Good morning. My name is Carol Gilchrist and I have been a parishioner at All Saints’ since 1976.  When I was asked to give this brief talk, I began thinking about when and where I first was made aware of the need to give to one’s church.  When I was in kindergarten we moved to a neighborhood in Rochester, New York with a Catholic parish and grade school at the end of our street.  My mother was Catholic, my father was not.  I was enrolled in the school as was my sister a few years later.  I remember money was tight.  One fun memory that always stuck with me is when my parents would be gathering coins to amass 40 cents to buy a quart bottle of beer to share.  So, yes, money was tight. However, I also remember that when we went to church every Sunday and holy day, my mother ALWAYS had her envelope to put in the collection plate. 

When Rev. Bill asked me to say a few words about why I give to All Saints, I had to think hard about it, because I wasn’t all that sure myself.  And after I thought about it, it occurred to me that I was not sure I want to say all my reasons for giving, and I was REALLY not sure anyone else wants to hear them”.  You know, talking about money is not a comfortable subject already…it’s not polite, it’s “unseemly”.  Dinner table rules dictate that we don’t discuss politics, religion, sex or money, not necessarily in that order.  Plus, we have to remember last week’s lesson of Paul’s letter to Timothy, which contains what I think the most widely MIS-quoted passage in the bible: “the love of money is the root of all evil“, which is usually quoted as “money is the root of all evil”.  Even Pink Floyd’s song “Money” mis-quotes this passage. I came to the conclusion that  I have my own reasons, and maybe some of them are similar to yours, but I’ll bet I have some different ones, so here goes…