Faith & St. John/St. Paul Combining Committee Minutes of May 27, 2015 Meeting Attendees: Pr. Jean Hansen, Pr. Rick Gordon, Mark Watkins, John Reyes, Chris Allen, Dave Six, Judy Vernon, Carol Whidden, Geoff Whidden. Meeting opened at 6:32 pm with prayer by Pr. Jean. Minutes of May 21, 2015 meeting were reviewed and accepted. Subcommittee Reports:
Mission Geoff Whidden passed out a draft document from the subcommittee which included a draft mission statement. The subcommittee feels that the mission statement should be included in the combining document. The subcommittee suggests that the united congregation create a Mission Group, which would report to the Church Council. The goals of this group would be to manage the existing missions of the congregation, and to look for new opportunities. The Mission Subcommittee will be meeting again next Wednesday.
Lay Leadership/Membership/Fellowship/Worship Pr. Jean will be writing a report detailing the subcommittee’s decisions (reported verbally at last week’s meeting) by next week. Pr. Jean is pursuing obtaining a police escort for the procession from St. John/St. Paul to Faith Lutheran after the July 12 combined service. The route would be W. Exchange St. to W. Market St. Pastor Rick is putting together the service for July 12. Bishop Allende will select the lessons and the Gospel text for the service. The St. John/St. Paul choir will sing, and Faith’s choir will be invited to sing also. Pr. Jean emailed the secretary of the ELCA in Chicago, asking three questions. 1. Is there such a thing as ELCA-sanctioned ministries? 2. If so, can be get a copy of the list? 3. How does one become an ELCA-sanctioned ministry? It was noted that Open-M has covenant partners who make donations to them. Mark asked if we are clear on the membership transfer process. Pr. Rick and Pr. Jean both stated that we are.
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Property/Facilities Sue Harman will be returning this week. Judy met with Sue earlier this month. They discussed moving the St. John/St. Paul stained glass windows to Faith. Sue has contacted a stained glass artisan who has been to both St. John/St. Paul and Faith buildings. The next step is to obtain an estimate of the cost to remove the panel, refurbish it and remount it for displaying at Faith. Judy’s group is looking into what storage space will be available at Faith for SJSP items such as sheet music, photographs and archives. Geoff wondered if we could digitize the SJSP archives. Chris Allen mentioned that she has obtained information on record retention requirements from the ELCA website, and that it requires hard copies of the records. If a church is closing, the records can be sent to Trinity Seminary in Columbus, where they would be stored for a $1000 fee. Pastor Jean listed the options that she sees for storing the SJSP archive records: At Faith (unlikely) At the University of Akron At Trinity in Columbus Rent storage space somewhere. A decision doesn’t have to be made until August 31, when SJSP must leave the building at Cedar & Bowery. Another issue for Faith is finding space at their facility for an office for Pastor Rick after 7/12. He will also need a computer. SJSP will want to recover the time capsule from behind the cornerstone of their building. It is not likely that SJSP would want to move the actual cornerstones.
Financial/Legal/Staffing On May 19, John Reyes and Carol Whidden went through the cost figures for Pr. Rick and Julie Lehman. The total is $96,220 for Pr. Rick (one year) and $27,742 for Julie (17 months until December 31, 2016). Certain members of the St. John/St. Paul choir have been paid through donations. Pr. Rick reported that he checked with the donors and this will not be continued after the two congregations combine. Carol has been working on determining the costs to wind down St. John/St. Paul, i.e. expenses through 8/31. Carol suggested maintaining St. John/St. Paul’s telephone number for a period of time after the combining, but having calls to that number forwarded to the Faith Lutheran church telephone.
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Pr. Rick said he would check with PCS to see if they are interested in taking over the lease on the copier that SJSP currently has. The lease is through March, 2016. The committee discussed how we are maintaining open communication with the two congregations.
At Faith, they are considering holding town hall meetings once the combining document is completed. Committee members will be at the meetings to answer questions about the document. In addition, they announce each Sunday that Bill Robinson is available at the Kinship Café in the Welcome Center to answer questions. SJSP is holding weekly talks at the fellowship brunch between the two Sunday services, and is putting the meeting minutes on their website, with hard copies also available. SJSP is planning to hold one or two “temple talks” after the 9:30 am service once the document is completed.
The meeting concluded at 7:50 pm with a prayer by Pr. Rick. Respectfully submitted, David Six Recording Secretary
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