June 2009 Stewards Minutes

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