20+C+M+B+21
The Lord be praised. Last year I began this report with the sentiment that we had endured several struggles in the latter part of 2019 specifically, staffing changes and the beginning of our remediation work. Having solid plans on how to address those issues as well as new relationships in the community and early stewardship preparation, it appeared that 2020 was only going to get better...
Well...the Lord thinks very highly of our parish's ability to endure. 2020 has been a year of memories that we will never forget, no matter how badly we want to, or how hard we try. But 2020 is now hindsight.
I will not try to prophecy that 2021 will be better. But by the grace of God and the love of Jesus Christ, and the faith of St. Peter we have come through this unprecedented year with flying colors. Once again I praise God to be your rector and priest.
We have accomplished so much together. Unfortunately, our proximity due to COVID has not allowed us to see much of it. But let's touch on these things.
In 2019 we established a Music Director Search Committee which found and promoted Gavin Craig to me in order to appoint him as our Interim Music Director. Gavin was a great person with flexibility to help us make transitions during the onset of COVID from in-person worship to online. We pivoted from pipe organ and nave to piano and parish hall. He was professional, faithful, and a pleasure to work with. And he was very knowledgeable about the Anglican musical tradition. Gavin let us know early that he would not be able to make this position his permanent calling. And so the committee reconvened as much as possible during the COVID pandemic to renew the search for the permanent position. Having looked at several quality applications, God dropped a pearl into our email inbox. Jo Clark applied for our permanent position in the middle of the year. With her experience and qualities of musicianship our search committee found in her an incredible fit to the variety of choral and instrumental musicianship that will continue in the tradition that St. Peter's is accustomed. She jumped to the top of the list and never left. With their recommendation I appointed Jo as Music Director of St. Peter's and we work very well together. I express my sincere appreciation to the committee: Dr. Wendy Bergin, chair, the late Lloyd Behm, Beth Appel, Roger Ross, Amy Schramm, and Chris Hilton.
Also carrying over from 2019 was the beginning of this epic remediation and renovation journey. We held off starting that work until after January of 2020. Preparations were made and begun to clean the church facilities. As we entered the project we started to see glimpses of the pending COVID pandemic with its restrictions and limitations. After three Sundays in Lent (two of which were online Morning Prayer) St. Peter's closed the nave and shifted worship to the new parish hall. With this came the necessary and rapid familiarization with Audio/Video Equipment, Facebook and YouTube platforms and streaming software. Without the wisdom and knowledge of Chris Hilton we would have floundered. I've reviewed our Service Book and found that we completed a great number of Morning Prayer and Liturgy of the Word services as we worked to prepare a COVID protocol of safe health practices. Dcn Carol was instrumental in helping provide that document and I value her wisdom and experience. We submitted that document to the bishop's office for approval. It was very difficult to not have Holy Week and Easter Services. We suspended many of our beloved traditions in light of concerns of reducing spread of the virus.
The vestry determined at that time to unfetter our contractors to work throughout the church in order to more thoroughly clean our building. As they did so we unfortunately discovered a deeper need for cleaning that necessarily expanded the scope of our remediation project. What we thought would be a remediation and restoration project unexpectedly became a major renovation project. There are many people to give thanks for. For their hands on work: I express my appreciation to Charles L. Schubert as senior warden who has steadily guided this process with a strategic governance keeping the project moving and protecting the resources of our parish. He has often talk me down from anxiety. I thank Pam Schubert for lending Charles to us when he could have been home more. I thank Brenda Squyres as Treasurer of St. Peter's who has guarded our financial bookkeeping between our operations budget, renovation budget, diocesan and federal grants to bring us to the end of a very difficult year with a budget that is very close to balanced. To Jeff and Beth Appel who have poured more sweat equity into the renovation work than any other, my eyes swell. When we discovered the dangerous electrical situation with our church lighting Chris Hilton dedicated his time to build a lighting plan that would be efficient and flexible. He spent many hours forty feet in the air giving his time to our church. Thank you Molly and John Henry for lending him to us. For the thousands of little things that have been done and that are still needed to be completed I am thankful for those who volunteer their time to make St. Peter's a beautiful church inside and out.
There are still some things that need to be accomplished. As I write we are resetting the nave for worship. I express my deep appreciation to Mary Mabry and the altar guild. They have kept us in order with the most basic things needs for our worship. God has been praised because of their service. I thank Cornelia Estey for her faithfulness and patience in assigning lectors and LEMs even when there were moments when we have had to change our worship plans she has been faithful.
We are resetting the parish hall for groups that meet such as AA and Exercise Group. The beautiful and clean classrooms are being set up. The Activity Hall (Old Parish Hall) has been used as a clean storage room. That area will receive a new ceiling. Some areas will need to be refloored just as general maintenance demands. We have made great strides in improving our campus. But there are still many smaller things to do. COVID restrictions make these tasks more difficult to accomplish as we are not able to have general invitations to help with these things. So the weight of it falls on a few individuals. I would like to thank Amy Schramm and my wife Kate for taking on many of these items. Like others, both are doing this in addition to their daytime ministries and out of love for our parish.
Pastor's wives rarely get the recognition that they deserve. Out of a sense of humility we do not wish to bring inordinate attention nor to unseemly inflate a sense of importance. But I will take this paragraph to tell you what a servant of God Kate Whaley is. Not only does she sing in the choir and help in these efforts of building restoration, she prays daily, reads scriptures daily. She is mindful of the concerns of parishioners and lifts them up. And most especially she prays for and tolerates me when I am frustrated at how long these things take. She listens to my concern over the processes of capital campaigns and stewardship campaigns and operations budgets...
And so to budgets...In 2019 I asked you to put St. Peter's first in terms of Stewardship. In January 2020 we saw strong pledge numbers and commitments that reflected positively on that message. By April and May with the anxiety presented by COVID I honestly did not know what to expect for the remainder of this year. We anticipated and realized a shortfall in unpledged income that was offset by a diocesan required PPP Loan application and two diocesan assessment relief grants. But your pledges remained very strong and very faithful through the end of the year. At the time of this writing we are within two percentage points of our committed revenue. In a year like this it is a testimony to your faith and obedience. Thank you for those attributes; I hope that they are seeds that grow your faith. At the same time we have managed to mark over a $160,000 toward our capital campaign for the renovation work. All of this has been under the isolation of COVID. I see God's hands have moved around us.
Building on the financial procedures put in place by Martin Coles we had hoped to get a jump start on our stewardship work for 2021. We wanted a budget to present by August/September with the stewardship drive in October. With all the additional financial balancing we were not able to match that schedule. Subsequently materials went out in November and follow up materials went out in January for stewardship. That delay was also due to me acquiring COVID in late December. We are entering 2021 with some uncertainty as to committed income. The vestry is monitoring this closely and will make budgetary adjustments at the first quarter as needed. It is the desire of the vestry to balance the budget and honor the contributions that are made both toward the operations of the church as well as our renovation expenses.
There is so much to be thankful for at St. Peter's. I continue to feel the prayers of the Daughters of the King and others who pray for me and our church. Thank you to our vestry for their prayers and hard work in all of this upheaval. For the few special events we were able to have such as the Pet Blessing, I'm thankful to Cathy Dawson for organizing that effort. I wish to thank the staff in other ways. Carol Muegge continues to send out information about the parish to stay in the consciousness of our town. Pam Knebel has tried to stay connected with our youth which has been very difficult, even our Baptist friends have struggled at this. She managed to coordinate a socially distanced gathering. And Suzzanne who continues to keep our financial numbers in order and reported has stayed faithful to that task. And I'm sure that as I write this, I am forgetting something or someone that has helped in some way. I wish to say thank you.
As we move into 2021 I hope that we stay connected with one another. I look forward to seeing your faces each Sunday especially as vaccines are more widely available.
Iwant to close with a growing point for St. Peter's. My biggest area of concern for our church as we move forward is a transformative need to become a church not simply of welcome, but more of a church of invitation. As people emerge from their COVID foxholes, shell-shocked from isolation and perhaps fear, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the balm that brings peace and restoration. I hope that as we rise from this period we become more than a friendly or welcoming church.
I hope God makes us a "Come with me to my church" type of church. People will meet Jesus here when we bring them. And that is the greatest gift we have for the world.
The Lord bless you all.
Faithfully in Christ,
Fr. Stephen+
It is with faith in Jesus Christ and his resurrection we say farewell to those who have died in 2020
Gordon Moore
Marilyn Sanders
Bess Burch
Billye Faust
Quin Kroll
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