You already know about annual meetings. For starters, they take place annually. Annual meetings are opportunities to come together to look over the challenges and accomplishments of the past year and to look forward to the challenges and opportunities of the upcoming year. This year our meeting will be Sunday, January 10, following the 10:30 service. We will have our usual (but always fabulous!) potluck lunch and we will hear various reports from wardens and committee chairs. We will also look at the budget that the vestry has adopted for 2010. All of these things are important even though this may not be the most scintillating event you will ever attend.
There is another activity at a parish meeting that is absolutely vital to the life of any parish, Church of the Ascension included, and that is the election of the vestry. As you may know, vestry members are elected to three-year terms staggered in such a way that three members rotate off each year. All vestry elections are important because it is the vestry—in Ascension's case, YOUR vestry—that provides the true leadership of the church.
"Well," you may ask, "what about the rector?" Of course, the rector always has a leadership role, but a savvy rector will never choose to carry the onus of leadership alone. Besides, the parish isn't the rector's parish, but like the vestry, it is YOUR parish.
Vestry members do not come together for the sole reason of approving the minutes or accepting the treasurer's report or listening to what other folks are doing in and for the church. Those tasks, of course, have value... but they don't constitute leadership.
As you well know, the church local and the church catholic are facing some difficult times. Membership is in flux as well as finances, but the needs of this community and the needs of the world will not cooperate by diminishing their presence in the face of our situation. We have work to do and it is the Lord's work. That is why vestry elections are so critical. Vestries need to be composed of folks who love the Lord... who understand ministry... who respect the past, but more importantly who can dream (optimistically!) about the future.
Please mark your calendars for January 10. You are the ones who will be choosing YOUR leaders, leaders who will be charged with making the Church of the Ascension soar as we move into the second decade of the 21st century.
Susan+
Click here to read from past Son Rises.
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