Rector's Study October 2008

From the Rector’s Study ~

ECR held its annual Mid-Year meeting on Sunday September 28, and I’m thankful to and for the officers of the election we held to elect ECR’s delegates to next year’s Diocesan Council. Mike Paulsen, Joe Garrison, and Shelly Page were Scrutineer, Parliamentarian, and Recording Secretary. I’m thankful also for the tellers at the election, Don Helmers, Helen Paulsen, and Ann Harrington. Finally, and not at all least, I’m thankful for all our fine nominees, Nadine Gordon, Andy Lyon, Linda Bryant, Jennifer Williams, Mary Morrison, Granville Ott, Gerald Cantor, Larry Clifton, Lana Beyer, and Brian McElligott. Their nominations are inspiration to us all in serving the Gospel of Jesus Christ through service to his Church. Andy, Jennifer, Brian and Larry were elected to serve as our delegates. Elected to serve as alternates were Linda, Nadine, Lana, and Gerald. Our congratulations belong with each of these. I look forward to attending Council with in our excellent delegation.

We had a tremendous feast, thanks to all who shared food and to all who helped to eat and enjoy it. I appreciated the joy of the fellowship of this meeting. And I found it especially nice to welcome also our new seminarian Marie Butterbaugh and her husband Tim here to ECR. As I pointed out at the Annual Meeting in January the challenge of the previous year was for the ECR leadership, i.e., the Vestry, the Ministry Leaders, and me, to face the reality that ECR must commit to the construction of new parking lots and ministries building in order for our parish to realize our potential. To refresh our memory of this, we’ll recall that our church building has a seating capacity of approximately 190 people at 100% full, not counting the choir. At 80% full, which is what people typically will tolerate on a regular basis, ECR can accommodate 152 people.


But our current parking capacity can accommodate no more than 129 people, and that’s at 100% full capacity in the parking lots. Typically, people start turning away from parking lots once they reach 70% full, because they appear full. So, at 70%, our parking lots accommodate 90 people. It is natural then that this is just about the number of people that are parked here on Sunday from the close of the 8:30 service to beginning of the 11:00 service. Our average Sunday attendance at worship is actually slightly better than ninety people, but only slightly. Without additional permanent parking, we will not be able to grow the number of people worshipping here at ECR.

Thus, at the Vestry/Ministry Leaders Retreat of April 2005, ECR’s leadership identified the desire and the need to expand the facilities of our campus. In May, a task force was established to work on initial steps in creating new parking lots and a new building for parish hall and programs. In August of that year, the Task Force identified a program made available by Episcopal Church Headquarters and the Episcopal Building Fund. The program’s name is the Congregational Planning Process.

In the meantime, the great amount of preliminary work done by Jon Ellis, Bill Jameson, Ken DeSilva, and Mike Paulsen, and the valuable input of several others in the parish, was being constantly presented to the Vestry and reported in the Radiant Cross. I hope many of you will recall seeing that there. In May of 2006 the Task Force was closed, having completed its work on initial findings. It was succeeded by the Congregational Planning Process Committee. This committee set about immediately following the program of the same name from the Church Headquarters to interview Ministry Leaders about their respective visions for the near and long-range future of their ministries.

The goal was to help the leadership understand ECR’s lived values and priorities in order to plan the campus expansion accordingly. Our seminarian at the time, Sue Wilmot, and Helen Paulsen developed the interview process, no easy task. From October of 2006 through January of 2007, the interviews were conducted, and the results collected for presentation. In May of 2007, at a Vestry / Ministry Leaders Retreat with Bishop Dena Harrison, Jon Ellis and Sue Wilmot presented this information to ECR’s leadership. The information was later presented to the entire parish in September of that year at the Mid-Year Meeting.

The information confirmed some intuitions that many of us have about ECR, e.g. that Worship is a strength here and that Outreach is very important here as a collective cultural value. It also affirmed our collective desire to strengthen ECR’s formation and education programs for all ages, and to create a more intentionally evangelistic culture for ECR. In February of this year, the Vestry approved a campus plan for ECR with architect George Ensle of Envision Architects. A comprehensive survey of the property was completed shortly thereafter.

An initial step in campus makeover is the removal of the increasingly decrepit building that has served as the Sexton’s residence for approximately twenty years. This will make way for a drive-through from the current Parish Hall parking lot to a new parking lot to be positioned further in and at the back of ECR’s property. The remodel of the Old Thrift Shop was approved by the Vestry for this purpose, and this work is fast coming to a close. The Congregational Planning Process Committee is now preparing to receive from three sub-committees their respective recommendations on ECR’s mission and vision, on prospects for various forms of funding for the project, and on the interior design and layout of a new building to be used for ECR’s programs and ministries. These will be turned in to the Vestry for review at the October meeting.

Between then and January, the Vestry will prepare two important pieces of the project. One will be a basic proposal describing the project’s goals and needs. This will go first to the Diocese of Texas, since all parish property belongs to the diocese; thus, all changes to this property must be approved by the diocese. We will seek primary funding from the diocese and this proposal will function as our justification and plea for those funds. We’ll then use the same basic proposal to prepare appeals to other agencies for grants and loans.

The second important piece of the project will be a statement of ECR’s vision of its ministry and mission. Rooted in the work already described, this statement may take the form of a Mission Statement and/or Vision Statement, and/or description of Core Values. It will be presented by the Vestry at the Annual Meeting in January of next year. I wish to commend the leadership of ECR, the Vestry and the Ministry Leaders. They have held onto ECR’s priorities, the priorities of Christ Jesus and his gospel. They have not allowed the busyness of tasks to supersede the spiritual and eternal values of God’s Love for all. They have ensured and continue to ensure that the superficial changes to ECR’s campus only strengthen what has always been at the heart of ECR, our spiritual gift here at ECR of hospitality and welcome to friend and stranger alike. They are leading ECR into a renewed present-day, and into a new and lively future.

Thanks be to them, to all of you, this blessed and blessing community, and thanks be to God. God’s Peace. Jim +