Cathedral Strategic Plan 2022-2024

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Our three-year strategic plan is based upon our mission statement: “To know Christ and make Him known.” Through our ministries we will provide support to our Cathedral family in their Christian journey from disciple — student — to apostle, “one sent out” to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to others.  We will do this through five strategic priorities:

Deepen our Faith: We will offer opportunities for our congregation to deepen their spiritual knowledge, identity, and expression, with an emphasis on evangelism; intergenerational and multicultural issues; and social justice. Our Becoming Beloved Community team has offered the Episcopal Church’s groundbreaking series, Sacred Ground, to foster honest conversations about race. We plan a 2024 pilgrimage to significant civil-rights sites in Alabama. St. Peter’s is a member of Faith and Action for Strength Together (FAST), a coalition of 50 religious congregations that work with government leaders and agencies to improve our communities. We offer a rich year-round program of Bible studies, book talks, guest speakers, movies, and field trips to learn more, do more, and think more deeply about the roots of our faith and how we live it out in our lives today. We offer nursery care, Children’s Chapel on Sundays, a multigenerational family-friendly monthly program of dinner, music Bible stories, and hands-on crafts called Messy Church for children through fourth grade. Our EYSeedlings (grades 3 through 5), EYC (grades 6 through 12) and our annual confirmation classes for youth and inquirers’ classes for adults offer education, fellowship, and team-building for all ages.

 

Grow Our Faith Filled Generosity:  To be a good steward is to lead an authentic Christian life, acknowledging that all that we have and all that we are is a gift from God. Our annual stewardship campaign is an opportunity make a faith filled financial commitment to support the staff and the work of the Cathedral. That starts each fall with our festive Oktoberfest, a time to socialize, enjoy good food, and give thanks for our rich life together and the blessings God has bestowed on us. Ours is generous and faithful congregation willing to support the worship and programming that parishioners value. Our Stewardship Committee offers an annual Final Affairs Fair with information sessions on end-of-life care, estate planning, and legacy giving. We are debt-free and have an endowment of about $5-million.

 

Enrich Our Ministries: Our Outreach Committee focuses much of its work on our community partners: Campbell Park Elementary School, Peterborough Apartments (Section 8 housing for seniors on limited incomes), and Resurrection House (a faith-based residential program to break the cycle of generational poverty for single mothers and their children). They also provide microgrants to non-profits in our area that work to transform the lives of the vulnerable through food, health education, relationship building, and inclusivity initiatives. Our brief monthly talks during the 10:15 a.m. Sunday service by various ministries spotlight the wide variety of opportunities and ways to contribute to the work of the Cathedral. There is a place for you here, whether it’s greeting on Sunday mornings, serving coffee and donuts at coffee hour, or enhancing our worship by singing in the choir, arranging flowers, preparing the altar for worship, or reading a lesson.

 

Enhance Our Technology Capability: One of the surprising blessings of the Covid-19 pandemic is that it pushed us to raise out technology game. We now routinely use social media and other platforms, such as Zoom, to conduct business, strengthen our community ties, and offer parishioners and visitors a variety of ways to stay in relationship, worship from home, and participate in Cathedral activities. We constantly look for new ways to use technology and to keep our equipment up to date.

Maintain Our Cathedral: A reserve study is under way to examine roofs, heating and cooling systems, and other big-ticket items so we can start to budget and plan for them. In the spring of 2023 our treasured stained-glass windows were cleaned, repaired, and protected by the same firm that installed them more than half a century ago. Our Buildings and Grounds Committee is aggressively working to identify needed repairs and address long-deferred maintenance items. In the spring of 2023 we will create a permanent baptistery inside the Cathedral to give appropriate prominence to our baptismal font, underscoring the importance of the sacrament of baptism as the entrance into the life of Christian faith.