Last night, after prayerful consideration and discussion, your vestry UNANIMOUSLY approved the three documents key elements that allow us to move forward in the transition process, the ”OTM Profile,” the Vitality Assessment, and the Position Description. In addition, the website review will be completed this week. (See below for a full explanation of these elements as well as a recap of the transition process so far.)
This means that we are on schedule to post the half-time rector vacancy by the end of the month! This is really big news!!!!! THANK YOU to everyone who has worked so hard to make it happen!
We will share these documents with you as soon as Canon Phillips has approved them.
At our meeting last evening, we also approved the position description for a Treasurer. We haven’t had a Church Treasurer in quite a long time, but it is a requirement for churches in the Diocese, and the vestry has been working on clarifying the position.
Would you be interested in serving in this capacity for one year? You don’t have to be an expert on finances to do this job. The finance committee and the company we hire (Your Part-Time Comptroller) take care of the more technical aspects of the finances. Please prayerfully consider if God is calling you to support Good Shepherd in this way!
Thank you so much for all of your support. Please continue reading to learn more about the nuts and bolts of the transition process and what we’ve accomplished so far.
With love and blessings to all,
Anna (and JasCiel)
A recap of the transition process so far
- Scheduling of clergy ✅- this was setting up clergy after our previous rector’s departure. We had supply clergy and then called Anna as our Interim Rector. (In addition, we have set up clergy for the Sundays when Anna will no longer be with us after the end of October, in order to bridge the gap until our new rector arrives.)
- Transition Officer meeting ✅- This was our meeting with Canon Robert Phillips on 11/22/22. He went over the full transition process with us. You can refresh your memory of this by going here.
- Financial review ✅- We had an outside audit and then presented that audit together with our 2023 balanced budget and our plan for a half-time rector. JasCiel and I met with Canon Andrew Walter on June 15 and he approved everything!
- Parish Vitality Assessment ✅- We kicked this off with Canon Anne-Marie Jeffery’s visit on January 15 - you can refresh your memory of this and read an overview of the process by going here. As you will remember, we held focus groups in the spring to gather information about our parish from the congregation in the seven vital signs. The report is based on that information.
- Website review (✅) - This is being completed this week. It’s just a review of our website to see what, if anything, might be missing. Peter Beyer is heading this up.
- OTM (Office of Transitional Ministry) Parish Profile ✅- This is what will be posted on the Diocesan website to show potential candidates who we are! This was probably the most challenging document to put together, as it included both facts (easier to gather) and narrative responses to questions. We created the answers to those questions by asking you to contribute your responses (remember the form we sent out in June) and then gathered all of that information together to write up a coherent narrative.
- The Position Description ✅- is a job description that we can use to look for candidates and then also use as the basis of an evaluation once our new rector has been with us for a year.
