Why does the Annual Meeting of a parish matter? In the Episcopal Church, we “seek and serve Christ in all persons,” and “respect the dignity of every human being (BCP p. 305). We believe we can see the face of God and hear God speaking to us through, well, all of us! So in our Annual Meeting, we put that theology to work by giving all community members a voice: in the leaders we elect, in the budget we set, and in our reflections on the year past and plans for the year ahead.
St. James’ 2023 Annual Meeting took place on Sunday, January 29th. Here’s some of the highlights:
- We elected Mike Glancey as Junior Warden, and elected Mary Jo Garlo, Eric Zavadil, and Melinda Harris for three-year terms as Vestry members. We thanked outgoing Senior Warden Doug Belding for his leadership in the past four years.
- We adopted a 2023 budget to guide financial decisions in the year ahead (you can see the budget as part of the Treasurer’s report in the Annual Meeting packet).
- The Vestry presented the St. James’ Medal to all members of the Search Committee, recognizing their service of listening to God and to the people of St. James’ to guide us in calling a new priest to the church last year (see photo below).
- We resolved to create a By-laws Review Committee. This team will review our by-laws, which govern how we conduct our affairs (everything from elections, to spending money, to the agenda for Vestry meetings!) and will make recommendations, as may be needed, to update our by-laws so that they best support our ministries. We’ll hold a special meeting of the parish in about six months so that the team can present recommended changes to everyone; then we’ll vote on whether to adopt those recommended changes at the 2024 Annual Meeting.
You can download the 2022 Annual Report of St. James’ Church (aka the 2023 Annual Meeting packet) to read reports from the priest-in-charge, wardens, and ministry leaders.
Pictured here are: (bottom row, left to right) Irene Kipp, Karen Gasparini, Charlessa Thatcher, Lynne Koch, Bobbie Wells, and Wendy Urban-Mead (Search Committee Chair); (top row, left to right) Patty Glancey, the Rev. Meredith Kadet Sanderson (not a member of the Search Committee!), Justin Bohlmann (Vestry Liaison). Members of the Search Committee not pictured are: Barbara Slegel, Jim Oppenheimer-Crawford. Thanks to Brian Rance for the photo!
Download the 2022 Annual Reports (2023 Annual Meeting Packet)
