Friends,

That was a weird year.

First, let me now specify. It was a profoundly weird year with domestic issues, politics, the government shutdown, the military, global affairs, assassinations, law enforcement, and what is happening with this whole Venezuela thing and those oil tankers?!?!

Very specifically, I am talking about our Church’s finances which have been dominating my attention against the backdrop of unexpected, bizarre and often tragic events. Our parish administrator, treasurers and finance committee generally have a supernatural knack for financial forecasting. Each month’s finances followed predictable trends, and our spending and income have generally been right in line with our estimates. They are genuinely weirdly good at this task. For the first time since I have been at St. Luke’s, things did not follow our forecasts, and we were looking at a grim financial situation at the beginning of December.