Search and Transition UpdateTHE SEARCH HAS BEGUN! By the time you read this, your Search Committee will have received names of priests interested in learning more about the position of Vicar at St. Philip’s and will be following up on the different individuals. The end date for receiving inquiries and/or profiles from interested priests was January 15. From there we began to read--and read--and read still more. We are now meeting weekly. All of our meetings open and close with prayer. We ask you to pray daily for this congregation and for the work of the Search Committee. We wish to surround this process in prayer and ground what we do in the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We had some “tweaking” of the Position Profile (different from our St. Philip’s profile) to do in December. That was completed, and it was officially posted on the Diocesan website, along with a declaration that the search process was officially “on.” Canon Britt Olson of the Church Deployment Office of the Diocese has been our guide through this last piece of refinement of the Position Profile which goes into the national database of the Episcopal Church. Britt brought us names from two sources: 1) those priests who have contacted the Diocese and expressed an interest in St. Philip’s; and 2) the matches that occurred when the Position Profile went into the national database of all Episcopal priests. The latter means that any priest, those seeking a new position as well as those who are content where they are, have been or are being contacted to see if they are interested in taking the next step in the process. The Search Committee has developed a process for evaluating the professional and personal profiles of the priests who want to be considered for a call to St. Philip’s and are hard at work. This is all being done within the context of the survey and resulting profile developed by the Transition Committee. In addition, the Search Committee has a copy of all of the narrative comments that appeared on the survey in response to the open-ended questions--all 13 pages of them!! Thank you all for taking the time to give such thoughtful responses. They really do flesh out the check marks on the survey. We have decided to limit our search--for now--to Province VIII. This is an area which comprises the western U.S. from the western side of the Rocky Mts., Alaska, Hawaii and Taiwan. We have left open the option to expand the search should that become necessary.
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We want to remind you that we practice absolute confidentiality regarding names during this process. We promise to be transparent about our process, and at the same time, must keep confidential the names of priests who are under consideration. Again, we ask your daily prayers for guidance for this committee. We also ask you to pray about the finances of St. Philip’s. There is some concern about having adequate resources to be able to call a full time Vicar. However, we on the Search Committee are confident in the power of the Holy Spirit to guide all of us to search our hearts and our priorities to assure the future of this wonderful congregation of people called St. Philip the Aspostle in Scotts Valley. Karen Krestensen, for the Search Committee: Steve Dodds, chair, Donna Jones, Karen Krestensen, Julie O’Brien, Dave Sanguinetti, |
Fruit of the SpiritA Learn It - Live It Bible Study A bible study on prayer will be offered during Wednesdays in spring at the home of the Granger-Jones family at 7:30pm - 9:00pm. We will be using the "Learn it - Live it Bible Study" series. This seven-session Bible study focuses on prayer, the communication we have with God. As God's children, Christians have the opportunity to talk to the Almighty Creator of the universe whenever we wish. Hebrews tells us that because of Christ's death and resurrection we can approach the throne of God with Confidence! There is no barrier between God and us. Praise March 8 Thanksgiving March 15 Confession March 22 Petition March 29 Intercession April 5th Listening to God April 19th The Lord's Prayer April 26th Cheers Marcus Granger-Jones |
