The Warden’s Corner

Since our last newsletter we have moved back into the church from the parish hall, had a visit from Bishop Ely, celebrated Easter together, and have celebrated the rest of the Easter season with supply clergy.  We appreciate the help offered these past several weeks from the Reverends Stanley Irving and Howard Van Dine (Wednesdays) and the Reverends George Moyser and Gary Eley (Sundays).  NOTE:  Since writing this column for the newsletter, our Interim Pastor, the Rev. Jean Austin, has had to go out on disability leave.  We have entered into a Letter of Agreement with the Rev. George Moyser to be our long-term Sunday Supply priest, and the Rev. Stanley Irving has agreed to provide our Wednesday coverage.

 On May 1^st and 2^nd, St. Luke’s was the site for the Spring Conference of the Vermont Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association, as well as the Children’s Honor Choir Festival.  Donna Costes is President of the Vermont Chapter, ACDA.  Our Hospitality Committee provided Friday night dinner for the children and their chaperones, and Saturday lunch for the children, chaperones, and conference attendees.  Thank you to all who helped make the meals a success – from the preparation, to the serving, to the clean-up. 

On Tuesday, May 19^th, Jim and Linda Ballard, Jim Fouts and I attended an informational meeting in Montpelier concerning a program entitled Partners for Sacred Places.  Partners for Sacred Places is a national organization which trains parish teams in new strategies to help parishes develop resources for their older buildings as assets for ministry.  The Diocese is looking for eight to ten parishes to commit to this program, which may be a way for St. Luke’s to learn how to expand the use of our facilities into the community at large, and find alternative resources to fund our capital requirements.  As most of you know, there is quite a bit of deferred maintenance that should be attended to, but we don’t have the financial resources to address, such as the pointing, insulating the walls, repairing and painting the walls, etc.  The program is meant to increase our community relations as we open our facilities to more community functions.

I recently looked at our energy use during the months of January, February and March, when we held all services in the Parish Hall.  We saved at least $1,700, comparing this year’s energy consumption of gas and electricity to last year’s.  This was especially evident this week when we received our CVPS bill for April, after having returned our services back into the church building.  The demand meter that measures our peak usage was nearly at 9 units, and the prior month it was under 3 units.  Each demand unit costs $11+ per month, so that difference alone added $66 to the bill, plus the increased usage per kilowatt hour.

At its monthly Vestry meeting, the Vestry decided to continue to try and conserve some energy – we will move to having one service on Sundays at 9 AM beginning on Sunday, June 7^th, through Labor Day. 

We have begun to welcome back to the area our members who headed to warmer climates for the past several months.  Welcome home!

Alan Cassavoy has provided an extensive update of the work of the Ministry Discernment Committee in this newsletter.  I hope people have taken a look at the Parish Profile on our website.  As I’ve stated before, if you don’t have internet access and would like to review a copy, please let the office (524-6212) or me know (524-4842). 

 Carolyn Fouts, Senior Warden

Pastoral Care

We have studied some portions of Caring for Inactive Members.  As a result we have gleaned some older parish list and have called some from the visitors’ book. A number of team members chose various people to call. Early resulted in requests for visits and may want to stay on the parish list.

We have for new Lay Eucharistic Visitors Elwin, Carol, Slyvia, and Louise. We will be sending the requests to the bishop for them to be licensed.

We will be resuming formal meetings in the fall but our work will continue throughout the summer.

The card ministry is going well but we still could use a person to send anniversary cards and a better visitor card system.

The Flower cart has painted containers thanks to M. Howard and others, now the hard part of getting the cart back out in public view, along with plants will be the next step.

A strategic plan for the Pastoral Care Team would be helpful as our faith in action continues to expand. I will try to start an outline throughout the summer.

 Deacon Jim

FREE - FREE - FREE

AVAILABLE - A FREE MAYTAG DRYER IN PERFECT WORKING CONDITION TO ANYONE WHO COULD USE IT.  CONTACT JIM OR CAROLYN FOUTS: 524-4842.

Upcoming Events

YARD SALE

Saturday, September 12 8:00-1:00pm

Pat Burton & Don Fournier

BOOK SALE

Saturday, October 10 9:30-1:30 pm

Jim Ballard

SENIOR LUNCHEON

October 2009 to May 2010

Carol Livingston

RUMMAGE SALE

Saturday, November 7

Kathy Carter

KNITTING GROUP

We are looking for knitters to join this group and develop several projects.

We are still looking for a cloth recliner for one of our senior members of St. Lukes.  If you have one you do not want anymore, or if you know of someone who has one and is willing to donate it, Ted and I will be glad to come and pick it up and deliver it to this person in need.

Please contact Pat Burton at 527-7281.  Thank you for your help!

MDC Status Report May 2009

            On April 23^rd, Carolyn Fouts and I traveled to White River Junction to meet with the Rev. Canon Thaddeus Bennett, the Clergy Deployment Officer for the Diocese of Vermont, and Leslie Black, our Diocesan companion for the Discernment process.  The purpose of that meeting was to discuss the MDC experiences with the our work to date, to review the next steps in the process, to layout a timeline for the remaining steps and to give us our first look at Clergy Deployment Office (CDO) profiles.  The profiles are detailed descriptions of clergy candidates’ history, such as; education, clergy positions held, current position, strengths in areas of liturgy, preaching, pastoral care, Christian education/formation, administration, etc.  After the meeting, Canon Bennett provided a list of clergy names from a national database for the MDC to consider.  The names given to the MDC most closely matched the gifts and skills that were defined in the St. Luke’s profile.

          On May 2^nd, all MDC members met with Leslie Black to begin reviewing the CDO profiles as a group.  In addition to the profiles we also had a training workshop on conducting interviews with prospective clergy candidates.  Because this is a mutual discernment process we had to not only ask questions, but also be prepared to answer many questions about St. Luke’s.  Leslie guided us through some prepared scenarios for training purposes.  We left the meeting with a large number of profiles to review as individuals.

          On May 7^th, the MDC reconvened and we selected a list of clergy names that we would like to begin communicating with.  The list was sent back to Canon Bennett and we are now awaiting approval to start contacting clergy candidates by letter.

Next Steps

·        The Diocese will review the names that we submitted and do an initial screening to make sure that there are no “red flags” for any of the clergy candidates that might rule them out as prospective candidates.  Also, Canon Bennett will contact each of the candidates to make sure they are interested in participating in our discernment process.  Bishop Ely will also add candidates to the list that may have expressed an interest in St. Luke’s.  Once the list has been approved by the Bishop we will then be able to make direct communication with candidates.  We were told that it will probably be around the middle of June before we hear back from the Diocese.

·        The MDC will write letters to all candidates inviting them to participate in our discernment process and to request that they respond to us and provided short responses to three pre-determined questions.  We will provide dates for responses to be returned, but we are being told that one month is a reasonable timeframe to request a response.

·        After receiving all responses we will likely be able to narrow down the list of candidates somewhat and we will begin telephone interviews.  These interviews will be conducted by the committee, but with only three members of the committee actually talking, to avoid confusion for the candidates.  All candidates will be asked the same questions and time will be allotted for the candidates to ask questions of us.

·        When the committee has selected five final candidates then three committee members will go to visit each of the five at their parishes.  The intent is to see each candidate in a typical Sunday service and observe.  We will be listening to the sermon, see how the candidate interacts with their parish, etc.  This will be done with the knowledge of the clergy candidate, but not their parish. 

·        When the final three candidates are selected they will be invited, separately, to St. Albans to meet with the MDC.  During this visit the candidates will also be meeting with the Bishop and will have a joint interview with the MDC and the Vestry, with the Vestry being there only as observers.

·        The final candidates will be presented to the Vestry for their decision.

·        Based on the timeline given by Canon Bennett and Leslie Black the remaining work will likely take six months at minimum.

Respectfully,

Alan Cassavoy

MDC Chairman