A Message from

Your Bishop’s Committee

         Bruce Clift, Clerk

Your Bishop’s Committee held its regular meeting on Oct. 24. Lucy Gowan brought a reading from Malachi on tithing, in which God encourages us to give our fair share to the church and receive the wonderful things which will then come to us.

Bob O’Brien reported that some church members are behind a total of $10K in their pledges, and encouraged everybody to keep up to date. Expenses continue to be more than budgeted, by about $2K this month.

Bob presented a preliminary 2006 budget. There is currently a shortfall of $55K expected next year, mostly owing to pastor search and relocation costs. He pointed out that the only expense item with any real flexibility is the Vicar’s salary – we could save some money by deciding to go a few months with supply clergy before the new pastor is hired. There was much concern about going too long without a pastor. Edy Unthank, our DIEM representative, suggested that we ask Canon Britt, who is working with the Church Deployment Office, whether she thinks there will be a lot of candidates available for our search. If so, then we might have a higher degree of confidence that we will be able to find a suitable pastor without a long wait. It was agreed to do this, and also to wait and see how successful the stewardship campaign is.

Gene Pearson discussed the upcoming member visits. He said that the goal of the visits was not to talk about money, but rather to provide an opportunity for parishioners to voice their questions and concerns. Julie Levy will be baking cookies with Barbara Lyon. They expect to have a dozen cookies for every family!

Bill DeRouchey got bids to fix the water leak, but it was more than he wanted to pay at this time; he wants to find a cheaper solution. Someday he wants the church to hire a gardener so that the grounds are always welcoming. A big thank-you to the Luques for the donation of the upstairs carpet, and to Susan Seaburg for the donation of the Blue Room carpet! They are beautiful!

The Harvest Fair made over $4K. Lucy suggested that at next year’s event we add wine tasting, which she thinks could bring a significant amount of additional revenue. Many thanks were given to Julie, Nancy Jackson, and everybody else who worked so hard to make this year’s Harvest Fair such a success!

Bruce reported that the new Youth Committee held one meeting last month. One of the proposals that came from that meeting was to have a youth-oriented Sunday evening service and meeting. Carter Potts has already acted on this proposal, starting with an evening prayer on Oct. 23. She has a special service planned for next Sunday (Halloween Eve) at Evergreen Cemetery. We are working on finding a regular assistant to help Carter week-to-week.

Get Me to (and from)
the Church on Time

A couple of issues have been brought to the Bishop’s Committee for which I would like to offer the following proposals:

The first is in regard to Announcements at the end of the 10 am service.  Several members have commented that announcements, while interesting and informative, are taking a long time at the end of the service.  For young families, it is hard to sit and listen, especially when there are snacks to investigate!  Although not all members of our church have young children, we each have commitments during the day. 

I would therefore like to propose a minor change. 

Starting November 13th, we shall make the announcements directly following the Peace. Since the children would still be out at their classes, it would provide a quieter time for the grown-ups among us to hear what needs to be announced.

I think that in so doing, Announcements will be streamlined and the Sunday School will have more time for their lessons. We will still celebrate Birthdays and Anniversaries and other milestones as before, and see what the Sunday School has been working on before the Dismissal.

Therefore, if you have an announcement that you would like made, please email it to the Church Office at stphilip @ got.net.  If you prefer, please give it to me, or to the person making the announcements that day, in writing, at the very latest before the bell rings!

The second issue brought to the Bishop’s Committee is the tardiness of our start at the 10 am service. Starting this Sunday (don’t forget to change your clocks on Saturday night!!) we shall ring the bell five minutes before and commence with our opening hymn promptly at 10 am.  With shorter days I am sure we will all appreciate a prompt start so we can then enjoy the rest of our Sunday.
In love

             Lucy Gowan, Senior Warden