June Updates

Vestry meets on the third Tuesday of every month.
This month on our agenda was a look at the Vestry Retreat Day decision, the Discipleship House, Strathmore Community Church Finance and Ladies Guild Grants.

We started with a particularly striking biblical passage from Matthew 5:43-48. It was a day when war was particularly on the news. Jesus calls us to a higher cause though - to love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you. It was just the reading for the day, but a pertinent one!

We then looked at our Leading Your Church Into Growth module. We are working through them all as a Vestry, taking stock of anything we think is something we can look at in our Parish. This month, we were thinking about Maintenance or Mission and how these two are often in different proportions. How are we balancing Maintenance and Mission? Are we lightweight enough as a Parish to be able to do mission? Where is mission happening? We were struck by how we had many opportunities, but we were sad too that we had lost some of our previous missions, like the Miramar Central School lunch supply. 

Next up, we were looking at the Vestry Retreat Day. Vestry is looking to produce something for the Parish about our next focus areas as a parish. We hope this will happen soon, but the draft that came to Vestry needed some work, so watch this space.

We then looked at a request from a parishioner around the Discipleship House. We were asked to name the Discipleship House to reflect the generous nature of the donation to build it. We decided not to name it, but would recognise the donation by a message inside the house and a story on the website, recognising how the house was made possible. It was envisioned that this would remind occupants and that they would be thankful.

We received a recommendation from the Ladies Guild on where the money they raise through the Shop knitting should go, and we agreed to give:
- $500 to Wellington Free Ambulance
- $500 to LifeFlight Trust

We lastly considered some recommendations around supporting the mission with the Strathmore Community Church and the combined Youth Group. There was no decision on whether there would be contributions to these places. We are waiting to view the financials next Vestry to give us more certainty. We were reminded that a stewardship campaign is necessary for the Parish.

Feel free to discuss any of this with your Vestry members:
Co-Vicars, Matthew Hague, Vickie Humphries, Janet Williams, David Hamilton, David Smith, Trudy Shannon, Alan Wilson or Ben Pringle.