Transitional Priest In Charge Report
St. Luke’s Church-Granville
This past month has seen the kickoff of the stewardship campaign, Transforming Generosity, as well as the celebration of St. Luke’s Sunday and the commissioning of the Discernment Team.
St. Luke’s Sunday, with one service at 9 a.m., saw 90 in attendance. The restored portrait of Dr. William S. Richards was unveiled and will hang next to the oil painting of Bishop Philander Chase.
That same weekend was the memorial service for long-time parishioner, Lyn McKenna. The following week another long-time parishioner, Judy Janssens, also died. Her memorial service will be held Saturday, November 17 at 2:00 pm with interment at Greenlawn cemetery on Monday, November 19.
I attended a community vigil for the victims of the Tree of Life Synagogue on Monday, October 29 as well as participated in a student led Shabbat service at the Open Door house the following Friday evening.
The 144th Diocesan Convention was held at the Procter Center on November 3. Dave Proctor, Wayne Piper, Karen Dowdy-Fullin, Michelann and myself all attended. Three resolutions (the dissolution of the union between St. Andrew’s-Dayton and the Diocese of Southern Ohio, Becoming the Beloved Community, and funding for church planting) all passed unanimously.
From a programmatic standpoint, I have approached several individuals about open positions in important ministry areas (fellowship, adult education, youth group) but was unable to have anyone commit to this work. I will continue to sound people out and I believe we will have someone by the spring to coordinate Adult Education for the fall/spring of 2019. Sometimes in interim periods people step back not because they are unhappy but because they are tired and over-extended. Some ministries take a sabbatical and after some rest new people rise up to take the reins. It is hoped that this will indeed be the case after the Spiritual Gifts classes are offered in January and February. Mary Tuominen and I will be teaching it together.
The Discernment Retreat was held for the team on Saturday, November 10th at Trinity-Newark. The team developed the team covenant-the core values that will guide their work together over the next six months. It is hoped that the profile will be done by January 15th so that it can be uploaded to the national data base. Between 45-60 days later the Diocese will give the team the names of the candidates that have applied and been initially vetted. Interviews will hopefully occur through March and April with a candidate chosen and brought to the vestry around the middle of April or early May. It is hoped that the new rector will be on site by July 1.
An important component to loading the profile and having interested candidates apply is that the website must be done and up to date as of the date of beginning to accept names. I have spoken with Robin Whittington who has offered her services to redevelop the site and to put in on a platform that translates the site well from computer to tablet to phone. Right now the platform that is being used does not do that translation very well. She has also offered to keep it current.
The Stewardship Campaign had a good first week but has been slow in receiving in-coming pledges. The good news is that the pledges that are coming in show an increase in the amounts being pledged by the majority of those that have been received. A real push by the vestry needs to be made in reaching those who have not as of yet turned in their pledge card.
Confirmation will be held this Sunday at 10:00 at Trinity-Newark. St. Luke’s has five confirmands that will be confirmed: Rose Pasqualetti, Spenser Miller, Ava Minton, Trey Poling, and Sophia Gustafson.
Looking forward, I will be participating in the ecumenical Thanksgiving service at First Presbyterian Church this coming Sunday, the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day as well as the Diocesan Clergy Retreat at the end of the month.