George Greek Orthodox churches. Please make an effort to attend the services when your schedule allows.

As I mentioned in my January letter, I plan on visiting as many church ministries and organizations as I can in an effort to open the lines of communication between the board and these groups.  During the month of March, I plan on visiting the Choir, St. Elijah Charities, Adult Fellowship, and the 20/40 groups.  With these visits I hope to gain a better understanding what each group is doing and what we as a board can do to help them with their various ministries. I look forward to these visits and getting to spend time with the various members.

The Stewardship Ministry is still in the middle of its annual membership drive. To date there has been 135 membership cards turned in with a pledged amount of $547,011.  If you have not turned in a card, I ask that you do so as soon as possible. Membership cards are available in the church office and there are some also located in the narthex of the church.

Our Vice-Chairman, Jeff Massad, has been working on the Church Ministries Committees list.  He presented the list to the church board during the February meeting. With the help of Father John, we have changed around and combined some of the committees. One change this year is that we are going to have every Parish Council member either in charge of or act as a liaison with each group. The goal of Jeff and myself is to make sure that every Parish Council member is fully involved in the various aspects of our church organizations. We will be sending out a list of those committees over the next several weeks.  If you would like to participate on a committee, I ask that you contact the chairperson and they will put your talents to use. Also, the committee chair will be reaching out to those who have served on these committees in the past year to see if you want to still serve on the committee. Thank you to all of you who serve on these important ministries.

Another change that you will notice happening at the church is that we are transferring our e-mail communication in house. I want to personally thank Roni Alasad for her years of faithful service in sending out these e-mails and keeping the lines of communication open at St. Elijah. If for some reason you are not receiving the church wide e-mails any longer, please contact the church office ASAP to make sure they have your correct information. As you know with any transition there could be some information that does make it.

Over the last several years the church has been going through an audit of our finances. With the help of Mike Deeba, Dr. Raymond Cohlmia, and Cole and Reed accounting firm, we are finally drawing to a close with the audit. We expect to have a final report within the next 60 days. Once we have the report, I will make sure to let you know the outcome.

Mark your calendars for these important dates:

One final topic that I want to address is the issue with the maintenance of the church.  There are many items on the list at St. Elijah that need to be repaired, such as exterior doors, carpet, acoustics/microphones in the sanctuary, interior paint, and repairing/reupholstering the seat cushions and kneelers in the pews.  Over the next 3-4 months, we will be addressing as many of these issues as possible because the church is in need of some serious maintenance. I will keep everyone updated as we work on getting these things repaired or replaced.

As always, please feel free to contact any council member or myself if you have any concerns. As mentioned last month, there is an open door policy; so please reach out to us. I promise to keep the lines of communication open and to be available to talk whenever.

Yours in Christ,

Craig Abraham