Historically, the Jewish people were not great sailors. They didn’t tend to build ships, or travel great distances (diaspora/exile excepted). The sea was mysterious and unknown, and came to represent chaos. Good things were at home in the promised land, why would you leave?

One sign of God’s power is his control even over these forces of chaos. Even to the edges of the map, where “there be dragons” God is in charge.

Interestingly, he chooses disciples from fishermen. They are the few who were bold enough to venture out into chaos, and try to find something worthwhile, ducking out between storms. They were the ones who had the courage to try something new. Yet there are limits! We hear in our gospel today that their gamble has not paid off, and they’re in over their heads. The common sense of the day would say “of course this happened! Never take risks! Stay on the land!” Perhaps they themselves doubt their choices. Where will they find shelter now? Even though they are upset at Jesus, they still turn to him in desperation.

This story for me is about the courage to try something new in ministry. To take risks that may not pay off, but may play off in a big way. Only then is our faith in God truly tested. Only then will we know we are relying on Him

St. John's COVID-19 Update - Updated on May 21, 2021

All of our weekend Masses will be live-streamed and available on this website and on our Facebook page. 

For those who cannot go online, WGRZ (Channel 2) is broadcasting Sunday Mass at 11 am every Sunday on behalf of the Diocese of Buffalo. 

Your continued generosity is important to help our parish maintain financial stability and services during these unprecedented times. Please consider signing up for online donations at https://stjohnalden.weshareonline.org    If you are having difficulty with this link, or you would prefer to set up your donation directly, please email Kate Wypij at [email protected] 

Donations (checks only, please do not send cash through regular mail) may also be mailed or dropped off to the office at 2021 Sandridge Rd, Alden, NY 14004. 

Thank you!

Dear St. John’s Community family,

The parish and school finance committees are always hard at work studying and safeguarding the assets of the parish and school. They are remarkable individuals who are faith-filled, talented and committed to the task. We can be proud of their work and grateful for their time and talent. This report for fiscal year September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020. Undoubtedly, this has been as challenging a year but we have weathered it thanks to your generosity.  The total result of the budget year was a $53, 827.64 loss. But, due to the Federal Payroll Protection Program, the $163, 400 soon to be forgiven loan allowed us to keep the parish and school running and compensate for the loss. This was a large and much needed financial boost when things seemed bleakest.

The report gives the aggregate amounts of income and expenses for the year for the parish, faith formation, the school, and the cemetery. The numbers are presented in a budgeting accounting format as well as with pie charts to help graphically represent the information. The information is provided to help you to understand where the money comes from and where it is spent. There are four columns. The first is our actual numbers for the last fiscal year of 2018-2019, the second is the budget for the 2019-2020 fiscal year which was based on the actual figures from the previous year. The third column is the actual numbers for 2019-2020 and the final column is this year’s budget.

I have some observations I want to share with you. First I would like to discuss the income for the Parish.  I want to thank those who are so generous with the weekly collection to the parish. The average weekly collection is remarkable given the impact of COVID-19 on our attendance and I cannot begin to thank everyone enough for their generosity. Financial support of the parish is the only way we can stay in existence. Similarly, school tuition is critical to the existence of the school. We had a boost in students this year due to our ability to offer a quality full service program and in-person instruction which was appealing to parents.

Fundraising is a critical supplement to collections in the parish and tuition in the school. I am so grateful and impressed with those committed to fundraising for our parish and school. Their dedication and hard work is especially noteworthy in the COVID-19 era where gathering and finding safe events is extra difficult. In terms of the parish, the Fall and Spring sweepstakes are our main fundraisers and they were both record amounts. The more of these tickets we can sell to those outside the parish, the less the financial burden is for everyone. The spring 2021 raffle is just around the corner. We will not be mailing them to everyone, but tickets will be widely available and we encourage you to sell as many as possible.  This is a significant contribution to supplement the weekly collections.

In terms of school fundraising, the success of their individual events is even more remarkable. There were many fundraisers that did not happen – notably the lawn fete, the alumnae basket raffle, and a meat raffle (delayed but not cancelled). Even still, with incredible creativity and hard work, the HSA managed to raise 17% of the school budget.

The other part of the report is expenses. The school finance committee and the parish finance committee worked very hard to find ways to cut costs. The actual parish spending was actually about 75% of what was budgeted. The only way this happens is for the staff to do more with less people and for the parish to step up and do more to help out. We needed both and got both. Thank you and keep it up.

We are most grateful for your treasure and also for the time and talent that people have donated as well. Please continue to be generous and find ways to help our parish and school keep being great places to worship and learn about the Catholic Faith.

My intent is to make sure we are transparent with our information while avoiding the extremes of too much or too little information. If you have any questions or would like to see the balance sheet, please contact me or Chuck Sutter who is chair of the finance committee.

Prayers and blessings.

Deborah Brown

Pastoral Administrator

FINANCIAL REPORT 2019-2020