January 4: Eleven Tables, dozens of questions, and a cake s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d to the limit

[This overview and summary is the last in a series of posts following up on the January 4 Town Halls. Earlier posts covered additional Q&A on Renewal Works and other comments, next steps in the Discernment process, and the Interim Rector and the Associate Rector during the transition.

Video and slides from the Town Hall are included at the end of this post.]

January 4, 1 pm: Baxter Hall was bursting with enthusiasm, and parishioners. Pre-registration had jumped from Friday’s total of 42 to 78 by the end of Saturday, and then more than one hundred parishioners walked through the door Sunday afternoon. With the help of David Durant of Green Maintenance rustling up additional chairs and of our kitchen team slicing up sandwiches in ever finer slices, and with everyone’s patience and good humor, it worked out wonderfully.

 

Renewal Works and the Vestry Report

Greg Gay presided over the introduction, then turned the proceedings over to Nadine Hathaway and Jim Ashley. They presented the results and interpretation of the Renewal Works Survey, as reported to the Vestry and the Parish in December.

Participants discussed the presentation at their tables, then sent notes listing questions and concerns to the theming table. Nancy Karpeles’ cake was served — a delicious way to buy time for us to review the notes carefully and identify common themes in the questions.  Fortified by the cake, Jim and Nadine offered their answers. (We did not have time to address every concern and questions, so we’ve posted a follow-up here.)

Sixty days of input

Susan Flanders followed, reviewing the schedule we’ve laid out for the remainder of the Discernment and Search process and the communications tools we’ll use to keep the Parish involved. She emphasized that the next two months comprise the critical period for parish input, as we develop the Parish Profile.

Ways to Keep In Touch

1. Read the Bulletin and listen to announcements during Sunday services,
2. Visit https://stmarksdsc.wordpress.com (this website),
3. Sign up for email blasts at: https://stmarksdsc.wordpress.com/email ,
4. Text stmarksdsc to 24587 to sign up for text/sms updates.

All updates, announcements, and event invitations will be published in each of these four ways.

We’re also standing by for all comments emailed to stmarksdsc@gmail.com

There was more time for table discussion, and then we asked a member of each table to “pop up” and voice the schedule questions and concerns that had been raised. Find the answers in a previous post.

And in 90 minutes, we were done.

Later, that same day …

That evening, after the 5pm worship, Jim Ashley convened a less formal discussion in Baxter Hall, with 20 parishioners.

Thanks

This was an all-hands effort by the DSC, with many other helping hands as noted above, plus:

• Loretta Veney as the videographer (see the videos below),
• Chuck Divine, for the event photos,
• Elin Whitney-Smith for deploying chairs and encouraging tables to take on additional comers, so all could join the conversation,
• Rick Weber, for handling Pub duties, and
• Jane Byrne, for allowing us to focus on the event by handling the clean-up.

Scroll on for video and slides

Here are the slides we used on January 4 and, below them, videos of the presentations and the Renewal Works Q&A below.

Renewal Works presentation

Download (PDF)

Timeline for the Discernment and Search Process

The presentations