FALL/HARVEST ISSUE NO. 65 SEPTEMBER 2013 - St Paul's ...

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CONGREGATIONAL MEETING (Adapted) JULY 14, 2013 OPENING PRAYER – The Reverend Bob Hartley gave the opening prayer. WELCOME TO ALL – At 11:10 a.m. Warden Dave Golding welcomed the 63 people in attendance. Mr. Golding referred to the challenge made in the Vision Statement to “Know Jesus and Make Him Known”. The purpose of the meeting was to inform the congregation of the financial situation that St. Paul’s is facing at the moment. REVIEW OF THE LETTER SENT TO THE PARISH MEMBERS – Mr. Golding noted that St. Paul’s has been dealing with a number of challenges, both spiritually and physically this past year. He accepted that there has been a lack of due diligence and protocol carried out in certain situations. He mentioned that the Youth Ministry should be continued and that part-time positions to support seniors and children in the parish would be welcomed and needed ministries. These ministries could be initially financed using seed money from the Diocese but we would have to grow our revenues to continue them in future years. In 2002, St. Paul’s understood that they would receive a grant of $30,000 for the Youth programme for 2013 and we received $10,000.00 of that at that time. We thought that we only needed to reapply in 2013 for the additional $20,000.00. The Reverend Warren Leibovitch put in an application for $187,000.00 in early May before he left on his Sabbatical. This was to cover the salaries of a full-time Youth Pastor plus a Children’s coordinator and a senior’s Pastor. We were turned down “carte blanche”. Dave Golding asked the question: How do we fund the Youth pastor for 1014 - 2015 The Warden met with Bishop Linda Nicholls who said that St. Paul’s needs to prove more sustainability for the future years. OUR SOLUTIONS TO FUND YOUTH MINISTRY FOR 2013 (a) Increased givings-raise by $1.00 each week would equal $12,000.00 and meet our obligation to Dave Edney. (b) Grown the church. There has not been an increase in the number of families. Youth programme, a Christian-driven Outreach programme, is bringing in kids-teenagers. (c) Gift cards—more usage required. (d) PAR—need more support of the programme ADDITIONAL WAYS (a) New service—bring next generation in to the church (b) Bishop Linda advised that our application for a 2014 grant be submitted. . QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Harold Brown: How is this shortfall going to be funded Will it deplete our cash-in-hand Answer: Dave Golding: The Wardens do not intend to touch our investments this year. If that is required a Special Vestry must be held. Harold Brown: 3 areas where there is money that we could use. 1. Music Fund—no Music Director since Arlene’s resignation 2. Rector’s discretionary Fund-Rector on Sabbatical leave—not using Fund 3. Planned purchase of audio visual equipment-church cannot afford this now Answer: 1. Part of music allocation is now being used to bring in organists each Sunday 2. Rector’s Discretionary Fund is simply that – at the behest of the Rector 3. There are no audiovisual funds set aside at the present time. Purchase of equipment would have to be budgeted or raised. Don Tansey: Squeeze more money out of the parishioners. Increase the congregation with special services. Give more support to the Youth Pastor. Answer – Frank Mills: We are working on a service tailored for the under 40 crowd. There is a need for it. Many younger people find the church intimidating. Garnet Powell: St. Paul’s hit a low point in the 70’s. Ernie Lowen was Rector and there were many structural problems to deal with. A Talent Fund was started which instigated such events as the Pancake Supper, Fair Food Booth, Strawberry Supper and more. With regard to the letter sent to the congregation it was too bad that the children’s programme had been shelved—was this due to a lack of funding The good news was that the Diocese turned down the request for $187,000.00. We cannot afford these programmes. I suggest that we consider a part-time senior’s ministry like that in place years ago—2 days a week—to be started ASAP. Paul Carpentier: I concur with Garnett’s statements. We cannot sustain these programmes and also we need to be invested in any programmes not just rely on a hand-out from the Diocese. We need to be realistic—do we really need these positions We need good budgeting practices. Brenda O’Keefe: We are a congregation of seniors. I will donate a diamond ring to help cover costs. Dave Golding: Thank you Brenda—that won’t be necessary. Bob Whitfield: We need to be tapping in to the many newly retired people coming to Lindsay. These are folks in their early sixties. Gina Coleman: We need more transparency with regard to our finances. We should not make commitments that we cannot pay for. The money needs to be there (i.e. grants) before we start programmes and hire new staff. There needs to be due diligence and we require a Finance Committee to oversee our expenditures. St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Lindsay, ON 705-324-4666 office-st-pauls-lindsay.ca www.st-pauls-lindsay.ca 6
Paul Carpentier: I thought that we had a Finance Committee. Wasn’t that accepted at Vestry 2013 If not one needs to be set-up and it need to be at arms-length. Wayne Edney: All you people ever talk about is money. You need to pray more and believe that prayer will result in the money being found. Barbara Truax: The building permit for the ramp at the back of the church has arrived and the work will start shortly. This has been paid for with a grant from the chest Fund. SUMMARY AND THANK YOU Dave Golding thanked everyone for coming and enduring the heat in the church. The meeting finished at 12:05 p.m. Pat & Ross Smyth St. Paul’s Archivist ST. PAUL’S MISSION: PAST AND PRESENT (A synopsis of the 2013 “Welcome Back Sunday” talk and the 2011 “175 th Anniversary” stories) T Rev. John Vicars Rev. Samuel Weston-Jones Rev. Charles Henry Marsh hey are seven simple words, easy to remember but fundamental to all we believe in and do as committed church workers. Phrased many ways in the past, they carried us through 175 year of our life. Phrased as we now know them, they grew out of renewal workshops in 2010 and flowed through our 175 th Anniversary in 2011. They are our mission for renewal: “To know Jesus and make him known”. Back before those Anniversary celebrations, we had started digging into St. Paul’s archives in order to write newspaper articles about who we were in the past, what kind of road we traveled to get here and why we have been successful. We soon realized we needed to know more about our present and future as part of that long story. That’s when we learned about the workshops: how some of you came together to define our core values, create those seven words and build the six-part vision that grew out of it: outreach, small group action, youth and families, worship practices, space and facilities, and stewardship. Intrigued, we asked Rev. Warren a question: “How do we ensure our success” He said: “our renewal approach must be so clear and inspiring that each of us can easily understand our mission, vision and core values and actively take part”. We returned to our research and story-writing with the insights we gained from this, and soon began sensing two “self-evident truths” about renewals: First: if a church doesn’t periodically re-examine its past and present before choosing a fresh future, it will start spinning its wheels and become spiritually stale. And second: a successful renewal requires three critical components: a deep commitment to good works; a sustaining faith; and a congregation that resolves its issues with respect and love, and when all three exist, its impact can multiply that faith and those good works beyond bounds. It was true in our past. Each era had its own social perspectives and issues but each successful renewal had the same combination of faith, good works and a loving congregation. Three examples: In 1855, six people met in Lindsay’s old town hall where our services were held by travelling missionaries. John Thirkell, Thomas Patrick, George Roche, John Bryans, J. H. Coulter and Joshua Fidler. They had been working together for a decade to prepare the way for a first church and rector. Land was finally available on Kent Street and the funds to build and hire had been worked out. But they shouldn’t have been able to work together. They came from different parts of the world, had different jobs and different St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Lindsay, ON 705-324-4666 office-st-pauls-lindsay.ca www.st-pauls-lindsay.ca 7
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Page 3 and 4: PARISH ORGANIZATION DIRECTORY Updat
Page 5: Carolyn Terry, Church Treasurer T F
Page 9 and 10: .. REMINDER TO ALL PARISHIONERS We
Page 11 and 12: TOTS TO TEENS DURING THE MONTHS OF
Page 13 and 14: St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Linds
Page 15 and 16: E.T.A. (Encouraging Travelling Alon
Page 17 and 18: PARISH PICTORIAL DIRECTORY UPDATE R
Page 19 and 20: .. ST. PAUL’S HARVEST HAPPENING D
Page 21 and 22: FOLLOW-UP …..HOW DID IT GO! STRAW
Page 23 and 24: Summer was a busy time at St. Paul
Page 25 and 26: We would be more than happy to acce
Page 27 and 28: Ritual: Oh that word! At the Seder

FALL/HARVEST ISSUE NO. 65 SEPTEMBER 2013 - St Paul's ...

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