Below you can find the Vestry News and Review, a monthly message from the Vestry. These are sent out periodically via our newsletter and posted here.
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Vestry News and Review, message from the Vestry May 31, 2024:
At the beginning of March, the Vestry met for a couple of days at the Mercy Center in Auburn for our annual planning retreat. You might wonder what goes on in these meetings. You might be thinking of:
- A lavish social gathering,
- An ice breaker, so this year’s Vestry members can get to know each other,
- Team-building exercises,
- A review of “the St. Martin’s story thus far”,
- A quick course in the church finances, since the Vestry’s central role is to manage the finances,
- An exploration of our current needs and goals,
- A chance to worship together, and
- Planning for some initial (“baby”) steps.
This may sound like a blend between a big party and a 48-hour committee meeting, and that’s not entirely out of line. We tried to intersperse our fellowship moments into the important but “less fun” activities. There was a presentation of some of the challenges that face main-line Protestant churches in general, and where St. Martin’s in particular is starting out the year. This year, there were some grown-up discussions of the parish that we currently are, the one that we would like to become in the future, and what we can do to help get from here to there. There were other discussions about some repairs we are facing that are potentially expensive, and how we strike a balance between our immediate needs and longer-term needs. If you want to know what we “decided”, we’re not at that point yet, but I think we made a good start at fleshing out some of the important questions.
I’ve been remiss by waiting over two months to write up this summary, and we’re hoping to have regular reports from the Vestry in the months to come. These will probably focus on specific issues that were discussed at the most recent Vestry meeting, and so they should be briefer.
