Rector's Report to the Annual Parish Meeting
January 30, 2000
Wardens, Officers of the Vestry, Vestry members, staff members and fellow parishoners of Christ Church, Ansonia ; it is with great pleasure that I greet you on this occasion of our annual parish meeting. The annual meeting is a time of us all to reflect on the events of the past year and look forward with excitement and enthusiasm toward the events of the coming year. This annual meeting is particularly exciting for me since this is my first annual meeting with you. The first year of ministry in a new church is often filled with lots of "firsts": the first Sunday, the first Vestry meeting, the first Christmas, the first Easter, the first baptism, the first funeral, the first wedding, and now the first annual meeting. The first year of ministry with a new rector often sets the tone for his or her entire ministry at a new parish. The first year of ministry is also about getting to know each other; it's about getting to know who is related to whom, getting to put names with faces, and learning more about what type of ministry we all envision for our parish.
Since I started here on August 1, 1999 I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you all. Soon afterI started several parishoners graciously opened their homes to host some informal dinner parties in order for us to get to know each other a little better. These parties were extremely important to me and I appreciate all those who hosted them and all those who came to them.
Work on the rectory certainly brought out the best of our talented parishoners. So many of you came out to help in spite of the excessive heat (100 degrees and higher)! Many long hours were spent last summer repairing the before we moved in late July. The rectory is lovely and Anne and I both feel quite at home now.
There were several priorities listed in your parish profile that I have addressed and plan to continue to address. One of your "key goals" was to "offer wider range of youth and adult education programs." Christian education is a priority for me. I believe that Christian education doesn't stop when we become an adult. We grow in our knowledge of Christ throughout our life. It's a process that never ends. For that reason I have sdded an adult church school class on Sunday mornings and I lead an adult study group on Monday evenings. I wholeheartedly welcome and support other study and devotional opportunities from our parish like our newly formed chapter of the Daughters of the King and "Pasta and Parables" led by Joy Rose. For the children I have added an opening assembly where Debby Zaleha and I lead our children in music and devotion before they go off to their church school classes. Under the great leadershio of our church school superintendent Janet Burton, our teachers graciously give of their teaching talent to pass on to our children the stories of our faith.
Another "key goal" mentioned in the parish profile was "to achieve greater involvement of all parishoners in the life and ministry of the church." A sign of a healthy, growing church is to notice how many children there are in church. They are the future of our parish. It's wonderful to see so many children! They are participating in the liturgy. Most of them receive communion each week and we are now including a few of our youth as readers (lectors) for the scripture readings. I plan to do more this year to incorporate our young people in the "life and ministry of the church." Another sign of a healthy and growing parish is to notice how many cars are in the parking lot. Our lot is nearly full on Sunday mornings. I hear some are having to park down the street! But what I love to see even more is to see our lot filled with cars during the week. I've noticed that almost every night of the week we have cars in our lot with people coming for activities here at church. People are coming for our study groups, ECW meetings, choir rehearsals, committee meetings, 12-step services and a host of other activities that tell us that our church is a major priority in our lives and is growing, thanks be to God!
Your parish profile also mentioned that music is a priority. I love music and I love to sing. We have such an incredible organ and a building that was definitely built for music. I am trying to highlight more music in our liturgy. Fred Imbimbo has been a real asset to me as our new Organist/Choirmaster. He is keenly aware of what a treasure we have with our organ and our excellent music library here at the church. He and I work very closely to coordinate all the music for our services. It's my belief that every time we come to worship we stand on "holy ground". Music lifts us to that place where we encounter God's presence and God's holiness. I appreciate our talented choir (that continues to grow!) and talented Organist/Choirmaster for teaching us and leading us in our beautiful Anglican choral tradition.
Our 12-step service on Saturday night is another wonderful opportunity to worship in a much less formal way. The service was started by Father Al almost ten years ago and is still going strong today. It is specifically designed for all those recovering from any addictions of any kind. We generally have around 25-30 people and this service has been a real blessing to me personally. We all share our needs and we welcome each other just as we are. If you haven't been to one of these services come and see for yourself what a warm welcome you'll get!
Unpleasant as the word "stewardship" has come to mean in our vocabulary, you will notice up to now in this report I have used the word "talent" repeatedly. We have so much talent in this church and talent is very much a part of our stewardship. During the fall I preached a few sermons, wrote a letter to the congegation and wrote a "Rector's Letter" to the Kairos regarding my philosophy of stewardship. It's my belief that stewardship is about growth not guilt. Giving of our time, talent and treasure to the church is always about growth. We never reach a plateau. God always challenges us to grow more and more. I simply want to remove the guilt some may have felt as we journey in this area. Stewardship is about our growth not guilt. I challenged the congregation to give 1% more of their annual income than they did the year before. I know that is hard to but we don't grow by staying where we are. We grow by moving forward. Church growth occurs as we commit our time, our talent and treasure to it.
We have several projects to accomplish in the year 2000. The most obvious will be our new roof. In the spring, when the weather warms up a bit we will begin the enormous task of putting a new roof on our church. I understand this project has been in the works for many years but now we must do it. We are contracting with Connecticut Residential Exteriors, Inc. They have done other roofing jobs for other churches in the area. The slate roof will be removed and the entire roof will be repaired. It will not be an easy job nor will it be cheap. The estimated cost will be $230,600. Obviously we will need to use endowment money to pay for this repair, but over $101,000has already been raised and we plan to systematically raise the rest through a capital funds drive when the project begins.
Another big project I'd like to address this year is what to do with the building next door. There has been some discussion about opening a thrift shop and/or possibly a youth center. these are excellent ideas and I welcome your input.
I want to again thank all those who helped make our move here to Ansonia a smooth one. Many thanks to all who worked on the rectory, the members of the search committee, the Vestry and the many parishioners who gave of their time and talent. Thanks also to the many parishioners who brought us a host of "goodies" the first few weeks after we arrived.
I am truly blessed with a wonderful church and I am blessed to serve you as your rector. May God continue to bless us all as we grow together and serve Him together in the year 2000.
Faithfully yours,
Father Robert Harvey
