Minutes of the Sunset Convocation Meeting

May 6, 2001

Members in attendance:

St. Bartholomew's: Roger Reynolds, Ken Dorsch, Stu Cato, Ray Hayes
St. Francis: Marilynn Brown, Norm Weekly
St. Gabriel's: Deby Falconer
St. John's: Jeff Honeyman, Bud Furber, Val Ambrose, Alice Speers
St. Catherine's: Mary Cramer, Ann Andriesse
St. Barnabas: Ted Rodrigues, Cynthia Reynolds
All Saints: Bill Whipple, Jan Pedersen
Christ's Church: JoAnn Leach

Guests in attendance: Lincoln Eng, St Gabriel’s

The meeting was called to order by Cynthia Reynolds at 2:15pm. Cynthia led with an opening prayer.

The minutes from the March 27^th meeting were approved as presented.

SHARING

St. Gabriel’s

Easter tiring but wonderful. Three services on Easter, middle service used drama and dialogue.
Finished concert series and paid off piano.
Held auction May 5^th, went very well.
Had 11 baptisms at Easter.

All Saints

Had first participant in diocesan youth event.
Good crowds at Easter.
Called a rector. Kris Koll from St. Paul’s starts the first Sunday in June.
Families are coming and taking a look at All Saints.

St. John the Baptist

Committee working on Fr. Roy Coulter’s retirement party. Will be a picnic on lower OES campus Sunday afternoon, July 1^st.
Holy week very busy. Began with Maundy Thursday and included The last Seven Words from the Cross on Friday afternoon, Good Friday service Friday night, The Great Easter Vigil on Saturday evening, and three full services Easter morning.
LouAnn Pickering will be joining our staff as assisting clergy June 1^st. She will be part time and a great help during our upcoming interim period. The rest of her time will continue as a chaplain at OES.

St. Francis

Easter was wonderful
Doing “Godly” plays. The first one was this morning. Play was “The Good Shepherd”, appropriate for this Sunday.
Coming up on the eve of Pentecost will be the “cascade Urban Cowboys” providing music and story-telling. This will be their World Premiere!
Life is good.

St. Barnabas

Lent very, very good.
Had an “instructed Eucharist” by a Lutheran minister.
Easter Vigil very well attended even though there were no baptisms.
Crowd at Easter Sunday 8:00am service was like 10:00am service and 10:00am service was like services of old…very nearly full.
Families want to join church.
Will be holding a spaghetti dinner on May 19^th.
For Pentecost, holding “Tongues of Fire” Chili cook-off.
Now have two youth groups, want to make a third. Vestry wants youth more “churchy” now that they are feeling more comfortable. They are helping to clean grounds prior to spaghetti feed.
Having “Vacation Bible Experience.”

St. Catherine’s

Lenten series reviewed Prayer Book.
Finishing parish profile. Will be submitted to Bishop tomorrow.
Congregation closer than ever.
St. Catherine’s has an older congregation. They are exciting when youth come. Demographics show youth decreasing and elders increasing.
New building on hold due to search process but the property is owned outright.

St. Bartholomew’s

Lenten bible study looked at scripture and music.
Easter attendance was up 6%.
Recently welcomed newcomers and has another group of newcomers coming in now.
Fr. Ken Dorsch, Rector, leading series looking at congregation, it’s history, and where is it going.
Has new Director of Children’s Ministries. Her name is Jennifer Cleveland and is part-time.
Vacation Bible school will be the last week of July in the morning.
Sexual Boundaries training will be all day on May 19^th.
Youth group will be making a mission trip to Alaska this summer.

Christ Church

Had a great Easter.
High school program very strong.
Teems planning trip to Moab. Placing flamingos on lawns as a fund-raiser. People have to pay to have them removed.
Had a dance last Friday. It featured 5 Christian bands, 200 kids an 0 problems.
Used new confirmation curriculum, went very well.
Women in Spirituality includes 50 women.
Has held 25 funerals already this year. Not all are from the parish but it is still hard.

PLANING FOR NEW CONGREGATIONS

Deacon Roger announced that a meeting was held last Wednesday to look at forming a new congregation within the convocation. Nothing was decided. The process will continue with future meetings. All parishes in the convocation are invited to participate. Projections for growth in the greater Portland area is huge over the next 15 – 20 years.

Fr. Lincoln Eng wants every parish to be involved in this committee. Where are “hot spots” of growth in Washington County? These need to be identified. This could lead to a joint project with all parishes. St. Gabriel’s was the last new congregation 25 years ago.

Looking at “missionaries” from each parish to go out into community. Work doesn’t necessarily need to be Anglican. Some communities such as Asian communities are hard to get into. Looking for help from experienced people in developing a plan.

The question was raised by St. Catherine’s asking whatever happened to the convention mandate to develop a new urban congregation? Fr. Eng said that there is a feeling that new congregations would threaten existing congregation. We need to change our thinking.

Fr. Dorsch pointed out that populations are growing. We need to identify dominant lifestyles and the types of programs that are needed.

Bill Whipple asked if interest is coming back in our liturgical style. Fr. Dorsch responded that interest is in “contemporary traditional.”

We need to be attentive to who we are.

Next meeting of this committee is 7:30pm, June 20^th, at St. Gabriel’s.

OTHER REPORTS

Communication to Parishes: Cynthia reminded all that the convocation is to support the parishes. Convocation members need to report back to their vestries what is happening in the convocation.

Mission and Vision Statement: A mission and vision statement is being worked on for the convocation. Deby Falconer and Val Ambrose are working with Cynthia to develop. They are currently reviewing meaningful statements and are looking for existing statements from member parishes.

Cynthia presented several pages that featured a list of adjectives. Everyone was asked to circle three adjectives on each page that felt could describe or be applied to the convocation.

Youth Ministry: Cynthia reported that we are all youth ministers. It takes all parishioners to care for kids. “It doesn’t matter whether or not you have children, kids are our future.”

St. Barnabas is looking for something to do with middle school youth, perhaps a softball challenge.

Diocesan Council: Rev. Joann Leach reported that in anticipation of annual budget review, groups are coming to the council to present their requests.

Diocesan Council is sending representatives to congregations to talk about DPA and the diocese in general. Bishop Ladehoff has assigned three parishes to each representative. The representatives will not visit their own parish.

Rev. Marilyn Brown asked that all parishes welcome the council representative. They are looking for an open conversation.

Fr. Ken Dorsch suggested we quit talking about the diocese as “them.” We are the diocese.

It was suggested that information of where the diocese spends their money be sent to the parishes for review prior to the council representative’s visit.

Ann Andriesse said that St. Catherine’s relies a great deal on the diocesan offices for assistance.

Fr. Dorsch pointed out that the diocese supports all parishes and missions.

It is up to the parishes to decide whether or not the visit should be at a regular vestry meeting or a special meeting. Perhaps it could be in the form of a parish-wide potluck.

Nominating Committee: Diocesan nominating committee will be meeting in July to put together the slate for convention in November. Each convocation should nominate on cleric and one lay person. Submissions need to be made by May 11^th.

Deacon Roger offered a closing prayer.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:45pm.