707

In church life, the month of January is focused on governance. St. Bart’s holds its annual meeting, a vestry retreat, and a ministry fair to recruit more participation. We also submit a parochial report—a snapshot of our health—to the diocese and The Episcopal Church. Every church must submit one in order to maintain good standing. Ours is now ready to go to the vestry for approval.

This report tracks all the numbers that reflect our overall health markers: worship services, attendance, staffing, finances, and more. One commonly referenced health metric is “Average Sunday Attendance,” or “ASA.” Since 2023, St. Bart’s ASA has grown from 199 to 235!

But there is another number that really amazes me. A newly expanded question on the 2025 form asks us to compute our weekly impact through in-person/online worship and those we help directly or through external partners. (Our impact through external partners has never before been measured.)

It was great fun for me to contact our partners and compute St. Bart’s weekly impact on their work. You can guess … the combined number of people impacted by St. Bart’s through worship and outreach weekly is 707. That is an enormous number! While an ASA of 235 is a number to be proud of, let’s add “Average Weekly Impact,” or “AWI,” of 707 to our conversations. Spread the word about the good news of St. Bart’s!

Blessings,

Mother Nina+