2021 PARISH COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S REPORT (January 24th, 2021)

Last year was a strange and trying year to say the least. It's now 2021 and with 2020 safely in our rearview mirror I would like to take some time to look ahead and to highlight a few of the significant achievements occurring at St. Herman's throughout 2020. 

The first accomplishment that comes to mind was especially important in helping us weather the pandemic. I am referring to the installation of Wi-Fi at the church. This was an instrumental step in allowing us to livestream services and hold Zoom meetings while under the reduced occupancy restrictions. I think many will agree that watching services on a screen is exponentially less satisfying than attending in person, but I am nonetheless grateful we are now able to offer these services. 

Along with Wi-Fi, throughout 2020 we were able to revamp and increase the traffic to both the St. Herman's Facebook and YouTube pages. I think the return on these improvements is already being seen in the impressive number of guests and inquirers we welcomed to St. Herman's on a weekly basis. Thank you to both Susanna Tabeling and Emanuel Sas who led the charge in establishing St. Herman's online presence. During 2020 we were also able to bring printing capabilities in-house here to the church. This greatly reduces the cost and time associated with keeping up with the ever changing liturgical music. Thank you to Joe Slater and Alex Wauck for their tireless effort in getting us a printer. 

Some less glamorous, but no less important, building maintenance accomplishments during 2020 include the repair of the flat roof above the narthex and the installation and replacement of the non-slip tread tape on the stairs leading down to the basement. A large thank you to Dan Tkach, Dave Thomas and Doug Johnson for their diligence in keeping our building in tip-top shape. 

It was a blessing to welcome back the Maciolek family in early 2020. Along with pleasure of seeing nine additional young humans at services, having Fr. Christopher and Basil here made it possible for us to offer additional weekday and weekend liturgies. I know many parishioners have come to thoroughly enjoy these added services. Thank you Maciolek family! 

I would like to conclude this report by expressing my sincere gratitude to all the parishioners of St. Herman's for your impressive flexibility throughout 2020. There was nothing that the virus threw at us that we didn't handle in stride. Whether it was wearing a mask, distancing yourself or your family from other parishioners during a service or taking the extra few seconds to apply hand sanitizer. It was this sort of humility and love for your neighbor that allowed us to continue to worship and keep some semblance of normalcy here at St. Herman's during a  difficult time. A final thank you to Katie Wesche who served as our personal MDH consultant throughout the pandemic, free of charge!

Respectfully,

Caleb Tkach

Parish Council President

Annual Report to Parish