STEWARDS MEETING MINUTES
June 7, 2009
Present: Marjory Bankson, Peter Bankson, Ken Burton, Lewise Busch (Angel), Jeannine
Caracciolo, Pat Conover, Kate Cudlipp, Cynthia Dahlin, Jane Engle, Muriel Lipp (Angel),
Aeren Martinez (Worship), Sandra Miller (Recorder), Trish Nemore, Brenda Seat, Keith Seat
(Moderator), Margreta Silverstone, Jacqie Wallen
Absent: Sue Johnson, David Lloyd, Deborah Sokolove
Housekeeping:
July meeting will be July 5th. Moderator – Ken Burton, Recorder – Kate Cudlipp, Worship –
Sandra Miller, Angels – Margreta Silverstone and Cynthia Dahlin
There was a question about canceling or having an informal gathering for the August meeting.
It will be Jeannine and Aeren’s last meeting and it was decided to have a meeting and send
off celebration at the scheduled time.
It was requested to put the September meeting on the July agenda as it falls on Labor Day
weekend.
Spiritual Direction Update (Brenda):
SLT continues to work with the input from the Stewards survey focusing on the question of
what can be offered to the community regarding spiritual direction. One possibility is a
class in the fall SCL. Within the Stewards circle most people are satisfied with how their
various mission groups are handling spiritual reporting. Ongoing, Stewards can engage
newcomers and non-mission group members to inform them about spiritual direction including
offering them the opportunity to ask someone to be their director regardless of their
mission group status. SLT recommends that Stewards allow this process to continue to
develop organically and let it go as an active agenda item.
Sunday School Update (Kate):
The Ad Hoc Sunday School Support Group consists of Pat Conover, Kate Cudlipp, Trish Nemore
and Brenda Seat. They met to consider the Living Water Mission Group recommendation that
someone from outside the community be hired to teach and coordinate. Prior to the meeting
Pat did some prayer and discernment and proposed that he take on the coordinator role. In
that role Pat would recruit and train teachers and assistants while relying on the other
members of the Ad Hoc group for support. Since the meeting Pat has parsed the tasks needed
to make this successful and written a memo for others’ reference. Pat feels called to work
with the morale issue and the curricula for the younger children. Each of the 4 members has
agreed to take 1 month of lead teaching the younger children (Oslin, India and Tommy).
Sunday School runs for 9 months of the year which means recruiting and training 5 more lead
teachers and 9 assistants for the younger children and 9 lead teachers for the older
children (at present that is only Makayla).
Pat will actively recruit teachers and assistants through missions groups and the wider
community. Pat encourages Stewards to begin discussions in their mission groups about how
they can share the responsibility for teaching. Pat is happy to field questions as they
arise and would also be happy to attend mission group meetings when Sunday School is on the
agenda to help with the discernment process.
Pat wants it to be clear that his primary place of accountability for this job will be the
Ad Hoc group and not Stewards.
Stewards accepted this proposal unanimously and with deep gratitude.
Stewards Sharing: Muriel and Ken
Dinner
2025 Update (Keith):
The first formal offer was made for the building last week. The real estate agent has been
out of town and will return this week.
C of S website (Kate):
A memo was sent out to the Ecumenical Council reps to talk to the members of the communities
by the end of June to get input on the possibility of an intra-community website. It might
take the form of a bulletin board. Free sites like those offered by Google are being
considered. Some Stewards had ideas of what they might want to see on such a site, i.e.
what are other communities doing in their Sunday Schools, classes open to anyone in their
SCLs, other events in a community open to those outside the community, and the opportunity to exchange ideas on topics of common interest. Some expressed a view that they would not voluntarily, regularly
visit another website, and many said that they don’t want to be deluged by emails advising them that
another item has been posted. Kate will take this back to the council.
Time to Vision (Kate):
The question put before Stewards was how best we can discern the future to which we are
being called. Would such a discernment best be done at a time other than a regular meeting
time, for instance at a ½ day or all day retreat, or even an overnight? We are an aging
community with only 2 people who regularly attend under the age of 50. What does survival
look like for Seekers, or is survival even a question? How do we stay healthy as a
community regardless of the make-up? SLT feels that getting to those deep places requires a
spacious time. Some think that starting small is an appealing idea and could be done at
regular meetings when the agenda is light or has been intentionally cleared. SLT will
consider what was shared and bring it back to Stewards.
Soul Talk
