President’s Year-end Report
December 31, 2019
Dear fellow parishioners and to all our friends,
2019 marked a significant turning point for our community. Last January, as many of you know, we received notice from our mortgage holder that they were “calling the note” for our difficulty meeting our repayment obligations to their satisfaction. Thought that could be disputed, they nonetheless decided to pursue foreclosure.
In September, we were informed by Fr. Gianulis that he could no longer continue serving us without being compensated. In fact, we hadn’t paid him in over 6 months when he made that announcement! How could we expect him to continue? Thanks be to God, and with the intervention of His Eminence Metropolitan Evangelos, Fr. Gianulis and the Parish Council worked out a mutually beneficial accommodation. He would continue to serve on a part-time basis at about half the salary originally agreed upon.
Our active parishioners were relying on an ever decreasing number of volunteers to take care of the church’s day-to-day needs; and those dedicated volunteers were increasingly frustrated by the lack of support from the general community. In fact, many of our most basic needs were not being addressed. Nevertheless, your Parish Council persevered. The situation with our mortgage holder was the most immediate (and overwhelming) concern. Many discussions ensued from January through November between Parish Council members, attorneys, and several potential benefactors.
In late September it seemed as though a buy-out proposal by two of our parishioners would be accepted by Towne Bank. By the beginning of November we were informed that Towne Bank had accepted that offer and nearly $4 million in debt had been reduced to $2.5 million. These same parishioners very generously donated an additional $250,000 each to further reduce our debt to $2 million. God heard all our prayers and truly granted us a miracle!
“The Friends of St. Demetrios, LLC” now holds our $2 million debt obligation. The agreement they created, and your Parish Council accepted, gives us 24 months to obtain a new mortgage. In practical terms, we have a 2-year bridge loan that requires monthly interest-only payments. We made our first payment at the beginning of December.
While this reprieve is a huge blessing, the clock is ticking and we must begin now the difficult task of obtaining a new mortgage. In order to do this several things must happen. First and foremost, we must have a comprehensive business plan and a budget. It is not enough to show prospective lenders that we are viable. We must demonstrate that we are a good investment! Two years is not a very long time to build a track record that we can “take to the bank.”
As with any budget plan, all revenue and expenses must be carefully planned. Your Parish Council is actively pursuing a number of revenue sources. These sources include, primarily, a re-opening of the Williamsburg Hellenic Center. We convened an ad-hoc committee to make this happen. In the next few days a job ad will be posted and the ad-hoc committee will begin reviewing applications for the job. It’s time to do more with this beautiful facility!
Among our other accomplishments this year were 2 successful Greek Festivals. We also managed to hold twice-monthly fish fry dinners. Experience has shown that while the Greek Festivals provide significant income they are, at the same time, an enormous undertaking. A
small handful of volunteers cannot, and should not, be expected to carry the entire burden year after year.
Finally, we are pleased to report that stewardship revenue was up this past year. Many of you increased your offerings, no doubt because you understood that loosing our church was a very real possibility. A significant number of you made substantial monetary contributions, for which we are especially grateful.
As your Parish Council President, I would like to take this opportunity to present the following tasks to the 2020 Parish Council for the new year:
1.) Hire (and support) a sales and events manager for the Williamsburg Hellenic Center.
2.) Create an ad-hoc committee to create a 5-year business plan along with an annual and 5year budget.
3.) Create an ad-hoc committee for the purpose of raising funds to pay down the $2 million principle owed to The Friends of St. Demetrios, LLC prior to December 31, 2021.
4.) Create an ad-hoc committee to manage church finances; including but not limited to bookkeeping, making deposits, paying bills, handling correspondence and other inquiries.
5.) Recruit additional volunteers to support the building and grounds committee.
In summary, there will be plenty of opportunities for each of you to share your time, talent and treasure as a meaningful response to the immeasurable gifts God has given each of us.
Yours in Service,
Tom Coghill