The MDC is under way!
Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 July 2010 11:13 Written by Ronny Johnson Tuesday, 06 July 2010 11:10
Dear Members and Friends of St. Michael’s,
Greetings! We are under way! The Ministerial Discernment Committee (MDC) has begun the task of guiding St. Michael’s through the process of finding our next settled rector.
As you may know if you have been in church recently, our chairperson, Betty Elwell, has given you the first couple of what will be regular update announcements about the search, to keep you apprised of our work.
We turn now to the greatest source of guidance from within the St. Michael’s community--you!
First of all, will you pray for us? We encourage you to do more than just give a passing nod in our direction. Please “enfold our discernment process in prayer.” Whatever you’re able to do to lift up our needs to God will be a powerful support.
Secondly, we need you to take an active role in the discernment process. We need to hear your prayerful thoughts and reflections on the following questions, which are at the heart of our work. This will help us compose a picture or profile of St. Michael’s: who we are, what we value, and where we would like to go from here.
- Who are we, the St. Michael’s community, at this point in our Christian journey?
- Who is God calling us to be in the next season of our ministry?
- What gifts and skills do we need, both in ourselves and from clergy leadership, to get there?
To answer these crucial questions, we are asking you to take part in two different events during the month of July. Each event will be held on two separate occasions to enable as many as possible to attend.
The first event, which will be held on Sunday July 11th in the undercroft after the 10:00 service, will be a taking of our history as a community. To help us better understand who we are, what is important to us, and where we may be headed, together we will construct a timeline of significant events, both actual and spiritual, in our parish life from 1940 to today. This exercise will be continued on Sunday July 18th during the parish picnic, at 4:00 at Bill and Nancy Ames’s lovely home.
The second event will be our opportunity as a body to respond to and discuss the three questions listed above. The first meeting will take place on Monday evening July 19th at 7:00 in the undercroft, and the second will be on July 25th after the 10:00 service.
Child care will be provided at the meetings on Sunday the 11th and Sunday the 25th, and light refreshments will be served.
We cannot stress enough the importance of your involvement in these meetings, as you are the discerning body of St. Michael’s. However, we also understand that you might be unable to attend one or both of the two events. If this is the case, we ask you to contact anyone on the committee (listed below) to convey your thoughts.
Once we have gathered your responses, we will put together a profile of St. Michael’s which will be posted on the parish website and given to all prospective candidates to help them understand who we are and decide whether St. Michael’s is the right place for them.
We pray that this will help us find a clergy person who can appreciate and support the St. Michael’s community as we are now, who shares our values, and who can help us grow in our faith, explore new directions and ideas, and reach new understandings of who we are and how we can live out our faith together.
Please join us! Let us undertake this discernment process hand-in-hand!
Faithfully,
The Ministerial Discernment Committee
Betty Elwell, chair: 254-6815;
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Sarah Benton: 254-8772;
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Melanie Boese: (h) 254-0147; (cell) 802-451-6717;
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Wayne Cook: 896-9446;
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Ronny Johnson: 257-7143;
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Martin Leggott: (h) 258-2330; (cell) 258-1613;
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Sissi Loftin: 254-9509;
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David Mattocks: 254-2518;
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Christopher Wesolowski: 365-9139;
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