This weekend you will find copies of a summary of the receipts and payments of the parish operating account for 2016 and 2017 at the back of the church which you are welcome to take with you as you leave.
In brief, both years showed a surplus of receipts over payments. In 2016 the surplus was €55,411.37 and in 2017 it was €54,674.82. Income was up from €360,500 to €378,000 but expenditure also rose by almost the same amount giving a similar surplus for both years. The great bulk of our parish income comes from the door and offertory collections, and your generous contributions to these allow us to carry out all of our parish activities as well as to maintain our churches and other parish properties. The following points should be noted:
1. These accounts refer specifically to the money received and spent on parish activities and properties. They do not include the priests’ income which comes from our Christmas, Easter, Lent and Autumn station envelopes. We appreciate very much your generosity in these collections.
2. Ideally, the parish should have a modest surplus every year, as this allows us to keep money on reserve for unexpected events such as emergency repairs.
3. Our parish accounts are professionally audited every year. They are also submitted to the diocesan office in Cobh which then combines them with other parishes and submits the whole lot to the Charities Regulator.
4. The expenditure figure for churches in both years includes all paid employees in our churches, as well as a figure for insurance.
I take this opportunity to thank all who contribute to our weekly collections, or who make donations to the parish in any other way. I also thank the parish finance committee for their help and advice to me as parish priest. With your help we can help continue to allow The Kingdom of God to grow and develop in our parish.
Monsignor Jim Killeen
Parish Priest.