lift every voice: 2024

Lift Every Voice

Since 1941, St. James’ Episcopal Church, rooted in East Austin, has sought to be a community that lifts every voice to build the kind of Spirit-filled human community that James Weldon Johnson imagined in his famous poem. In our life together, we seek to sing a song full of faith, remembering and honoring the courage of those who came before us who built their church on the foundations of God’s radical hospitality and love. We seek to sing a song full of hope, knowing that hope is a liberating and lifechanging gift from our loving God, given to us to share with all people. In 2024, let us lift every voice together.

St. James’ embodies Christ’s love by welcoming all to the table for spiritual nourishment to share.

We are an inclusive, multicultural, and affirming community.

Lift every voice to sing a song of faith.

In 2024

In 2024, we hope to focus on

building belonging and connection across the various diversities of our community; sharing abundance and life with our neighbors, old and new; staying hopeful and active in the work for justice, equity, and peace in a divided and stratified social and political world; working on the openness of our campus in terms of accessibility, welcome, and visibility.

The Vestry has set a goal of $798,000 in pledges for 2024 (that’s 13% over last year), so that we can put our all into the priorities above. That might look like increasing our hospitality budget so that we can bring more people together around the table to share our stories and celebrate our heritage, budgeting for interpretation to include Spanish-speakers in more of our community conversations, increasing bilingual staff hours and building up the nursery staff, increasing our financial commitment to Welcome Table and its ministries (CDF Freedom Schools and Neighbor 2 Neighbor), finishing a campus signage project, and beginning a Master Plan process for the future of our church. (And yes, that Master Plan process will include final planning for the Columbarium.)

About the money

This is where the money comes from

Pledged gifts account for most of our funding. In 2023, 161 households pledged a total of $705,776. The median pledge was $2600. Our total budget was $890,925.

This is where the money goes

Lift every voice to sing a song of hope.

How will we reach our goal?

We believe that we can reach our goal with your prayerful support so that St. James’ can continue to be a home for hope and an oasis of welcome and love.

If you have never pledged before, let us know that we can count on your support in 2024. A pledge is a confidential promise of support that helps us boldly plan for big things. Sometimes circumstances change unexpectedly, and that is okay. Know that you can adjust your pledge during the year through a confidential conversation with Parish Administrator Aimee Estep or Rev. Eileen O’Brien.

If you are in the habit of pledging, don’t forget to fill out your card or the online form this year, and consider increasing your gift to the work of St. James’ Episcopal Church.

The Stewardship Team is asking that you make your pledge online at stjamesaustin.org/give or by turning in your pledge card by October 31. Mail it to the church office at 1941 Webberville, 78721, bring it to an in- person service, or drop it off in our mailbox on campus. Turning your pledge in by October 31 allows the Vestry Finance Committee to enter the budget process with confidence. We build our budgets based on your pledges. Your pledge makes a difference.