The Warden’s Corner
As we have begun our transition from summer to fall, we are beginning to see an increase in our activities. The first item was our Lawn and Bake Sale, held on Saturday, September 12th. The event was another resounding success, with over $1,200 realized. Our thanks to Pat Burton for organizing this, our twelfth annual Lawn and Bake Sale, and to all who helped in any way: donations, pricing, selling and clean up.
Our next event will be the annual Book and Bake Sale, scheduled for Saturday, October 10th, from 10 – 2. We have begun to collect books for this sale and they may be left at the Parish House. Jim Ballard has reported the he will feature a special table of new books which he has purchased and would make wonderful gifts. Thanks to Jim for organizing this annual fundraiser.
Our final fall fund raising event will be the annual Rummage and Bake Sale, scheduled for Saturday, November 14th, under the wonderful organizational efforts of Kathy Carter. Please watch the pew leaflet for the announcement as to when items may be dropped off for the Rummage Sale.
Service Time Update
In the last newsletter, August-September, we offered a chance for the Parish to decide whether to remain with one Sunday service at 9 AM, or to return to the two services at 8 AM and 10 AM. The majority vote was to keep the one service at 9 AM. The Vestry accepted this guidance from the parish, and voted to keep the schedule of one Sunday service at 9 AM, with the intention of reopening discussion when our new Rector joins us.
As an aside to this, last week I did an analysis of our energy consumption (gas and electricity) for a survey being conducted by the Diocese. The gas is measured from July 1st to June 30th. Our moved from the church to the parish house showed a significant savings in energy consumption. In 2007-2008 we used 7,543 ccfs, for a total cost of $11,728. In the 2008-2009 season our ccf usage dropped to 6,117, a nineteen percent decrease, and the cost was $9,802, a decrease of sixteen percent. I expect we will see a further reduction with holding one service on Sunday, as the heat is coming on an hour later and going off about an hour earlier, a savings of two hours of heating the building. Electric usage between 2007 and 2008 is also down by about fifteen percent.
Rectory
A special Parish meeting was held at the end of the service on Sunday, September 13th, in order to establish the minimum amount the Parish is willing to accept, net of fees, for the sale of the rectory. The current market appraisal is $265,000 and we may be able to place the rectory on the market for a higher amount if we have the exterior repaired and painted. The vestry has voted to do those repairs and exterior painting. We have received verbal approval from the Standing Committee of the Diocese to go forward with the sale, with the proceeds to be invested with the Diocesan Unit Fund. The interest will be used to help pay a housing allowance for the rector. Once we receive the written approval to sell the property from both the Standing Committee and the Bishop, we will be in a position to move forward with the sale.
H1N1 (Swine) Flu
The Diocese is working on guidelines for the parishes to consider as we move into the flu season and the concerns about the N1N1 flu virus. We will be obtaining containers of hand sanitizer to have throughout the nave for people to use after exchanging the peace (one is already available for use by the liturgical ministers at the altar), and we will disseminate guidelines and plans as they are formulated.
In Consideration of Others
I have been asked to address once again what Jean addressed last year regarding the use of personal fragrances. Some individuals are extremely sensitive to these fragrances, especially if the fragrance is overpowering. For some with asthmatic conditions, these fragrances can bring on an asthma attack or tightening of the chest. I know none of us would knowingly with to cause someone to suffer. We ask all to please be sensitive to those around you.
Senior Luncheons
The Senior Luncheons, after going on hiatus for a year, will begin again on Monday, October 19th. Thank you to Carol Livingston for stepping forward to coordinate this effort. Carol reports that the numbers have dropped to about fifty people per meal. We have the “chief cook” set for October and November. Please call Carol at 524-1176 if you are able to volunteer as the chief cook for a meal in one of the following months.
Thank Yous
I offer thanks to Rick Hamilton for his donation of shingles for the storage shed at the back of the parking lot, and to Nathan and Bryan Powers for their labor in replacing the roof. I was informed that the roof was in such poor state that it rained inside the shed!
Thanks to Jim Fouts for doing some major vacuuming at the rectory. Unfortunately, the dust, etc., in the basement drove him out and he was unable to complete that part of the building. Also, thanks to him for disposing of rubble, both from the rectory and the church.
Carolyn Fouts, Senior Warden
From our Deacon:
Book and Bake
Pastoral Care:
October 11 after Mass we will have brief Training Class for Lay Eucharistic Visitors. We will work out a visiting schedule. The paperwork has been sent to the bishop and you will receive the official license in the near future.
November 2
Pastoral Care meeting 5:15-6:30 at the
Youth Group all youth from 7th grade –12 grade. We will meet October 25, 10:15 11:30 with Pizza and salad and to see if there is interest to meet monthly. Movies, helping those in need, and some discussion based on ‘My Faith My Life’ a teens guide to the Episcopal Church. Deacon Jim
"Oath" of OfficeWhat are you really bad at that you’d love to be good at? Tatting. I've always wanted to learn to tat - the delicacy of the lace is just wonderful. I took a class last year, but the craft really needs more than a four-hour session. I found I just could not coordinate my fingers to work.
Of all those who held office in
Once while driving
Submitted by Jim Fouts
An Update from the Ministry Discernment Committee
The MDC has completed telephone interviews with clergy candidates. The MDC is now in the process of making travel arrangements to send some of the MDC members to visit with candidates at the their current parishes. The intent of the visits are to see the clergy with their congregations, to hear them preach, to observe and to get to meet with them in person. When this is complete we will then be asking candidates to come to St. Luke's for interviews with the entire MDC at which the Vestry will be in attendance and observing. After the interviews are complete the MDC will offer recommendations to the Vestry on the candidates and the Vestry will make the decision on which clergy candidate to call as our new pastor. It is difficult to determine exactly how long this will still take, but significant progress is being made and the MDC will continue to keep you updated as we can. Thank you.
Respectfully,
St. Luke's Ministry Discernment Committee
Partners for Sacred Places
On Saturday, September 12th St. Luke’s Core Team of Joyce Chase, Jim Ballard, Rick Hamilton and Carolyn Fouts attended Module I of four modules for this program. St. Luke’s is one of nine Parishes in the Diocese who have signed up for this training. The other parishes include St. Peter’s, Bennington; St. James’, Arlington; Trinity Church, Rutland; St. Andrew’s, St. Johnsbury; Church of Our Savior, Killington; Christ Church, Montpelier; St. Peter's, Lyndonville; and St. Paul’s, White River Junction.
Partners for Sacred Places is a national, non-profit, non-sectarian organization founded in 1989 to help Americans embrace, care for, and make good use of older and historic religious properties. Their goals are:
1. To help congregations and their communities be good stewards of their sacred places.
2. To develop an effective national network of advocates for sacred places.
3. To enhance public understanding of the value of sacred places as irreplaceable assets that create and sustain community life.
There are four items which Partners for Sacred Places will help us do: learn to tell our story, help build relationships in the community at large, help with matching interests in the community, and help with motivation to act. This intensive program is meant to give us tools to help us figure out how much we currently contribute to the community, through space and volunteers, what other opportunities there might be for us to consider in usage of our facilities, and to survey the building to analyze what needs to be done to refurbish and maintain it. The basic Tool Kit, which we received, includes an on-line analysis tool to calculate our public value. Nationwide it has been calculated that the average annual subsidy provided by a congregation to their local community is over $140,000 per year. The tool kit, entitled “A Tool Kit to Attract New Resources and New Partners, includes booklets outlining:
1. Introduction: Your Sacred Place is a Community Asset.
2. Calculating Your Public Value
3. Exploring Your Heritage: A Timeline of Events in our nation’s history on which we can place our own historic events as a parish.
4. Assessing Your Building
5. Discovering Your Partners
6. Telling Your Story.
Some of these items we have already begun to work on in the creation of the profile for the discernment process. The program will provide us a small library of resource materials. In addition to the Tool Kit, we brought home the following materials from the first session: “Maintenance Manual: A Program for Inspection and Seasonal Maintenance of Religious Properties” and “Managing Repair and Restoration Projects.” Additionally, there are training handouts for each module.
The ultimate goals will be to expand the use of our facilities through expansion into the community, and looking for community partners who can help us with financial resources to address the deferred maintenance issues facing St. Luke’s. The four of us are the core team, but we will be looking for help from the entire Parish as we go through this training over the next several months.
The next session, which the Core Team will attend, is on Saturday, November 14th. Meanwhile, the team will begin its homework, which includes thinking and brainstorming the three questions which are the foundation of our Parish’s story: Who We Are, What We Have, and What We Do.
LAWN
We would like to thank everyone who helped make the St. Luke's 12th Annual Lawn and Bake
OCTOBER & NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES
Henry Pierce 10/03, Jerry Johnson 10/10, Alan Mashtare 10/13, David Ryan 10/15, Tom Hemond 10/17, Mason Mashtare 10/20, Linda Houghton 10/23, James Chase 10/25, Louise Counos 10/28, Lynn Cassavoy 10/30, Taylor Barrette 10/31, Amy Gerrity Parent & Carole Parent 10/03 - John & Sandra Casavant 10/09, Susie Chagnon & Mike Martell 10/12 - Carole Parent 11/03, Gavin Parent 11/05, Mary Hamm 11/07, Amy Gerrity Parent 11/08, Herk Dunsmore 11/11, Korey Counos 11/12 , James Fouts 11/15, Brian Barrette 11/16, Frank MacNeil 11/25, Judith Holzscheiter 11/25, Cynthia Rugg 11/27,Ruth Hungerford 11/29, Kathy Carter 11/29, James Alexander 11/29, Lynn & Alan Gott 11/07
Following is the first in what I hope will be many of parish profiles; a way to get to know each other a little better. If anyone is interested, please contact me.
Parish Profiles – Carolyn Fouts
What brought you to St. Luke’s? Jim and I moved to St. Albans on our first wedding anniversary in 1971, when Jim was beginning his career at BFA. Since both of us were Episcopalians and were in the habit of attending church we began attending the following week. I had known Father Irving from years earlier when I was a camper at Rock Point and he was the chaplain.
Where did you grow up and what was it like? I grew up in Northfield, a small college town in the middle of the state. I was a "townie", Jim have attended Norwich University. Northfield is one of those "normally colder pockets", with temperatures often twenty below zero in the winter. We always walked to school - living in the village there was no bussing available. It was interesting - there was a very limited hot lunch program in elementary school, but none at all in high school. Most of us who lived in the village walked home for lunch; the others brought brown bag lunches. My grandparents, then my parents, owned a local five and dime that my grandfather founded during the Depression. My mother, at eighty, still operates the store today.
How did you meet your spouse? Jim and I met at the old skating rink at Norwich University. It was near the end of the season, so there were only a few skaters on the ice. It was nearly a year after we met before we actually started dating, since I was still in high school and he was in college.
Where do/did you work? After spending ten years at the Parish Secretary at St. Luke's, I entered the accounting profession as a staff accountant at KPMG in Burlington. I was there for just over two years, before moving on the Resolution, Inc., in South Burlington. I worked for them for nearly sixteen years before 'retiring' in 2007 as the company's controller. Currently, I work very part time in Swanton at Via Cheese as their controller.
Do you have any children? We have two adult children, Kathryn and Christopher. Kathryn is a single mom and an assistant controller for a credit union in Ohio. She is the mother of our two grandchildren, Hannah (11) and Jakob (9). Christopher and Lauren live in Virginia, where is he a senior engineer for a governmental subcontractor and she is an educator for autistic children.
Do you have any pets? We have Bentley, a terrier mix of some sort.
What is your favorite thing to do? I guess my passion is counted cross-stitch. I enjoy watching a piece evolve from plain fabric into a picture. When I near the completion of a piece, it's sometimes difficult to put it down and go to bed.
What goals are you still working toward? My immediate goal is to continue to help the Parish through our transition period to where we welcome our new Rector and begin our journey together with that person.
What is something you are really proud of and why? We are both proud of our children. They have both become adults with successful careers, are responsible and sensitive people. I only wish they lived closer so we could enjoy their company more often!
Tell me about a memorable moment in your life, a time you will never forget. The time that immediately comes to mind is last year when we were in Parish. For nearly as long as I have been with Jim I have worn Shalimar, his favorite fragrance. Since we were in Parish, I wasnted to visit the Guerlain spa to purchase some Shalimar. We found the store and were greeted by a white-gloved, tuxedo-clag gentleman, who opened the door for us. We were told that the broader selection was upstairs, so we made our way upstairs to a floor space that was lined in gold-leafed ceramic tile. Everything was absolutely exquisite, as were the customer service representatives as well as the other customers. We probably stuck right out in our very casual apparel. Anyway, after being waited on and making my very expensive, once-in-a-lifetime purchase, the representative asked if I would like to wear some of my fragrance out the door. Well, I think you could have smelled me halfway across Parish after she finished dousing me and my clothing!
When people look back at your life, how do you want to be remembered? I would honestly have to say that this is not something I think about.
Submitted by Martha Ryan
Tidings
The monthly newsletter of Visit us on the web at
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church www.stlukesstalbans.org
George. Moyser @ uvm.edu
Please submit articles to:
Editor: Martha Ryan Deacon: The Rev. Jim Ballard
Tel. 527-0270 Tel: 892-7734
Email: ryanmd@myfairpoint.net Email: Jamesbmilton @omcast.net
Office: Jo-Anne Blouin Sr. Warden: Carolyn Fouts
Telephone: 524-6212 Telephone: 524-4842
Stlukesfamily@myfairpoint.net Email: cdgf1970@comcast.net
Chair of ministry Discernment Committee
Alan Cassavoy - Telephone: 524-5798
