This is the first time in my 21 years as your Rector that our Annual Meeting has taken place after the President’s State of the Union Address. So I will begin this year’s Report on the Spiritual Condition of the Parish by declaring, with apologies to St. Paul (Ephesians 5:32) and the Book of Common Prayer (page 423), “the State of the Union between Christ and his Church is strong,” and that because of this union between Christ and his Church, I have never been more hopeful about our future than I am this morning.
2009 was an extraordinary year.
Thanks to the Lilly Grant, we began the parish’s Sabbatical year with consultant Susan Czolgosz. After leading the Vestry Retreat, she introduced a process of parish-wide reflection through the Church Assessment Tool and several workshops. Her work culminated in a presentation of St. Gregory’s parish profile, which revealed that we have a progressive theological perspective, a flexible style that is able and willing to respond to the changing needs both within our congregation and out in the community, and especially high scores in hospitality, morale, governance, engagement in education, and worship and music.
Our life together has been strengthened immeasurably by those of you from St. Hilary’s who began worshiping with us during the spring and early summer, finding homes in each of our three distinctive services. Since then you have begun to participate in the Adult Forums and several of our ministries, from the Buildings and Grounds Management Team to our Family Support Ministry. At the same time, the number of our Sedgebrook parishioners has grown, and soon the “Brookies” will join the “Grovers”― parishioners who live in Buffalo Grove― as our newest affinity group. Finally, we have also welcomed new members from our surrounding communities, including our first new family from our Preschool.
Speaking of our Preschool, Debbie Ham-Bolger and parishioner Sara Lemrise continue their outstanding work in administering and teaching our seven morning and five afternoon students. Although it is a small program, it is paying its own way and has a healthy net worth balance of over $15,000. Parishioners Sis Lyon and Sybil Ten Eyck have been faithful volunteers in the Preschool for several years now, and Carol Hirsheimer will be joining them beginning this coming Wednesday.
During the summer Meredith led the congregation in a breadth of activities which exacted a toll on her health though not, thank God, on her spirit or commitment to the ministry we share. Please be sure to read her Report on the other side of the Minutes from last year, and please join me now in recognizing the incredible work she does for our parish.
In the meantime, I was on Sabbatical in Wales, England, France, and Madagascar. You have already heard Ingrid and me talk about or blog about our Sabbatical, but the situation in Haiti gives me the chance to say one thing more about the importance of our companion relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ in Fort Dauphin.
Those of you who have been in third world countries, as now Ingrid and I have, know from firsthand experience how a country like Haiti, with its pitiable lack of infrastructure from roads to utilities, is hampered in getting relief aid where it’s so desperately needed.
Looking beyond the relief efforts, there is now a great deal of talk about rebuilding all of Haiti from the bottom up. If this actually happens, it will be a massive undertaking. Now for some comparisons. Haiti is the 26th poorest country in the world; Madagascar is the 20th poorest country. Haiti is smaller than Maryland; Madagascar is larger than California. If rebuilding Haiti would be a massive undertaking, imagine what it would take to rebuild Madagascar! Our companion relationship is a powerful sign of hope for the church in Fort Dauphin.
But the most relevant comparison is not between Haiti and Madagascar; it’s between those two countries and our own, and that brings me to the Missions Board.
First, I want to thank Kathie Heidenfelder and the previous Missions Board members for all their hard and faithful work, and Kathie has provided her report on their activities through the summer.
Now I’d like to introduce the Team Leaders of our new Missions Board, and ask them to say a word about the organizations they have chosen to support with the remaining funds from our 2009 Parish Tithe:
Leigh Stewart and Jeff Singleton, Diocese and Episcopal Charities
Shirley Traettino and Butler Sharpe, Parish and Local
Sarah Snyder and Jon Dutcher, National and International
I invite all of you to come to the next Missions Board meeting on April 11, the Sunday after Easter, to decide which organizations will benefit from our parish’s generosity, remembering the words of our Lord Jesus, how he said, “As you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to me” (Matthew 25:31ff).
In parallel with the great undertaking of our Sabbatical last year we also successfully completed a second great undertaking: the development of a Master Plan.
Whether or not we approve the Master Plan― and I hope we will vote to approve it― this work has directly invigorated the Buildings and Grounds Management Team― the BGMT, for short. One of my pleasant surprises on returning from Sabbatical was the discovery of three new members of the BGMT: Pam Dorband, who brings a wealth of experience from her buildings and grounds management work at St. Hilary’s; Dan Aberson, a second-generation member of our parish with professional experience; and Dorthea White, to help keep an eye on expenditures and to lend her own expertise.
As BGMT’s interim Director, I asked for suggestions to develop a BGMT Project Plan as a counterpart to the Vestry’s Action Plan, so that every member of BGMT could literally be on the same page in reviewing our many buildings and grounds needs, however small or large. Pam Dorband then proposed creating two new documents which are now the first two orders of business at every BGMT meeting: a Calendar of routine and recurring maintenance tasks, and a Projects Status Report to keep track of BGMT’s Project Plans.
I will now circulate copies of the Project Plan Form and the most recently updated version of the Projects Status Report for sharing around the tables and chairs.
You will hear more during the Report of the Finance Committee, but I do want to say three things about our parish finances:
First, our books and cash flow are in the best shape they have been since the mid-1990s, because while our nation continued to suffer economically we had a strong year, thanks to our faithful parishioners and our increase in new members.
Second, even though we had a strong 2009, there are signs that the recession will have a larger impact on this year’s giving, so we have once again tightened our budgetary belts. Yet we can be thankful that we have entered 2010 in a strong position to weather this storm.
And third, it was with great relief that I handed over the Finance Committee to our Treasurer Dorthea White, and I want to acknowledge the outstanding work and long hours she has devoted to getting our books and finances in their present condition.
Now I’d like to mention three final items. First, I inaugurated our first Sunday Healing Services last year, and I will soon schedule them for 2010. Together with the Wednesday morning Eucharist with Healing and the Laying on of Hands, these new services evidently strengthen the spiritual condition of our parish.
Second, thanks to Erica’s suggestion, she and Jim Collins and Meredith and I have begun meeting monthly outside of our weekly staff meetings to think about and plan new initiatives to strengthen our worship and music, our youth programs, and other aspects of our shared ministries.
And third, in 2010 we will complete the unfinished business of developing our Mission and Vision statements. As I mentioned last Sunday at the Adult Forum, we need a Mission Statement we can all remember and shout across the street, and a Vision Statement that sees the future we intend to bring to reality.
And now, for the twenty-first time, I conclude my Report on the Spiritual Condition of the Parish with these words from St. Paul:
“Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen” [Ephesians 3:20-21].
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