January 25, 2024

The Annual Meeting of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection will be this Sunday, January 28 following the 10:30 service. At one level, the Annual Meeting is practical business. We will be receiving reports from the many ministries of the parish, reviewing the budget, hearing the Rector’s address, and electing Vestry members and Delegates to Diocesan Convention. I hope you will come to take your part in the practical business of being the Church of the Resurrection. 

At another level, the Annual Meeting is an opportunity to listen to the Spirit’s leading as we turn our attention to the well-being of our community. The Annual Meeting gives us a full picture of the state of the parish. We will go through the budget carefully, making sure we all understand the priorities that underly it and the changes the Vestry has chosen, along with its implications for ministry in 2024 and beyond. In the Rector’s address, we’ll hear a description of who we are now and the trends that brought us to this place along with some description of the work the Vestry will be undertaking in the future to keep our ministry current and sustainable. We will also, of course, be choosing persons to lead Resurrection and the Episcopal Church in Western Oregon into the future. Even though we won’t be able to fill every position, I hope you will pray as you cast your vote that those whom we elect will lead us well. I also hope you will take the opportunity to talk to them and to me. Ask questions. Share your hopes, fears, and ideas and listen to theirs. I hope you will come to take your part in being the community of the Holy Spirit that is the Church of the Resurrection. 

Having changed the Parish By-Laws last year, we need only 24 Voting Members this year (instead of 50) to form a quorum. That said, the attendance of 24 Voting Members is not a given. Although our congregation is usually larger than that, many who are integral parts of the Resurrection community are not canonical members of the parish and thus not eligible to vote. Our first order of business on Sunday will be to give those persons seat, voice, and vote at the meeting, but we need 24 Voting Members to legally cast that vote. I hope you will come to make our community complete (and legal) and invite all of us into the life of the Church of the Resurrection.