Rector Report -- Nov. 2021

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 November Rector Report

The Rev. Dale C. Hathaway

The highlight of the last month was the baptism of the Colt's grandchildren. It was a satisfying experience for me and I think for others as well.

Nicci and I have slowly begun to reintroduce regular office hours. As I have continued to spend some time at the church, I've had the opportunity to meet some of the people coming and going, particularly those involved with Loaves and Fishes. I'm one of those occasions I got to meet Michael Moore who is the head of Loaves and Fishes. I am eager to learn how the ministry fits into the larger ministry of the church.

One of my general concerns with the office and administrative work of the church has to do with the way in which files and technical tools are located in personal accounts rather than in the Church's own accounts. From my perspective I note the following:

  • Sharing files in Google drive seems to be a good way to make things available to others, e.g. the vestry, and to keep them secure at the same time. The files are, however, in an individual's accounts. It seems to me that the ownership of shared files ought to be with the church not with individuals. The same way there is an email "office@spec.org" there ought to be a Google account in the church's name. The rector ought to have access to the working files in the office. If they were actually stored in Gdrive and shared that would be easier. Purchasing file storage with Google is inexpensive.

  • The church has been using personal accounts for Zoom and Facebook, both of which at least at the moment are essential parts of our ongoing life. These need to be moved to Church accounts.

  • Since the lowest level Zoom account is fairly expensive as a subscription, one possibility would be for the Church to purchase a "Google Workspace" account at the lowest level. That would allow use of Google's Meet, providing similar functionality to Zoom but at a lower price. The benefits of a Google Workspace for a small business are fairly extensive.

There are two projects that I believe are important to get started on. The first has to do with cleaning out, archiving, and organizing the files that are currently stored in the middle room of the office. One small piece of that emerged at the time of the baptisms. Apparently Fr. Brad kept some of the parish records electronically. Some of those have been transferred to the parish register. Some have not. I don't know how to access any of the electronic records nor does Nicci.

The second area that needs some work organizing and simplifying is connected to the Standing Committees and Guilds of the parish. On the one hand one of the great strengths of this church has been the depths and dedication of Lay leadership. On the other hand the bureaucracy of it was described by one person as byzantine. Again and again as I have asked questions about where this is or how that gets done the response has been so and so is in charge of that. I finally found that some of that information could be found in parish reports, but of course there wasn't one produced last year.

I have talked a little bit with several of you about the possibility of re-imagining the work and the cost of the mission of the church in a narrative rather than a spreadsheet. This approach would address several concerns of the present moment. Currently we are living with a budget that was "zeroed" out at the beginning of the year. That was understandable with the uncertainties and unknowns of the time. Having to ask the vestry for permission to buy stamps is, obviously, not a sustainable model for going forward.

The fears and anxieties about money are understandable, especially for a vestry that is charged with responsibility and accountability for such matters. If one can see "with new eyes", however, the same data can appear in a different light. Rather than seeing the costs associated with a church and its ministry, a narrative budget sees expenditures in the light of the overall purpose of the church. "Why are we here?" is an important question for us to keep in mind.

Just to give an illustrative example, a narrative budget might divide the expenditures of a budget under 5 categories:

  1. Worship

  2. Education

  3. Mission

  4. Fellowship

  5. Pastoral Care

In such an approach, one would divide up the costs of, say, the physical plant, into each of these categories. The physical plant contributes to each of them. It would remain to find a strategy for figuring out the percentages to be allotted each of the categories.

I anticipate in the coming months we will be looking at new horizons for St. Paul's. If we keep focused on the possibilities for mission and ministry in each of these areas, emphasizing what is possible rather than why we can't keep doing things the way we used to do them, the next year will seem bright and exciting.

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