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It is so valuable to look back at a year and see where the Holy Spirit has led us as a community.

I give thanks for the opportunity to do this at each Cathedral Annual Meeting #2, which happens on the final Sunday of February each year, when we present our annual reports and celebrate all that we experienced in God's Church.

This year our HHO annual report was 17 pages long!

Below this blog post is the big report for those who might enjoy the longer read.

You can download it and "fill your boots" with all the fine details.

In the interest of creating a resource that people could enjoy skimming, we also created a 2 pager summary. 

For those who would like a briefer look in the rear view mirror, here is the shortie:

Highlights of our mission during 2024  

  • Continued growth of Digital Mission program content for the Episcopal Diocese of Texas  
  • Thriving lay leadership and serving roles growing 
  • Use of Artificial Intelligence in creating resources  
  • New friendship with Benedictus Contemplative Church Canberra 

Metrics > Average attendance:  

  • Weekly Worship (19)  
  • Seasonal Study Group (12) > met 35 times, 65 signed up to study email list.  
  • Contemplative services (12) > Ccontemplative services team met 6 times to work liturgies of which there were 13. 

Occasional Services:  

  • Shrove Tuesday Pancake Party (7) 
  • Ash Wednesday Contemplative (16)  
  • Maundy Thursday Contemplative (10) 
  • Good Friday Contemplative (14)  
  • Holy Saturday Contemplative (10) 
  • Easter Day Worship (22)  
  • Blue Christmas (11) 
  • Christmas Eve Worship (14) 
  • Contemplative Christmas Day (14)  

We were blessed with 10 preachers at worship and three 3 teachers at seasonal study.  

Ministries 

  • 6 Companion Animal Ministry Workshops with average attendance of 7 members. 
  • 3 reflection evenings with average attendance of 6 members.   
  • 17 members signed up to the 3D Dialogue group emails and an average attendance of 7 for each of the four sessions. 8 engaged with the experimental 3DD app chat group.   

HHO App:  

  • 85 devices have downloaded our app to date (+20 from last year).  
  • A total of 84 prayers were uploaded to the prayer wall in 2024.  
  • The average ‘commit to pray’ engagement was 10 devices per prayer.  

We remember a total of 49 Hermits in our Holy Hermit Remembrance pages and at Weekly Worship where 3 new serving roles were formed and our Liturgical Assistants and servers lead.  

Our YouTube Channel has 49 subscribers, 11 more than 2023.  

We have 188 people in our database with 74 active members (Those who attend our gatherings, are in contact via email or who are known to us to use the HHO app) 20 of whom serve on rosters.  

During 2024, 48 new people were added to our database, and 34 people unsubscribed from our send outs.  

Birthday celebrations  

To celebrate our 4th birthday, we had an Arty 4th Birthday Party! where 96 pieces of art were generated with multiple themes by 15 members.  

Lay Leadership 

Chris and Leonie continue as Governance leaders with 8 meetings held to work on the big picture. 

2 Cathedral Council members Barry and Julie will continue for a 2nd year in 2025 with our thanks. 

Community survey was put out in June/July with 19 respondents offering feedback. 

Income  

  • Offertory giving $1,738.49 per month average ($201.51 down from 2023) 
  • Total offerings: $20,861.96  
  • Interest received: $1,691.45 
  • Opening Balance: $53,326.31 
  • Closing Balance: $65,667.23  

Grants and Fundraising  

  • Episcopal Diocese of Texas partnership grant $75,000USD = $111,400.55AUD.  
  • Christmastide Subscription raised $930 and we sent content to 62 email addresses.  

Partners highlights 

Anglican Focus featured HHO in 5 articles: Holy Hermits Online  

Summary of The Episcopal Diocese of Texas | Ministry Partnership: 

  • There is now a Digital Mission timeline and our content = 12 modules which will be multi modal and engaged with via a collaborative platform from October 2025. 
  • Registrations open April 2025 and we have 9 people on our cohort update list. 

New friendship with Benedictus celebrated during the Season of Creation with collaboration. 

Precinct Crossovers and resource sharing  

Accounts > Thank you Catherine for your expertise in managing payroll and accounts actuals.    

Promo > Thanks to those continuing to share HHO through the Dean’s Weekly Update (Peter+), Weekly news and Facebook page (Judy), Monthly notices (Alan) and digital street sign (Garth). We also promote Cathedral online events digitally including Cuppa on Tuesdays; Christian Meditation Group, Saints on a Mission and The Journey.   

Reporting > Monthly reports to Cathedral Council: 2024 Reports to Cathedral Council    

Hybrid spaces > The wonderful addition of the O.W.L technology has meant it easier for HHO to join in Cathedral gatherings held in person. We featured the HHO ministry at a Wasting Time with God session and have joined in with several other gatherings in the Darnell room. We hope to extend our Companion Animal Ministry invitation to the precinct via this technology in 2025.   

Combining our gifts and generously exploring together online I await with excited anticipation to see where the Holy Spirit leads us as we continue to "pioneer on a pilgrimage” in 2025 (One of our HHO members words).  

My heartfelt thanks and gratitude to all who share the space with us, pray for our outreach ministries and support us with their time, energy, attention and shared resources.  

The Rev’d Jamee-Lee Callard   

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