St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church 2020 Annual Meeting January 24, 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS via Zoom 1 MINUTES OF 2019 ANNUAL MEETING 2-5 RECTOR’S REPORT AGENDA 6-7 SR. WARDEN’S REPORT 8 OPENING PRAYER & WELCOME WORSHIP COMMITTEE Almighty and everliving God, source of all wisdom and understanding, be present with music those who take counsel in this Annual Meeting for the renewal and mission of your Church. 9 Teach us in all things to seek first your honor and glory. Guide us to perceive what is right, and STEWARDSHIP grant us both the courage to pursue it and the grace to accomplish it; through Jesus Christ our 10-11 Lord. Amen. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION children CALL TO ORDER 12 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION ELECTION OF NEW VESTRY MEMBERS youth ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS 13 INTRODUCTION OF VESTRY NOMINEES - see addendum PARISH LIFE ELECTION OF NEW VESTRY MEMBERS 14 SPIRITUAL FORMATION REPORTS WELCOMING COMMITTEE BYLAWS REVISION - Rhonda Packer 15 BUILDINGS CHRISTIAN EDUCATION - Catherine Drewry GROUNDS STRATEGIC PLAN 16-17 RECTOR’S REPORT OUTREACH FINANCIAL REPORT - Les House 18 BUDGET PRESENTATION INREACH/PASTORAL CARE 19 CLOSING PRAYER AND ADJOURNMENT COMMUNICATIONS 20 FINANCE COMMITTEE LIFE OF OUR PARISH 21-27 TREASURER’S REPORT Addendum VESTRY BIOS ST. GREGORY ANNUAL REPORT PAGE 1 Minutes of the 2019 Annual Meeting Saint Gregory the Great January 19, 2020 Following an opening prayer, welcome and lunch the meeting was called to order at 12:25 p.m. by Mother Nikki. A slate of four nominees: Eddie Bennett, Karen Hankins, Caley Ross, and Jane Hudson was elected to the vestry by a ballot vote of 80 in favor with 1 opposed. Outgoing vestry members: Joan Curtis, Lois Alworth, Katie Reinberger, and Mason Somerville were recognized, applauded, and thanked for their service. Rhonda Packer reported on the draft revision of our bylaws that has been written in order to be in accord with the canons of our diocese and the national church. 2020 will be a trial year to allow time for the vestry to use and the parish to read and review. A feedback process will be in place. The draft will be available to read on Realm and hard copies will be available by request. A vote to accept the revision will be held at our 2020 annual parish meeting. Mother Nikki recognized individuals and highlighted her written report. We have been adhering to our budgeting criteria. Our Holy Cow survey for our church’s future direction indicated high excitement and high involvement. We now have committees to facilitate our plans to Nourish, Go, and Grow. We also have a new pastural care initiative, senior lunches with speakers sharing information about aging. Roger Swagler has stepped down from chairing the finance committee, Richard Cooper has stepped down from serving as treasurer and Mark Reinberger has stepped down from chairing building maintenance. Mother Nikki stated that she loves her job and her people, feels that she belongs here, and thanked all of us. New treasurer, Les House noted that church finances have been successfully audited. The new vestry will approve a budget when they next meet. The budget will be available to read on Realm and a hard copy will be posted. Our loose plate offering was the only item over budget for 2019. We have $7000 of that budget remaining because committees volunteered to spend some of their designated funds to help pay for recent building repairs. Joan Curtis, outgoing senior warden, attributed Mother Nikki’s leadership as the reason for our Holy Cow survey indicating higher energy than during our search process. Mother Nikki closed our meeting with a prayer at 1:13 p.m. and we applauded the parish life committee for our excellent soup lunch. Respectfully submitted by Alice Mohor ST. GREGORY ANNUAL REPORT PAGE 2 RECTOR’S REPORT Greatly Beloved, Happy Birthday, St. Gregory the Great!! We made it!! It’s our 50th year! Glory to God!! And I think it’s safe to say that when we met at Annual Meeting last year, no one could expect that this would be how we would meet the year of our 50th Anniversary. And yes, I have to say that I am sad that we are not currently meeting in person, but not as sad as I would be if we exposed one another to illness and death through COVID 19. That said, I couldn’t be more proud or feel more blessed to have walked the weird road of 2020 with this parish family here at St. Gregory the Great! Even in the face of the “longest Lentiest, Lent we’ve ever Lented” this parish has continued to partner with God with great faith, deep determination, and great creativity so that we could continue to NOURISH, GROW, and GO as God would have us do. As you may remember, NOURISH, GROW, and GO is what we as a parish discerned God was calling us to do, as we came together in prayer, holy listening, and sharing with one another in 2019 with more than 70 parishioners participating in the visioning focus groups, more than 100 in the CAT, and then over this past year more than 20 on work committees, and more than 30 provided feedback on draft strategic plan. Thank you all for being so diligent in this call, with special thanks to Rhonda Packer, Beth Thornton, and Kelly Black for spearheading the work on our Nourish, Grow, and Go Strategic Plan. (Please see this plan as detailed on our website at your convenience.) Nothing stopped us from walking with God, even being unable to meet in person for worship since March of 2020. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was dismayed to go from not passing the peace on the third Sunday of Lent to not physically meeting for worship at all since that time. But at St. Gregory the Great, we continued to NOURISH, GROW, and GO with God, because while the buildings may have closed, YOU, the CHURCH, remained not only open, but hard at work. Nourish: Our excellent staff has continued to do the work of God here as we nourish one another through our worship, in person at the beginning of the year, which by March, became worship online. Our Deacon, the Rev. Christina Dondero is a stellar preacher and teacher and provider of help to our immigrant community. Joe Napoli and Jonathan Klein continue to contribute excellence in their ministries of music. Joe continued to share his musical gifts with us despite the nearly impossible circumstance of choir members having to remain isolated from one another in their homes and Jonathan, as always, joyfully performed extra and new duties so that online services contained music and song at the stellar level to which we have happily become accustomed. Catherine Drewry, tireless and endlessly creative in her directing of Children’s ministries continues to show her true passion for families and children, and has worked to grow the children’s ministry even more this year. Amazing!! Jude Red-Bear, our nursery director, along with his staff of nursery attendants, has updated the nursery inside and out to the joy of parents and little ones, up until the time of our building closures. Mark Hein continues to extend excellent care with our grounds for which we are extremely grateful! Same goes for our miracle-working sexton, Allena Armour, who singlehandedly manages cleaning and set up for events in the buildings on our campus. And even though she suffered grave injury this year, she has returned to work here with vim and vigor. In addition, Kendall Kookogey, who does double duty as Parish Administrator and Bookkeeper, continues to be an amazing asset for me and for all of us who rely on her to keep things running so smoothly. continued on next page... ST. GREGORY ANNUAL REPORT PAGE 3 And there is absolutely NO WAY we could have resumed worship through online means with the level of professionalism and skill with which our YouTube channel and social media presence is maintained without the work of tireless parish volunteers Terri Tillman and Anthony Barkdoll. Online ministry has required the dedication of an actual second job, and both Terri and Anthony took on these duties, without pay, in addition to the already full schedules required by their career and family lives. The ministries of all these exceptional people form the firm foundation upon which our other ministries can function so well. Thank you all!! Pandemic notwithstanding, our staff continued to meet weekly via Zoom, to make sure our work of worship, pastoral care, and outreach was delivered displaying the best we had to offer. Because of your work and willingness as a church to try innovative ways of worship until we can meet again, we have instituted Sacred Journeys, which is safe, on-campus visiting of individuals and families to come walk the labyrinth in the parish hall and/or have quiet time to pray in the church. Because of your flexibility and ingenuity, I was able to continue pastoral care and spiritual counseling appointments with you via cell phone, FaceTime, or ‘regular’ phone conversations. Our Taizé services were instituted and continue online, thanks to Stacie Court, RuthElizabeth Conine-Nakano and her husband Dan Nakano, David Stooksbury, and Annette Bates. I do want to note that we lost a wonderful Children’s Minister and Christian Adult Ed instructor in the Rev. Gordon Bienvenue. He worked tirelessly with Rhythms of Grace and was instrumental in parish instruction on the holy prayer accessible through iconography. The Vestry has accomplished so much this year, (see the stellar Sr.