Doug Miller, Senior Warden, called the vestry of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Elizabeth City Parish, to order on September 15, 2015 at 6:35pm. Present were members Doug Miller, Dan Clark, George Cornwell, David Edmonson, Ann Templeman, The Reverend Samantha Vincent-Alexander, Val Bowen, Mary Pat Croft, Kevin Eley, Thomas Miller, Bettyrene Pope and Mark Riley. Absent from the meeting was Linda Curtis and Youth representative Jess Miller.
Mary Pat began the meeting with a psalm reading.
Bettyrene will do the psalm reading for the October meeting.
Minutes from the July and August meetings were reviewed. The minutes were approved. Motion to approve by Dan Clark seconded by Mary Pat.
Treasurer’s Report
Since Linda wasn’t present, Doug reported that Linda would generate the report and email it out to the vestry by the end of the month.
Rector’s Report
Mark Riley
Samantha introduced Mark Riley and Mark introduced himself to the vestry. While at St. John’s, Mark will be helping with preaching, adult formation, confirmation classes, youth, EYC, and pastoral care. Samantha would also like him to begin a weekly Bible study group, work on small group ministries and work on homeless ministry.
There will be a letter coming out to the congregation introducing Mark and Samantha will make an announcement Sunday, September 20th in church about him. He will start Monday, September 21st and his first Sunday will be September 27th.
Since the diocese is paying half his salary, this is training opportunity for Mark and he would like to form a group of parishioners who offer feedback to his sermons.
Website
Brian McMahon has handed over everything to Jen and she is acting as the administrator. The new website should be ready in a week. New schedules need to be sent to Jen so she can get the site up-to-date.
Ministry Fair
Eleanor Brown (stewardship) and Ann Templeman will be planning and organizing a Ministry Fair on Sunday, October 25th after the 10:30 service. It will also be a Build your own Fajita event and every committee will bring something for the fajitas. This will be parishioners an opportunity to see all the groups and give the ministries an opportunity to showcase what they do and solicit volunteers.
Covenant Conversations will be held Sunday, September 20th after the 8:00 service and after the 10:30 service, led by Samantha. The following Sunday, September 27th there will be small group discussions between the services. Samantha asked vestry members to be at each of the small groups and to bring back any observations.
- Thomas Miller – YAC group
- Ann – Adult Discussion Group
- Kevin – Men’s group
- Doug/Samantha – Adult Forum
- Dan – Choir
- Bettyrene/Mary Pat – HYC Breakfast bunch
Certificate of Lay Delegates
Samantha reviewed the slate of lay delegates. Dan Clark was added as an alternate in 2017. Doug made the motion to approve the slate and Dan seconded it. Ann and Samantha signed the document.
Junior Warden Report
Bettyrene went over all the projects she had taken on the past month. It was confirmed that she will be able to approve work for the church without coming to the vestry for amounts under $500.00. Bettyrene and Carrie Quinn have begun working on the church maintenance list. New signage is on the list and they hope to receive funding from the Endowment Board for that.
Senior Warden Report
For Rick Bagley’s appointment to the Endowment Board, he needs to know the official name because he has to run it through his work’s conflict system. Dan will call Rick to give him that information.
Doug gave a recap of the vestry retreat for those who could not attend.
Mary Williams Trust update-an update was given by the Board to Samantha on how they see the trust being used long-term. It was a productive meeting discussing what they spent money on and what they envision spending money on. There is $40,000 left for this year. They want to maintain a balance of $100,000 in the Peninsula Community Trust and then have maintenance contracts, etc. built into the budget. They would also like to build up the endowment for the cemetery fund. The cemetery fund received $12,000 in donations based on the letter that was mailed.
A staffing issue was discussed so the vestry moved to an executive session.
Newcomers
Doug gave an update on the newcomers committee. They have had a couple of meetings and it has been a very enthusiastic group. Nancy Adams has taken on reviewing the process of how St. John’s reaches out to newcomers and who is responsible.
Nickerson Trust
Val discussed her hand out and findings on the Nickerson Trust.
It was announced that Bettyrene would head up Night’s Welcome.
Samantha asked if we should have a welcome reception for Mark and it was agreed that we would and the vestry would host it. We will have it after the 10:30 service on September 27th. Bettyrene will send out an email coordinating what vestry members will bring.
The meeting was closed with another reading of the psalm and we adjourned at 8:12 pm.
Submitted by
Ann Templeman, registrar