From the Weekly Tower Articles:

August 8, 2010

Profile Packet Complete; Thanks Be To God!

Last Saturday our committee presented our Profile Packet to the Vestry and it was approved. On Sunday, we received the call from Canon Loya saying The Bishop had also approved our packet. Next week, we will meet with Renee and John Osborne to discuss printing and shortly thereafter, the Packet will be turned over to our Active Search Committee. At that same time, the Information Packet will be placed on our website so you all can see what our new Rector will be receiving by mail.

The final step in our Profile work is… hosting The Big Party! It will be held September 25 in our Guild Hall. The Information Packet will be available and there will also be a brief power point presentation detailing the results of the Survey and the Cottage Parties. After that? We celebrate! This party will be something like Mtr. Kate’s going away party, plus dancing. Now what could be more fun than that? We hope every single one of you will attend.

On Sunday, September 26, the Profile Committee will host adult education, discussing our discernment process and the results of our work. Please consider attending this final wrap up of our work.

Thank you for your prayers, support and the insights so many of you offered during this process the world.

July 18, 2010

The Profile Committee met yesterday to issue final approval of the St. James Information Packet. Thanks be to God! The packet is ready to be submitted to the Vestry and Bishop for approval!

Our Rector position will be posted—the first week of August. The Active Search Committee is stepping into high gear as they anticipate the first inquiries from Rector candidates arriving shortly thereafter.

Canon Loya reports he and the Bishop are delighted about the commitment, energy and enthusiasm our community has shown during this interim process.

In September, join us at The Big Party! Now THIS is going to be fun! We’ll have a party and celebrate the end of Phase I of our Search. The results obtained in our survey and cottage parties will be presented. We’ll show you the Information Packet and celebrate that we’re on to Phase II—meeting with candidates!

July 11, 2010

We're getting close! We met yesterday to review and make final changes to The St. James Information Packet. Within the next week, the Packet will be in final form. Thanks be to God!

Canon Loya was present at a recent meeting to give feedback on the packet so far. He was delighted with the document. Next, we will provide the packet in final form to Bishop Wolfe via Canon Loya, requesting the Bishop's approval of our work. It is anticipated that this approval will come shortly so that by the first week of August, a special joint meeting between our Vestry and the Profile Committee can be held. At this special joint meeting, the Profile Committee will present our work to the Vestry for feedback and approval.

If all goes according to plan, it is expected that our Rector position will be published to priests across American the first week of August and the Active Search Committee will begin their heavy lifting on behalf of our community.

June 27, 2010

Canon to the Ordinary Fr. Craig Loya will visit our Profile team on July 3 to give feedback on the process. The Committee has been busy writing our Church Information Packet and gathering photographs to complete our work. It's a wonderful thing, bringing all of this together.

We are on track to submit the final Packet, complete with the Lowell Wilder video, to our Vestry and Bishop later this summer. After final approval, we will host The Big Party to release results, gathered from our survey and Cottage Parties, and show you the Packet that will be sent to potential Rector candidates.

Please keep our community and this process in your prayers.

May 30, 2010

The Profile Committee met to review survey results and sort Cottage Party comments by theme. The full results of these processes will be presented at The Big Party, anticipated to be held this Summer, when we transfer from Profile work to our Active Search.

However, here's one wonderful thing that surprised us: When we sorted by theme, the three landslide categories of response were as follows: 1. What we need in the person of our new Rector (not surprising), 2. What we need in the administrative skill set of our new Rector (again, not surprising), and..ready?.3. The degree to which we value and define ourselves by our inclusive nature. "Incluse" is the run-away category
for what we hold dear at St. James.

The general concept was that we want a Rector who does not come in and immediately change things in a way that makes us less inclusive. We believe all people feel welcome here and we place extremely high value on keeping it that way!

With all underlying data organized, we are now writing our Church Information Packet. Within the next two or three weeks, much of the packet will exist in draft form. Things are moving!

April 4, 2010

Thank you to everyone who picked up their Surveys last week. Thank you especially if you agreed to take the Survey online! Your kind cooperation in this regard avoided a data entry nightmare!

If you aren’t an online type of person, please just complete the paper Survey and return it for inclusion in our results. Irrespective of which way you take the Survey, your answers are anonymous and your responses critical to our discernment process.

Please remember that all Survey responses need to be complete by April 11, as we will then begin tallying results.

The next phase of our work is to compile a Church Information Packet. This packet will be maybe 20 pages long and will contain pictures and text about our mission, our future, our Diocese, our past, our people and our community. It will be given to the Active Search Committee so that they might distribute it to Priests interested in becoming our Rector; this packet is our “first impression."

The information provided by you at cottage parties and via the Survey will be the underlying information used to draft this Packet.

It is anticipated that the Packet will be ready for submission to our Vestry and the Bishop sometime in Summer 2010. After approval of the Packet, the Active Search Committee will begin their work.

Last week Fr. Craig from the Diocese joined us for our Profile meeting. He gave us feedback on our process so far and was very enthusiastic about the devotion and coming together of our community during this period of transition. Nice job!

March 28, 2010

The St. James survey is officially available! You may take the survey online through our web site or via a paper copy. Whether taking the survey on paper or online, please pick up your paper copy in the entryway this weekend.

Each member of your family, age 13 and up, should complete a survey. Please return all surveys by April 11 for tabulation.

Participating in this process is critical to identifying our traits. Please take a moment and help discern where God is leading our community by filling out this survey.

On the survey, we ask for additional comments to be attached on an extra page. Every comment will be carefully read and the themes that arise in comments will be included in our Church Information Packet. Please contact the Profile Committee with questions.

February 21, 2010

The first Cottage Party, hosted by Jerry Malone, was absolutely beautiful! Jerry hosted 15 people for dinner in her home last Saturday. While enjoying a fantastic meal, good conversation about our Rector search took place and new friendships were formed. Char Dewitt, stewardship director for the Diocese, was Jerry’s house guest for the weekend and helped serve dessert. It was good, old fashioned fun! Thank you to Jerry for her kindness and hospitality!

If you haven’t yet signed up for a cottage party, we would very much appreciate your doing so. In order to discern God’s call to our congregation, which in turn causes our new Rector to hear a call, we need your help. The results of this process (i.e. the qualities of the Priest we call) are directly impacted by the level of participation we enjoy. It’s good work, attending one of these parties, and it’s fun to boot. Please sign up so our Hosts will know how much they are appreciated. Thanks!

February 14, 2010

Last Saturday, the Profile Committee met for dinner at Julie Ariagno's home, for a "dry run" of facilitating Cottage Parties. A wonderful time was had by all--Vicky Petty makes a tiramisu that is so good it requires a Yiddish response--and the CP process was stream-lined to provide for the gathering of maximum information with maximum fun. The Committee then met yesterday to work on the upcoming Survey. Thank you to Mark Lee for spearheading the organization of this Survey for our committee. It will be mailed out in the next few weeks. One interesting aside on birth order issues: every person on the Profile Committee is either an oldest or an only child, except Jeff Newlin, who is 3rd born of four.

February 7, 2010

Many have asked if they can both "host" and be a "guest" at cottage parties. Of course! Just because you host doesn't preclude you from being a guest at someone else's party. Part of our process is to spend time with each other and have fun! Please sign up as you wish! The sooner the better!

The Committee is working on the written survey we intend to distribute in the next 30 days or so. Sage Joiner, who conducted the Parish Survey in 2008 continues to offer his insights into how to conduct an effective survey. Thank you Sage!

If you are homebound and wish to participate in either cottage party conversation or need assistance taking the survey, do we have a deal for you! Crystal Barber has generously offered to go to people’s homes to conduct "private" cottage parties and to fill out the survey for anyone who needs help. If you need this service, please let the office at St. James know and we'll take it from there! Thank you Crystal! We appreciate the prayers and support we are receiving from our community.

January 31, 2010

When I told Fr. Craig Loya, that we had 26 cottage parties scheduled, he laughed out loud. He thinks St. James is an interim period overachiever! He said he was thrilled that we are fully engaged in this transitional period, connecting with each other and planning for our future. Thanks to all who are hosting these many gatherings! We now need Guests! As of today, sign up sheets to attend cottage parties as Guests are available on the bulletin board. Please sign up and join friends for a wonderful evening that will help shape the future of our church. I’m reading a book that says, “The children of Israel never went forward in the wilderness as long as the way was clouded. Until God provided a clear direction they waited, and watched, and prayed.” Let’s wait and watch and pray together at these cottage parties. Let’s find a way to articulate the story of where our community has been and discern where we feel drawn to going with each other. One final note: although 26 is a happy, healthy number, the actual number of cottage parties we will have is the number required to allow every person who wants to participate an opportunity to do so. Fill those lists! If we run out of spaces, Erin Compton will organize more parties!! And thanks be to God for the abundance of goodness and generosity in the hearts of St. James.

Julie Ariagno; Kadie Ausherman; Crystal Barber; Helen Bousfield; Barry Carroll; Erin Compton; Adrienne Edwards; Mark Lee; Jeff Newlin; Vicky Petty; Jay Price and Robin Spurrier

January 24, 2010

The Profile Committee has been talking with Lowell Wilder. Lowell is a retired eye surgeon and award winning video maker. I think those are the right words, but they don’t feel big enough to describe the work he does…it’s incredible. His wife, Marcia, has been an amazing church woman for many years. Marcia was Vice Chair for one Bishop search committee, Chair for a second Bishop search and served once on a parish search group.

Well, all this talent has come together in a very interesting way that is not at all relevant to our Search, but is a good story . For many years Lowell and Marcia have made the edible “mice” for the Tea. They take chocolate, cherries and frosting and create the cutest mice you’ve ever seen, curly tail and all. This was Marcia’s idea, but she says Lowell is just about the best mouse-maker you could hope to find, drawing on his eye surgeon precision. Isn’t that interesting?

More relevant to this update…Lowell has agreed to make a video that will be sent to every potential new Rector, to introduce them to St. James. The scripting and production of this video will take place starting now and will be finished in time to hand off the finished product to the Active Search committee. This is a wonderful addition to our Search and a generous gift from Lowell to our Parish.

Thank you, Lowell, your kind sharing of time and talent as we continue to work on finding our new Priest.

January 10, 2010

"Serious Work" is fully under way!

The Profile Committee met January 3 to finalize the outline of tasks we need to complete. We then assigned all tasks to specific committee members.

Crystal Barber has agreed to serve as Secretary and Vicki Petty as Chaplin. Thank you to Adrienne Edwards for creating the beautiful Profile Committee bulletin board in the hall ~ check it out after Church! It will contain ongoing updates about our progress, so please stop by from time to time.

Erin Compton will organize our Cottage Parties. She is presently looking for “hosts”. Hosts organize dinner parties (or lunch…or brunch…even mid afternoon snacks might be nice ~ whatever you have in mind) for up to 12 people. These parties can be host cooked or pot-luck and all parties will take place in March and April.

A member of the Committee will attend and encourage dinner table conversation in an “appreciative inquiry” format. Basically we’ll pose 4-5 questions about what makes us feel good about St. James and where we, as a community, want to go from here. The results of these conversations will directly impact the type of Priest the Active Search Committee will be looking for.

Right now we need Hosts! If you would like to talk about hosting a party, please either sign up on our Bulletin Board or talk with any Committee member. We’d love to have you!

Soon, we will need Guests! Please consider having dinner with friends, old or yet to be made, so that we can hear your thoughts about what we need in our Priest.

God Bless Everyone!
Your Profile Committee,
Julie, Crystal, Helen, Vicky, Adrienne, Kadie, Barry, Erin, Robin, Jay, Jeff, Mark

P.S. One final bit of good news: I am in weekly contact with the Diocese and feedback from that office about how the Profile work is proceeding has been extremely positive. Thank you to Rick Milhon and the Vestry for putting together such a hard working and committed group to serve on this committee. - Julie

January 3, 2010

“Phase I”, the Profile work, is happily underway. We begin with two preliminary jobs: a) creating a parish survey and b) organizing cottage parties.

We expect the survey will be ready to be sent out by February; a lot more information will be provided about the survey at that time. We are presently looking for hosts for our cottage parties.

Cottage parties are dinner parties in private homes, hosted for about 12 people including the hosts. At these parties, members of our community will come for a dinner organized by the hosts. These can be pot-luck or hosts can provide dinner. We hope to have several different “themes” for people to choose from - the possibilities are endless. We could have “Mexican-and-margaritas”, “An Evening in Italy”, “Christmas Dinner in April”, “All American BBQ and apple pie" - whatever we can come up with. I suggest we all channel our inner Jerry Malone and have some fun with this.

These dinners serve two important functions: first, we, as a group, are working diligently to discern God’s will for our future. The warmth and love that already exists here needs to be “fed” during this time, as warmth and love tend to make us hear God more clearly. Second, Profile Committee members will attend these dinners and facilitate great dinner table conversation about what we feel our church is called to in the future. (This will be facilitated, but not overly “directed” - in other words, we promise to be fun too, and not ruin an otherwise spectacular evening.) This table talk is important to our process, for without an understanding of where are headed, it’s impossible to know what kind of a Rector we need to call to leadership at St. James.

The information provided by our community at these dinners will have a direct impact on the type of Priest our Search Committee looks for. Won’t you please consider either hosting or coming to dinner? We will host dinners until every person who wants to come has attended. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had to stretch our meals into May, just to feed everyone?

That leads to one more important thing: timing. When we began just a couple of weeks ago, the “goal” was to finish this stage of our process by June. We have now realized that it’s actually the “process” that is important. Our “process” is a journey of renewing our connection to each other on the road to self discovery for our Parish. The Profile Committee is committed not only to working as expediently as possible, but also allowing the process time to “unfold”. Discernment is, perhaps, more art than science. So~ we will never take time off, but neither will be artificially “hurry” at the cost of the spiritual aspects of this time that are, in final analysis, even more important than the church packet we will create.

If you’d like to host a cottage party, sign up sheets will be available on the Bulletin Board in the next week. After we organize all hosts, there will be a chance to sign up to attend these dinners.

Finally, thank you to the many people who are praying for our church during this time. That is really wonderful and our committee appreciates it. Julie Ariagno, Profile Committee Chair