Community Finances

This contribution updates last year's article on the same subject and it is meant to share the Management Committee's thoughts on our financial situation, current and future, for the Congregation to be informed, aware and we hope supportive. You may remember our shoe-box financial management: we put donations, contributions, etc into a red box and pay day-to-day expenses out of it. (Priest stipends are paid out of the central fund, which we co-fund out of the red box. The central fund is managed by the Australia Council. All congregations contribute towards the fund and it pays for the priest's stipends). Rent income is put into the blue box. All building-related expenses are paid out of this box. The financial objective is not to take more money out of any of the two boxes than is in it. In 2005, we were successful at observing this principle as the below tables show:

Operational Cash Flows (Red Box):

Building-related Cash Flows (Blue Box):

The 2005 results are better than what we expected, at the end of the year, there was more left in both the red and the blue box than what we anticipated. The reason for this is that whilst the expenses were only marginally above our expectations, the revenues were up more substantially. This included rental income as the biggest contributor (although 2005 contains some late rent payments regarding 2004), trading income and donations. We would like to take this opportunity to extend a warm thank-you to everyone who generously donated either funds or their time.

As we all know now, the two major steps forward we were hoping to make in 2006 are most likely to be made in 2007 (We shouldn't grumble if we are offered the opportunity to practice the virtue of patience!). With some luck the development application for the building works will be approved shortly so that we can start with the work after Christmas. We can also be cautiously optimistic that the new priest will start in late 2007.

As stated last year, we created a green box to accumulate funds for the building works. Our Project and investment managers have made a great contribution by successfully generating an investment income from funds we obtained through a mortgage on our properties. However, whilst we are confident that we can fund most or all of the building works, the green box can not be used to fund operational or building related expenses.

From next year on, with a new priest on board, the contributions towards Australia Council will have to be increased to put them in a position to pay the additional stipend. Also, our expenses will rise (new priest, more expensive buildings to maintain) and the rental income will reduce as the priest's family will take up residence at Beattie Street . This will leave us with the challenge to increase revenues substantially. We hope that with the additional priest and the new buildings we will be able to serve a greater congregation. We will need the help, the initiative and the generosity (to contribute as well as to potentially accept changes to treasured habits) of all current members of the congregation.

Whilst we can not predict the future, we have tried to budget the next few financial years. Based on our current expectations, the result of the combined red and blue box will evolve as follows, assuming that donations grow moderately:

Whilst the 2006 and 2007 results are nearly balanced, from 2008 a gap of up to $50,000 will open up if the congregation grows only moderately. With more optimist growth forecasts, we can expect the following financial future:

This is what we can hope for if we are optimistic. There will still remain a gap, but it is not of the same order of magnitude as before and it quickly closes. The two difficult financial years are, based on this budget, 2008 and 2009. We will have to seek ways to further increase funding. To achieve this, we will have to make an effort as a congregation. But considering how far we have already come, there is no reason to believe we can't do this!

Florian Salzgeber

For the Management Committee

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