The vestry of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Elizabeth City Parish, was called to order on May 17, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. Present were: Senior Warden Jay Hogg, Junior Warden Bettyrene Pope, Registrar Lynn Kirkland, Anne Abraham, Bill Beach, Dan Clark, Jim Klotz, Doug Perry, Elizabeth Zimmerman, The Reverend Mark Riley and The Reverend Samantha Vincent-Alexander. Absent: Treasurer Linda Curtis
The meeting opened at 6:30 p.m. with a reading from John 5: 1-9.
Treasurer’s Report, Linda Curtis: Absent
A modified report was presented by Samantha. Linda returns on 5/21/22 and will present a detailed report at our next vestry meeting.
The April minutes were approved.
Rector’s Report, The Reverend Samantha Vincent-Alexander
Annual Meeting May 22, 2022 and breakfast will be provided by Baxter Simmons. The vestry will serve and clean up.
The vestry retreat is scheduled for September 16-17, 2022 at Chanco’s Watson Lodge
Church signs estimate was provided by SIGNMedia, Inc. to remove and repair two of the existing signs and to make a new vinyl plaque for the sign on the iron fence. All improvements are to update the new times of services. The cost of the signs is $749.54 to be paid from memorial funds. A motion was made by Jay Hogg to approve the update/repair of the church signs per the estimate by SIGNMedia, Inc. and seconded by Anne Abraham. The motion was approved unanimously.
There will be one summer service time at 9:00 a.m.
Samantha read the Vestry contract and all vestry members signed the document.
Samantha will ask the Endowment Fund Committee to pay for the cost of utilities and insurance for the church and parish hall. The cost is approximately $55,000.00 which is usually paid by the Mary Williams Fund. Dan Clark and Jay Hogg agreed to compile a list of capital improvements to be presented to the Endowment Fund and the Mary Williams Fund.
Assistant Rector’s Report, The Reverend Mark Riley
Darden Barrett put together a team of volunteers for The Mill Point Park beverage tent and took in a total of $427.00.
Mark is looking into Knock out Hunger 2022. There are two dates available, June 12-19, 2022 and September 18-25, 2022. These two times of the year are when families are more in need of food assistance.
Mark is also looking into the PACKHOPE Seed program which is similar to Rise Against Hunger. It is a beans and rice group event that is done in partnership with community churches in the area. This could be held in the parish hall.
The Lil’ Pantry continues to be a valuable service to the public and the need is growing. The pantry is filled daily and St. Marks continues to support this project. A resource list is going to be mounted to the box listing where meals can be found daily along with other services that may be helpful.
Mark met with Kay Perry to discuss bringing back the summer lunch program in mid June through August, approximately 10 weeks. There are logistic questions that are being looked into and Mark will have an updated report at our next vestry meeting.
Warden Reports
Senior Warden, Jay Hogg
Jay presented the MOU for the 2nd site dig. After reviewing the document, the vestry thought the language throughout the document should be consistent citing the cemetery fund instead of the church and a signature line be added on the last page of the document for Bob Shuford to sign. Elizabeth Zimmerman questioned if the Mary Williams Trust should be noted as the source of funding. Dan Clark suggested a 5% escrow account should be held back with each payment that’s made and paid at the end of the project to cover any incurred expenses if the project was to fold. It was also noted on item 19 b., a sentence or clause be added stating ACS is to return the site back to its original state. In item 23 a., change David Bishop to Samantha Vincent-Alexander with correct email address and add line c., To the Cemetery Fund: St. John’s Church, Attn: David Bishop, 100 West Queens Way, Hampton, VA 23669; email: [email redacted]. All of these changes will be presented to Larry Cumming for review prior to approving the document.
Junior Warden, Bettyrene Pope
Church painting is complete with a few small projects to be completed at a later date. A Ring doorbell and a regular doorbell has been added to the Hoffman House for extra security.
Committee Reports
Anne contacted Will Andrews of the Newcomers/Evangelism committee and he will be in contact with Samantha.
New Business
The picnic will be held on 6/5/22 after the 11:00 service.
The meeting concluded with a prayer and adjourned at 8:30 p.m.