The vestry most recently met on Thursday, September 10, for their monthly meeting. We start our meetings at 6:30, sharing a meal provided by a vestry member. The business portion of the meeting begins at 7:00 with an opening prayer.
We began with a review of the financial reports for July and August.
The vestry then welcomed Mike Scrutton, Visioning Team Leader, to discuss and share views and insights about the recent Parish Retreat, “Moving Forward Together.” He reported of a thoughtful and insightful day, and vestry members who attended commented about the gratitude felt by the attendees, as well as a strong feeling of community and caring. He shared the Team’s next projects (such as building a more accurate database), and he will report back to the vestry as activities progress.
We then welcomed Deacon Ken Parris, to follow-up with our discussion from last month’s meeting, about The Charter for Compassion (www.charterforcompassion.org). The Charter for Compassion is a world-wide organization whose Vision is, “A world where everyone is committed to living by the principle of compassion.” Vestry members were encouraged to read about it, and consider signing the charter as individuals, with many of us signing up to affirm the Charter. We also discussed signing the Charter as a parish, and decided as a group that St. James’ should do so, as a means to fulfill one of our roles, bringing compassion to our community. Meg Amouroux offered to register St. James’ as a Charter partner, and did so on Sept. 12, 2015. We look forward to future conversations and activities regarding the Charter, examining ways in which the parish can contribute. Please see an additional article about the Charter, found here.
We continued with conversation regarding the upcoming Stewardship Tailgate Event on October 3, and followed with an educational session on pledging and stewardship.
Our vestry sub-groups (one focusing on improving ways to welcome, invite and integrate visitors and new members of St. James’, and another group looking at growing the participation and impact from the many ministries already in place), will soon complete their current tasks, and will next shift to combining their efforts into a new ministry, focusing on welcoming and participation.
Our meeting closed at 9:00, and we finished our evening together with Compline service in the Little Church.
~ Meg Amouroux, Jr. Warden